Some students, parents, and coaches of Fairfield Ludlowe sports’ programs have wondered how the athletics budget gets dispersed for their particular program. Many claim that Ludlowe athletics are under-funded or aren’t funding the right things, possibly because of the lack of clean uniforms or transportation in some cases.

The athletics’ budget breaks down each sport into five categories: transportation, personnel, supplies, reconditioning, and fees.

Transportation is self explanatory: this money is allocated to help teams get to and from away games throughout their season. 

Fairfield Ludlowe Athletic Director Todd Parness explained, “personnel are basically officials and any added security that would be needed for an event.” This could be referees, people who keep stats, or people who check tickets.

Supplies would be balls, netting, goals, or any necessary items needed to play the sport. 

Reconditioning is a section of the budget which Parness defined as, “when we send all our equipment and uniforms out to a company where they clean them and store them for the next season.”

Lastly, the fees for each sport go towards leagues, outside the FCIAC, in which some teams compete during their seasons.

Also, in the athletics’ budget, are uniforms. Sarah Stewart, parent of a freshman volleyball player, questioned the condition of her daughter’s JV volleyball jersey given to her daughter for the fall of 2021.

When Parness was asked about how teams get new uniforms, he stated, “uniforms have to be purchased out of the athletic budget. Typically, we have a uniform waterfall; every four years or so a team is up for new uniforms, unless for various reasons it may be earlier or later. Usually the previous varsity uniforms get passed down to JV and those get passed down to freshmen. Sometimes a team may grow from 15 to 30 kids, then uniforms would be needed, or uniforms were lost, then we would have to buy more uniforms. For Title IX reasons, it’s against board policy for teams to fundraise for uniforms.”

When the idea of teams paying for their own uniforms was brought up to Parness he reiterated that “teams are not allowed to pay for their uniforms, it is against board policy.”