11/5/2025
It was just 3-years ago when the Yelm Tornados were celebrating their first ever Football State Championship winning the 3A title on one of the craziest and most prolific plays ever to be seen in High School football. The image of Kyler Ronquillo stripping a game ending sure interception out of the defenders hands and running it in for the winning touchdown is a memory burned in the Yelm community’s folklore.
It’s equally as stunning to see where the Yelm schools are this day after their 4th straight levy failure after yesterday’s election. Yelm schools superintendent Chris Woods is on record on what will happen. They have already made deep cuts, laying off more than 100 teachers, para-educators and others. They’ve already cut choir and drama along with other extra curricular activities. But this failure is pushing the district to the brink.
We’re not going to get into the politics of looking for fault or why they ended up in this position but rather from our prospective of high school sports and what is likely to happen. At this point it doesn’t matter why Yelm schools are in this position, the hard truth is things are about to get a whole lot more complicated.
For more on the background of this situation the Nisqually Valley News has done a great job of following this story beginning with a status report back in early September to a story posted yesterday where Woods laid out the facts of another failure.
To read the good work of Nisqually Valley News reporter Jacob Dimond here are the links to his stories:
Story from Election Day, November 4
Story on 4 year budget forecast from September 2
Reality sinks in
The bottom line is there are only a few things the district can do when it comes to sports and extra curricular activities with no money to fund them and that is to either charge each player a pay-to-play large fee to cover the costs and deep cuts. Other districts that have suffered levy failures have been able to battle through with a combination of cutting back sub-varsity teams, reducing coaching staffs and getting many to volunteer their time to bridge the gap.
They also got help from community groups who raised money to help put on each game or event. A typical football game has a cost of anywhere from $700 to $2,000 in costs. Ticket takers, security, crews to run the clock and keep score, chain crews, officials to custodians. Depending on the size of the crowd the costs add up quickly.
And when you’re traveling you have busses, drivers to pay for with no income from the gate when you are the visitor. This doesn’t even begin to pay for athletic and activity directors whom many are also teachers or administrators and do these jobs in addition to their regular duties. Coaches and the cost to make sure they are all certified and have been cleared to coach.
Superintendent Woods is on the record that deep cuts will begin immediately if the levy fails and it won’t officially fail until the results are certified at the end of the month.
A total cut of all sports for the rest of this year is on the table. Certainly the sub-varsity teams will likely be cut severely limiting opportunities for kids to participate. Coaching stipends would be bare minimum if at all and likely have to rely on coaches to volunteer much of their time. There will be no transportation to away games. Certainly equipment and gear would not be replaced.
There will likely be complete cuts to band, cheer, dance and clubs that have not already been cut.
Rumor-mill on full blast
Talking with some staff members and others around the Yelm schools there is talk of some extreme measures floating around including being absorbed by a neighboring school district such as North Thurston or Bethel school districts. The smaller 2B Rainier district also borders the Yelm school district.
One athletic director I spoke with said this is something I’ve never heard of in all my years and I’m not sure the WIAA or District has even considered such a scenario.
WIAA Executive Director Mick Hoffman says, “This is incredibly sad news for the students of Yelm SD and the community as a whole.” As far as access for students to participate at other schools there are transfer rules in place that students can use to change schools. Hoffman says without a further formal process in place the transfer policies are what affected students will need to utilize.
There could be some other options, but it’s too early to begin taking any steps. The election must first be certified and then the Yelm administration will need to decide what and how they are going to move forward.
Marysville and Centralia school districts both recently battled through multiple levy failures but neither faced a 4 time defeat.
Tough Times for the Tornados
In the end, it will be the students, athletes, coaches and teachers that get hurt the most. There is certainly confusion and heartbreak in the Yelm community. The speed that this all has happened is especially concerning.
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