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The Aptos High Sports Foundation, created in 1979, was established for the purpose of improving the sports facilities and after-school programs at Aptos High School. At the time Aptos High was a nearly new unfinished school with minimum athletic facilities, no alumni support, and no connection with the Aptos business community. The original five members, of which I was one, had a vision of improving this situation.

 

ASF was established as a Foundation, independent from the school and district to allow for more flexibility in fund raising, donations and projects. Now, 36 years later the Foundation has raised and donated funds, materials and labor totaling more than $3,300,000.

 

Due to the amount of the annual funds raised, the Foundation operated informally until 1995. In 1995 the Foundation was incorporated, applied for and was granted, tax exempt status with the California Secretary of State, and the Internal Revenue Service. This documentation is on file here at the district. The Aptos Sports Foundation annual federal and state tax returns are current.

 

The Foundation has historically held 2 fund raising events per year; annually a golf tournament in the spring and a poker tournament in the fall. In our 36 years these events have grown from being relatively modest efforts to being well known and anticipated Aptos Community events.

 

Much of our success has been due to our ability to reach out to alumni, businesses and private industry to support our endeavors. An example is the "Trevin Dilfer Memorial Field" completed through a generous financial donation by Aptos High alumni Trent Dilfer, and greatly reduced materials & labor costs, provided by local business.

 

Our past projects include: lights at the football field and lights on the pool, the all- weather track, all purpose football field, a complete rebuild of the baseball facility, and donations to many other small projects. We have bought whistles, lane lines, wrestling mats, and uniforms. We have touched every program at the school in the last 36 years.

 

We have just participated in a Public / Private project with P.V.U.S.D; the practice field at the entrance of Aptos High School on Mariner Way. This much needed field will provide more practice space for school and community athletic programs. This is an example of working together. We have recently had meetings with district facilities folks to work through score board installation issues and a new Marquee at the entrance of the school.

 

Our plan for the future is to take the Aptos Sports Foundation to a higher level and become a community asset. Our vision of ASF’s future is to improve facilities, and fund after-school sports programs at Aptos High School and its feeder schools.

 

The long term goal is to create top quality athletic programs “For Our Kids” in Aptos that will rival the best sports programs in Northern California, public or private.

 

There are two key vehicles to accomplishing this vision.

 

First is the establishment of the ASF Endowment Fund. To help us develop and manage the Endowment we have opened an account at and partnered with the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County. Our goal is to within 10 years have $5M in a fund that is an Aptos community asset, and helps to support the cost of the after school athletic programs. We will depend on an alumni base reaching back to the first graduation class of 1970 and the generosity of the community.

 

The second key vehicle is continuing to develop a unique Public / Private common interest relationship with P.V.U.S.D, to help fill a void that that has been caused by the current school funding climate. ASF is uniquely positioned with its history of improvements at AHS, and reputation for integrity within the community, to accomplish this.

 

We can be a vehicle that utilizes our entrepreneurial skills and contacts to participate in improvements that are normally encumbered by bureaucracy and State laws. By entrepreneurial, I am not talking about going cowboy, I am talking about being creative and accessing our communities resources differently, as a team player with the district. We believe that organizations such as ours, in a cooperative Public / Private relationship with the district, can be an innovative means to a common goal, improving our public schools.

 

We will not be able to do everything, but we can help.

 

We have reached out to the Athletic Directors at Watsonville and Pajaro Valley High School; we have held meetings to share our template and to support them in the development of their own versions of an organization like ASF.

 

Our desire is to be Team Players in an innovative Public / Private Business relationship with the District. We believe that PVUSD should be looking for ways to create, support and facilitate organizations such as ours.

 

What would each of the three High Schools, after school athletic programs look like 10 years from now, if they had received an additional $3.5 million in support from their community?

 

Thank you