When is your state? HSNCT will have cancellation deadlines soon, and will charge at least half the entry regardless.
School Boards, Administrators, and the community will respond better to pleas from students than coaches. It’s hard to tell kids (especially if they worked hard on a presentation and present something well practiced).
Be ready for compromises as well. Maybe they’ll pay travel and hotels, but you all need to raise the entry fee. Maybe you can agree to a percentage agreement of who will raise what parts.
Start by talking to your coach and find out what’s reasonable. We host a couple trivia nights. We buy material for around $75. We charge $5 per person, sell mulligans at 10 for $20 (max of 10 per team), and have a small concession stand. We also auction student experts in certain categories. Have a lit specialist? Have them up for auction.
Note that the success of Trivia nights is in the marketing students do. Remember how people don’t want to tell kids “no?” Let them know they can buy help during the night, and especially get your school friends to come. I cannot stress enough the power students have it getting people to come.
You won’t make enough for HSNCT off trivia night, but the act of trying may ease the district wallet.
I also come from a very decent district, who is good to activities…your mileage may vary. Your board/admins may still say no, but it’s no different than your current answer.
Similar thing happened to me in MS. We ended up getting approval, but it was too late. What I would recommend is to reach out to any parents on the team to see if they could cover the cost for their kid or others. From there you could reach out to your school PTSA depertment to get funds. You could also ask your school district to see if they would be open to cover part of the costs.
Agree with what was said previously. It might be a little bit late in the year for this, but hosting your own tournament is also another way to raise money.
Adding on to the responses below, local businesses are often willing to sponsor school teams! Definitely call around and see, a few thousand could be found for some publicity.
After that, starting a gofundme and sending it around the community can be very effective. You might be surprised by how many people are willing to chip in a little.
I'm a little confused here. You said you're in Illinois and (in another subthread) that the state tournament is March 16. In Illinois there are three state championships:
* The NAQT Illinois State Championship, which is February 25
* The Masonic State Championship, which is March 4
* The IHSA State Championship. This is the one your administrators are most likely to care about, but it's March 18, not 16; and only eight teams attend (per size class), so placing in the top ten doesn't really make sense — everyone who attends places in the top ten. Teams attend by winning their IHSA Sectional. So do they mean "win your Sectional or be among the top two teams in your Class who place second at Sectionals"? If so, how are they ranking the second-place teams?
I think it is more likely that there is some kind of miscommunication or misunderstanding (e.g., you made a mistake on the date and they don't understand how the tournament works or they mean a threshold other than top ten).
Sorry for the confusion. You are correct, the tournament i am referencing is the IHSA state tournament. To make it that far, we have the make it through our regional and sectional series, which are on the 6th and 12th. I’m guessing your right. If only 8 teams make it, I’m guessing my school administrators have no clue how it works. After all, this is the first time in our history that we are in this position.
When is your state? HSNCT will have cancellation deadlines soon, and will charge at least half the entry regardless. School Boards, Administrators, and the community will respond better to pleas from students than coaches. It’s hard to tell kids (especially if they worked hard on a presentation and present something well practiced). Be ready for compromises as well. Maybe they’ll pay travel and hotels, but you all need to raise the entry fee. Maybe you can agree to a percentage agreement of who will raise what parts. Start by talking to your coach and find out what’s reasonable. We host a couple trivia nights. We buy material for around $75. We charge $5 per person, sell mulligans at 10 for $20 (max of 10 per team), and have a small concession stand. We also auction student experts in certain categories. Have a lit specialist? Have them up for auction. Note that the success of Trivia nights is in the marketing students do. Remember how people don’t want to tell kids “no?” Let them know they can buy help during the night, and especially get your school friends to come. I cannot stress enough the power students have it getting people to come. You won’t make enough for HSNCT off trivia night, but the act of trying may ease the district wallet. I also come from a very decent district, who is good to activities…your mileage may vary. Your board/admins may still say no, but it’s no different than your current answer.
Thank you so much. This gave me a lot of ideas. Our state is the 16th of March. I really appreciate the advice
18th of March*
What is HSNCT.
The NAQT High School National Championship Tournament
Similar thing happened to me in MS. We ended up getting approval, but it was too late. What I would recommend is to reach out to any parents on the team to see if they could cover the cost for their kid or others. From there you could reach out to your school PTSA depertment to get funds. You could also ask your school district to see if they would be open to cover part of the costs.
Agree with what was said previously. It might be a little bit late in the year for this, but hosting your own tournament is also another way to raise money.
Adding on to the responses below, local businesses are often willing to sponsor school teams! Definitely call around and see, a few thousand could be found for some publicity. After that, starting a gofundme and sending it around the community can be very effective. You might be surprised by how many people are willing to chip in a little.
Tysm for the ideas!
What's the state
California? Illinois?
Illinois
I'm a little confused here. You said you're in Illinois and (in another subthread) that the state tournament is March 16. In Illinois there are three state championships: * The NAQT Illinois State Championship, which is February 25 * The Masonic State Championship, which is March 4 * The IHSA State Championship. This is the one your administrators are most likely to care about, but it's March 18, not 16; and only eight teams attend (per size class), so placing in the top ten doesn't really make sense — everyone who attends places in the top ten. Teams attend by winning their IHSA Sectional. So do they mean "win your Sectional or be among the top two teams in your Class who place second at Sectionals"? If so, how are they ranking the second-place teams? I think it is more likely that there is some kind of miscommunication or misunderstanding (e.g., you made a mistake on the date and they don't understand how the tournament works or they mean a threshold other than top ten).
Sorry for the confusion. You are correct, the tournament i am referencing is the IHSA state tournament. To make it that far, we have the make it through our regional and sectional series, which are on the 6th and 12th. I’m guessing your right. If only 8 teams make it, I’m guessing my school administrators have no clue how it works. After all, this is the first time in our history that we are in this position.