Exploring High School Athletics Through An Accounting Perspective

Abstract

High school athletics play an important role for students, encouraging teamwork, physical and mental development, and community involvement with the school. Nevertheless, there can be challenges with the accounting and internal controls of high school system athletics. This project examines several financial settings of importance in the high school athletic environment through an accounting lens, including funding for high school athletics, budgeting, the profitability in athletics, assets, and internal controls. The project will investigate how these high schools get the funding (internal and external), the allocation of the funding, and sustainability of the program. Drawing on personal experience, secondary research, and other sources, this project seeks to study the application of accounting principles and funding strategies that ensure success and accessibility of high school athletic programs. The findings from this study will help with an overall understanding of how accounting concepts work in high school athletics and provide suggestions for improvements.