Every Sunday following a home Hawkeye football game, Liberty’s athletic teams wake up early and get ready to clean-up after the fans. The gates to Kinnick open up at 7 a.m., and students head into the stadium to start cleaning.
The clean-up happens because of a contract between the Iowa City Booster Club and the University of Iowa. During the 2022-23 season, the booster club was set to receive $7,700 from the University for each game. (The Daily Iowan)
Brent Sands, Athletic Director, discusses how much money Liberty receives and what North Central receives for their students’ participation at Kinnick.
“This year (2024), it was $22,000 for each school. So I would say Liberty gets $22,000 and then some of that goes to the Junior High because the Junior Highs rotate [participation]. So Iowa City, Liberty High School got $18,000 of that, and then $4,000 went to North Central,” said Sands.
After the athletic department receives the money, the school must decide how it is distributed through the athletics department.
“The district provides money for some of those basic things. That’s the uniform costs, the basic equipment costs, officials, transportation. There’s a Liberty High School Athletic account, and there’s also all of the separate sport-specific accounts. With the money left over, we’re able to say this sport hasn’t gotten this for a while, I think they could benefit from that,” explained Sands.
Debra Carlson, a math teacher at Liberty, attends clean-ups with the track athletes and encourages the team to participate.
“The money helps purchase things for our athletes in different sports. For track, I know that within the last two or three years, we got warm-ups because we didn’t have any,” said Carlson.
Not all student-athletes attend the clean-up, even though participation is crucial in helping raise funds for the Liberty Athletic Department.
“I think understanding that when there’s things that we want, we have a little bit of a price to pay to get it, rather than always just being given those things,” said Sands.
Kinnick clean-up is a great opportunity for Liberty’s sports to raise money for their programs. It’s a great opportunity for students to step up and do their part.
