Leading off today: You see it fairly frequently in basketball around the state, but Fayetteville-Manlius has taken tie-ins with athletic apparel manufacturers to a whole new level for the so-called "minor" sports.
The Post-Standard reported last week the high-powered F-M cross country teams have landed a three-year deal with Nike that will supply the school's runners with approximately $50,000 worth of shoes, warmups, backpacks and team equipment.
Right off the bat, the deal saves the district an estimated $7,500 that would have gone toward new uniforms next year, AD Rich Roy told the paper.
“This is really fruitful for us as schools are cutting their athletic budgets and having to eliminate teams,” Roy said. “To have this fall in our laps really helps us, and it helps the families as well. The amount of money is probably a drop in the bucket for Nike, but for us it’s extremely helpful.:
Though the uniforms will be adorned with the Nike "swoosh" (modest brand logos are fairly typical in all sports across the country) F-M's uniforms had already carried the Nike logo, and runners who prefer other brands of shoes are not obligated to switch.
Nike gets publicity and brand awareness out of the deal. The girls team has won the Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, Ore., for six straight years, and the boys team is a perennial contender in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships and has also qualified for nationals several times.
Unlike a typical college deal, the F-M coaches do not receive any money from Nike. Roy and coach Bill Aris turned down an initial offer that would have covered on 10 varsity girls; Nike came back with a new offer that will outfit a total of 80 boys and girls.
Nike's policy -- similar to other manufacturers, who fear being deluged with requests -- is to not comment on its high school deals, but it's believed the Oregon company has arrangements with fewer than five cross country programs across the country.
More on the F-M/Nike deal: Honest to God, I'm not trying to attract hate mail or create an uproar, but there are kooks aplenty in Central New York -- or at the very least with Internet connections to Syracuse.com.
While the story about F-M's Nike deal was interesting and illuminating, several of the remarks on the readers comments section of the page -- the area I prefer to think of as an intellectual cesspool on most newspaper websites -- skipped "goofy" and proceeded directly to "stupid."
Example No. 1: "[G]iving to F-M all the Nike garbage they will advertise it for free, and continue to help a school that doesn't need any extra assistance ..."
Example No. 2: "[W}ow like that school really needs it...why doesnt Nike give it to a school that needs it..not where a bunch of rich kids go."
Hey, I'm not stupid. I recognize that the communities whose children attend Fayetteville-Manlius schools are, on average, relatively affluent. But would someone kindly explain what that has to do with anything? Nike didn't make this deal to curry favor with "rich people." They did it because they wanted to be associated with winners.
More to the point, though, money isn't what's making the Hornets winners. If money mattered, then the $700 million a year that the Rochester City School District receives each year in taxpayer funding would make its high school basketball squads NBA-ready. That sure ain't happening, however, and in fact only 5 percent of RCSD graduates each year have the academic skills that qualify them as college-ready.
You know why F-M wins? It starts with coaching, including a head coach who probably knows as much about the physical and mental nature of distance running -- and how to push athletes to their limits in a measured manner -- as any other scholastic coach in the state.
And then it extends to the athletes, who put in endless hours of work on the trails and tracks and in the weight room. They're out there every day, rain or shine, hot or cold, pushing themselves and each other for the right to run in the big Saturday invitationals.
So spare me the "let's rag on the rich kids" crap. I'm sure there are kids out there trying just as hard as the F-M runners and coaches, but the fact of the matter is they're not succeeding to nearly the extend that the Hornets are. And the share-the-wealth attitude -- "why doesnt Nike give it to a school that needs it" -- is pretty much the same attitude that's helped do a lot of damage to this country over the years. Too many people looking for handouts and pampering are in need of a swift boot in the butt.
You want something in life? Good, glad to hear it. Now drag your butt away from the Xbox 360 and go earn it.