The Powell Panthers girls' swim team will be cleaning up this fall. Literally.

The 14-member squad is offering to do chores this month with the lofty goals of raising cash for needed equipment and, eventually, offer scholarships to swimmers who might otherwise not be able to participate due to new fees and the expenses of traveling with the team.

Powell High School head swim coach Bailey Jackson said the money raised will help with a number of needs.

“We have already had at least one kid not join the team because for out-of-district kids, there’s a very large fee to participate in our district sports, and so they couldn’t pay that,” Jackson said, adding, “Swimming in particular has always really heavily depended on Lovell and the Big Horn County folks because they don’t have a pool.”

This year, non-district participants were asked to pay just over $500 to participate on the Powell swim team.

Powell High School Athletic Director Richard Despain knows there is some pain in the expense, but participation comes at a price. He noted that the school has to pay to use the city-owned Powell Aquatic Center.

“We don’t have the leniency to use funds like we used to,” Despain said. “This is kind of new, so we’re still trying to figure it out.”

However, it’s not just swimming that’s impacted — nor it is only the Powell district that is charging fees. All sports will need to determine the right amount to charge non-district kids coming to Powell to participate in athletics and the Powell kids who compete in softball and skiing in Cody also must pay.

But Jackson worries about the future of pools in the region if swim teams, which help fund municipal pools, shrink
in number.

“Maintaining a pool is really expensive, and with certain funding situations at the state level, we are across the state looking at some very serious threats to swimming as a sport at the high school level,” she said.

For the PHS swim team, the needs go beyond the big ticket items.

“This year we’re mostly focusing on feeding the girls and making sure that they have the gear that they need to swim,” Jackson said.

The girls get a basic team swim suit, but they need to buy any other team clothes, pay ever-increasing food expenses, equipment needs fixing and the snack bin is currently empty. The team also likes to purchase higher-end tech suits to boost the Panthers’ speed in competitions.

Coaches can’t raise donations, but first-year swimmer River James’ mother Melissa stepped into a fundraising leadership role, not wanting anyone to sit out due to economic issues.

“They [athletes] could be asking the parents individually for these funds, but this way it gives every kid a chance to be on the swim team, whether or not you can fork out an extra couple hundred bucks after you just bought school supplies and school clothes and everything else,” Melissa James said. “It really adds up.”

The fundraising event is set for Saturday, Sept. 26. Two or three students and an adult will travel to Powell residences to do cleaning or other approved jobs to prepare for the coming winter months. The cost is $50 for two hours of team labor, but James wouldn’t be sad if folks want to up the ante a bit.

Those seeking the labor will need to act fast. They will only operate for the one day and there are just over a dozen girls on the team.

“Fortunately, we do have a lot of support in Powell,” James said.

After the team’s needs are met, they’ll look into other priorities, such as assisting the boys team and to lessen the blow to non-district swimmers now paying an expensive pool fee to be on the team.

To hire a team, call James at 307-202-2296