As I wander around the island covering sporting events, I haven’t seen any really good bumper stickers lately.

Perhaps folks have been playing with their new Xbox 360s too much and have had their brains glazed by the amazing graphics.

A few years ago, I saw a bumper sticker that was timeless. Sort of like the yellow smiley face, “Have a Nice Day.”

It read: “It’ll be a great day when the Air Force has to hold a garage sale to fund a new jet and schools will have all the money they need.”

The situation hasn’t changed as our local schools are facing a budget crunch.

Reportedly, Oak Harbor has to figure out what to do about a $3.5 million shortfall and if the court system doesn’t begin sentencing more kids to juvenile detention, Coupeville will also have money problems.

Usually, the first things trimmed during a budget crisis are athletic programs. Freshman and junior varsity teams in some of the so-called “lesser” sports such as golf and cross country get eliminated.

What the bean counters don’t realize is, how can a school develop players for the varsity teams if the kids are unable to improve their skills and learn to be competitive by having the opportunity to play on freshman and junior varsity teams?

Penny pinchers also throw up the necessity of having to pay for additional coaches, and “travel expenses.”

Having coached, I believe I am qualified to address these money saving ideas.

The pencil pushers I worked for figured you could run a football team just like a classroom. If you had 28 players, there was no need for three coaches. Just like a Home Economics class, two coaches could “supervise” 14 kids each.

In their minds it was a great plan — except who are you going to put in the booth while the head coach is handling the offensive and the defensive teams on the field during a game? Add to that, who is going to be the special teams coach?

Well, you get someone from the community to volunteer.

Again a fine idea until Joe, your community volunteer, has to work and can’t make it to practice on the day the coaching staff has set aside for special teams.

Coaches’ pay also comes into question.

We calculated the time spent breaking down films, putting together game plans, scouting and treating players’ injuries, all of which had nothing to do with supervisory time spent on the field at practice or at games, and came up with something like 37 cents an hour. Shoot, they pay jail inmates nearly that much!

What it comes down to is dedication.

Dedication like the cheerleading squads who pay for everything themselves and coaches who get to the school at 5:30 a.m. because they have to share practice facilities.

The Coupeville cheerleaders are having a fund-raiser from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Jan. 27 at the Recreation Hall to raise money for their trip to the nationals. Be dedicated, be there.

As for the freshman and junior varsity teams in the lesser sports — load the kids on the bus and hit the road!