Pay to Play: Games Will Go On at Mokena Jr. High

While vacationing in early August, Mokena Junior High Athletic Director Claire Doster saw an e-mail that caught her attention: Mokena School District 159's board of education had voted to reinstate extracurricular activities.

"Of course I was thrilled that we could rescue these programs for the kids," she said, "but it was only for a year, and we could only play conference games."

"Pay to play" is the source of the temporary salvation for Mokena sports.

Cut from the 2010-2011 budget to reduce the school district's deficit, the extracurriculars were reinstated by the board only when parents and boosters promised to raise the required $250,000 on their own. The deficit is currently estimated at $2.7 million

To keep costs down, sports teams will participate only in conference games this season, and student-athletes will be required to pay a $25 participation fee this year.

Longtime Meteors girls basketball coach David Balis knows his team is in for an uphill climb this season. 

"The DesPlaines Valley Conference is very competitive," he said.

His team will play at least five fewer games this year than in years past. Normally, he said, the team plays five or six games to work out the kinks and get a system into place before conference games begin. This year, the Meteors' first game is in November, against Martino, which will have those crucial early games under its belt.

"The girls are adjusting well to what is certainly going to be a battle," he said. "To overcome this, we're taking practice to a higher intensity, and trying to work in some game situations."

Earlier this year, the Mokena Organizational Leaders, spearheaded by parents Pete and Laurie Connolly, began grouping the athletic boosters, music boosters, parent-teacher association and the Mokena Educational Foundation to get the groups on the same page in an effort to rescue all extracurricular activities.

"When the community and school organizations started meeting to find ways to bring back our extra-curricular activities, we knew that as a school fundraising group we had to be part of it to help find a way to bring back the ... activities cut due to the failed referendum," Laurie Connolly said. "We didn't think twice about it."

The Connollys' two daughters graduated from Mokena Junior High, and now they have a third child in sixth grade.

"We want her to be able to participate in all the activities her sisters had a chance to do," Laurie Connolly said.

The Mokena Organizational Leaders have raised $137,000 in private donations from the community to date. At least another $113,000 is still needed by the end of the school year to fulfill the group's promise to the school board, Connolly said.

For more information on the MOL and the Mokena Education Foundation, visit www.mef159.com. For more information on the Pepsi grant, text 100518 to PEPSI (73774) or visit www.refresheverything.com/mokena159.