Tidbits from Ohio athletic director survey

September 17, 2014 / Athletic Administration
The Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) this summer conducted a survey on pay-to-play fees and other issues related to interscholastic sports. A few of the results were shared in its most recent magazine. 

From the OHSAA:

• 46.1% of athletic directors in Ohio indicated their schools maintained some type of pay-to-play fee.

• 31% of schools that own their football stadiums use artificial turf.

• 22% said they have some type of drug testing. Several schools indicated they may develop a drug testing policy for student-athletes in the near future.

There were not additional details on that last note, but I would be interested to know whether “drug testing” is related to performance enhancement or illegal drugs like marijuana.

As you may have noticed, there haven’t been many positive results in states that do test for PEDs. Texas may even discontinue the program to save money. It’ll be interesting to see what type of program Ohio schools plan to put in place.

As for pay-to-play fees, Ohio, which has the fifth highest participation in high school athletics, is above the national average. Coach and Athletic Director conducts a national high school athletic director survey, and last year we found that 39.1% of schools collect participation fees. Results from our 2014-15 survey will be published in our January edition.

Click here to check out the latest edition of OHSAA Magazine. Survey results are on page 20.


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