Concerns raised with school board last year met were with action.
By BRYCE MARTIN
Pioneer Editor | [email protected]
Photos have been circulating on local social media pages wishing the Bowman County golf team success as they performed at the state tournament. But there’s a story behind the outfits the team was wearing and the professional caddy bags they were totting around.
In the photos the girls stand together, donning colorful, matching tops and coordinating bottoms. Their black caddy bags filled with their clubs and other equipment.
Just one year ago, those items were nowhere in sight.
That was until several concerned parents took the issue to the Bowman County School Board.
Their efforts clearly proved fruitful.
Six varsity girls and six varsity boys were given new golf bags, and the teams received collared golf polos and long-sleeve pullover jackets. All the items were ordered by the school from Dale’s Clothing & Custom Embroidery in Bowman.
A parent had asked the school board at a 2015 meeting why the golf teams had been denied the ability to raise funds and accept donations from the community. She questioned board members why the golf teams also weren’t on the school’s rotation to receive new uniforms.
The school’s process in the past was to have the team purchase its uniforms and the school would pay for the cost of having them embroidered.
According to Tyler Senn, activities director and high school principal, that was agreed to in a conversation with former golf coach and teacher Don Groll, who was instrumental in establishing the school’s golf teams several years ago. Senn admitted at that meeting it hadn’t been communicated very well to the students or parents.
A member of the audience explained that at the girl’s state golf tournament in the spring of 2015, every other team was “decked out.”
Discussion was then brought up about purchasing golf bags for the team, which Senn said were considered part of a “wish list,” items that teams want but do not need.
Though parents in the audience suggested the bags could be paid for by community or parent donations, the school has not allowed such fundraising in the past.
Bowman County Schools Superintendent Tony Duletski explained that prohibiting such fundraising was to avoid seeing the athletes with logos plastered all over them, which he said gives a poor image.
“When it comes to contributions, we have to be really cautious on what we do,” he added at the meeting.
It was an issue of fairness to local businesses.
Fundraising for teams, however, was deemed necessary for more than just items on wish lists.
But the parents’ concerns were heard and the following season, the one just now wrapping up at state, showed the boys and girls in new uniforms and with golf bags.