Total Sports Development (TSD) presented a check for $44,551 to the Yelm Community Schools (YCS) Board of Directors Thursday, Aug. 22, to help save Yelm High School C-team sports after they were cut for the 2024-25 school year earlier this month.
TSD co-founders Jason Ronquillo, Phil Ogle and Jared Mathis attended the board meeting and shared their thoughts on the efforts made by the community to raise the money in just over a week.
“The call to action in regards to the elimination of the C-team sports at our high school was beyond what I had imagined,” said Ronquillo, who also serves as the YHS head football coach.
“Your answer to the loss of programs and what it would mean to our students, your neighbors or simply how it could change the landscape of athletics here at Yelm has been heard not only in this room but in the Seattle newspapers, KING 5, KIRO 7, FOX13 and all over the state.”
Ronquillo added that the TSD team is proud the community backed its mission to support athletics and that TSD’s “desperation for this solution was matched with the community’s empathy.”
“We did surpass a financial need of operating C-teams for one year at the high school level, but this is not a long-term solution. This was a fundraiser that was a huge undertaking,” Ronquillo said. “We hope, moving forward, that Yelm Community Schools and our community as a whole work together on a plan to adequately fund Yelm students’ education, activities and athletic opportunities in the future.”
YCS Superintendent Chris Woods commended the TSD team for its willingness to step up even before decisions were made regarding athletic cuts.
“I can’t say enough about the work that they did and how quickly they did it,” Woods said. “They came in and said, ‘We want to know exactly what it’s going to cost to restore high school C-team sports.’ That’s why you see the exact amount of $44,551. This will be going directly to restore the C-team programs at the high school. That will be toward stipends, officials and game management specific to those programs.”
Woods said the accepted donation gives the district the authority to immediately start posting positions and restoring programs. He added that the district plans to be “very transparent” about how those dollars are spent.
Ogle said the TSD team chose to raise money for high school C-team sports specifically because the middle school student athletes have more outside alternatives than high school athletes.
He also thanked Woods for his transparency in how the district will spend the funds.
“The other thing that the public has really cried out to us is transparency, so Chris, I thank you for that,” Ogle said. “We as a 501(c)(3), it is I have to spend the money toward what I told the public that I was raising the money for. So I appreciate that transparency.”
