Last week, Yelm Community Schools announced significant cuts to athletic programs to help offset a projected budget deficit of over $8 million.

The district is eliminating all high school and middle school C teams, which are the so-called developmental teams that consist primarily of freshmen moving into the junior division, KIRO 7 explained last week.

“I’m talking about a third of my program being eliminated or cut and your first reaction is like you’re getting punched in the stomach,” Yelm High School football coach Jason Ronquillo said in an interview last week on “The John Curley and Jake Skorheim Show” on KIRO Newsradio.

The coach explained to John and Jake what it means to play football in this area and the high expectations of these student-athletes.

“It’s a rite of passage,” Ronquillo said. “These kids have played sports their whole lives. And many of them have parents who played here, maybe grandparents too. It’s kind of an expectation in the family.”

Ronquillo explained that eliminating these C-teams would impact dozens of potential football players.

“You’re talking about (about 40) kids,” he said. “(I have to tell) 40 families they’re not going to play in two weeks. Yes, that’s a difficult conversation.”

Ronquillo added, “It can destroy a program,” and explained the importance of getting these student-athletes into training at a young age and before the school year begins.

“(They) have to spend all summer, all season, in the weight room starting to mature that young body,” the coach said. “And we do that, I’m not saying we play football year-round, but we do strength training year-round. We train year-round. And to say that a third of our programs have been cut is killer.”

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Even the athletes’ journey to the games will be difficult, as the district has also cut funding for transportation.

“When you sign up for track and field and make the team, the family is basically responsible for getting their athletes to and from these sporting events,” Ronquillo told KIRO 7.

Ronquillo and another parent, as co-founders of the regional youth sports organization Total Sports Development (TSD), had a plan. They started a fundraiser and posted it on the TSD website to raise money to save the district’s C-team sports. Anyone who wants to donate can go to the TSD website and donate any amount to help.

The original goal was to raise $50,000 by Wednesday. Remarkably, donations exceeded that $50,000 goal between 3 and 4 p.m. on Wednesday. The current total raised as of 4 p.m. Wednesday is $64,558.

This sum was reached during the fundraiser shortly after the appearance of former Duke basketball coach and five-time national champion Mike Krzyzewski on the “John and Jake Show” on Wednesday afternoon.

Steve Coogan is the editor-in-chief of MyNorthwest. Read more of his stories here. Follow Steve on Xor send him an email here.