SWIMMING IN MONEY vs. MONEY IN SWIMMING

Swimming is a sport with relatively little equipment--all a competitor really needs is a suit, goggles, perhaps a cap, and a towel for drying off. But that is far from all you're likely to spend your money on if you're a Yorktown High School swim parent.

The checklist of "highly recommended" items handed out to parents last week includes some justifiable expenses. Swimsuits and caps are necessary, especially for athletes who don't already have them through club swimming. And the $50 or so for road trip meals is money well spent. But much of the rest of the list is unnecessary, and represents a staggering financial blow for some families in this horrible economy.

I like to call it putting the packaging ahead of the product, the notion that it's more important to look good than be good. Eighty dollars for a so-called "team package" of warmup, bag and a shirt? Many of us bought those items last year, and they should suffice again in 2009-10. Buying new sets of warmups, bags and shirts each year is a luxury some cannot afford, and I believe it's simply a wasteful indulgence.

In case you haven't done the math, the total of the "highly recommended" items is about $190 for girls, about $170 for boys. For those lucky enough to be able to buy one of everything on the list (with personalization), get ready to part with about $360--per athlete. Imagine having more than one athlete on the team!

When you add on the required high school team booster dues, the costs of providing early morning breakfasts, and the other incidental expenses that come up during a typical season, the squeeze is on.

Of course, you risk being branded as a rebel or "not a team player" if everyone else is buying the things you don't (or more often, can't). So even the poorest parents will try to scrape together the money to keep up with the Joneses for the sake of their kids. I'll probably be branded with even stronger words for having the audacity to write this commentary. So be it.

It's high time we spend a lot more of our limited resources on the things we truly need, and a lot less on the things we simply want.