Additional reporting by Kingsley Wang

Every other year, baseball plays baseball so that they can play baseball. Congregating at the lower field, the team hosts a hit-a-thon, where each player’s hit translates to funds for the baseball program. The players collect ten-cent pledges (like an IOU) from the community   Each player’s goal amount is one dollar worth of pledges, or ten people. That way, if the player hits a solid 300 feet, the baseball program earns 300 dollars. When everyone meets their goal, the teams earns enough money to pay for balls

Every other year, baseball raises enough money to ensure that players do not have to pay donations besides the 65 dollar Athletic Booster fee. Fundraising, unlike requesting donations from athletes, allows students to earn their own equipment. And for a prospective athlete who cannot afford to pay a donation, it avoids having to ask for money for administration.

“[Fundraising gives] equipment you need for the season,” athletic director and baseball coach Nick Bonacorsi said. “It’s uniform needs, it’s transportation fees, it’s tournament fees, basically anything that you would have to pay for the sport that helps offset that burden.”

Even without fundraising, due to California state law, MVHS will not deny any athlete the privilege of playing a sport because of financial difficulties. In Bonacorsi’s semester as an athletic director, he has met students with such monetary issues who could not pay requested donations. In any case, the school gives the player money from the Athletic Boosters account or talks to the coach to see if the rest of the team could help accommodate the athlete. But when a team fundraises, such an athlete avoids such a potentially embarassing conversation.

However, due to the affluence of the MVHS community, paying a donation does not pose a problem to the majority of families.

Moreover, some coaches worry that fundraising will become an extra burden for athletes. But girls basketball junior Shivalika Chavan believes that the fundraisers do not significantly impact other time commitments, which is one of the reasons why the girls basketball team prefers fundraising over donations.

“I mostly go to people that I know and they also have people that do Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts,” Chavan said. “So we help them and they help us.”

Every year, girls basketball sells different objects to raise money to buy their team shoes, warmups and jackets. This year, the team is selling cookie dough, candles and socks. Before the fundraising begins, each player receives a goal amount.

“Sometimes I ask my parents to buy it in the end if I can’t make the goal,” Chavan said. “But we usually keep it to ourselves and sell it later.”

it to ourselves and sell it later.”

Even when Chavan asks her parents to bail her out, she knows that she is not the only one on the team fundraising.

“Fundraising is more of a team effort,” Chavan said. “Some people fundraise more than others so it balances out in the end.”
Dean of Students Nico Flores also notes how fundraising brings a team together.

“There’s a lot of value in students working towards a common goal, especially based around a team,” Flores said. “I think it’s an opportunity for a team to bond outside of the gym or field or pool deck.”

In addition, fundraising gives players the opportunity to recognize the worth of their belongings. Instead of reverting back to the parent paying for the kid’s stuff, it allows a student to gain the real-world experience and appreciation for something they have earned.

But even though fundraising fosters a team community, Flores believes fundraisers can become a nuisance for consumers, especially MVHS teachers, who are often asked by various athletes to buy for fundraisers.

“The network needs to expand,” Flores said. “And not having a big network or keeping a network confined to school makes it difficult cause you’re asking the same people over and over over.”

However, when a student takes the initiative to fundraise beyond their immediate circle, the fundraising promotes the MVHS athletic community as a whole.

“It gives me, as a community member, a little bit more buy-in, I think, and exposes me to more sports that I don’t necessarily follow,” Bonacorsi said.

When fundraising incorporates a larger sector of the Cupertino community, it benefits the athlete as well as helps a high school sports community grow around Monta Vista, where cookie dough can pay for shoes and a baseball hit can earn 300 dollars.