CHEYENNE — At a track meet years ago, Sen. Wendy Schuler, R-Evanston, watched one of her homeschooled distance runners fall further and further behind the pack.
The assistant track coach shouted words of encouragement from the infield, urging the young woman to pick up the pace.
Her response was divinely inspired.
“I’m running for Jesus,” the girl called back. “I’m running as fast as Jesus wants me to.”
A former high school coach who spent more than 20 years leading basketball, volleyball and track programs at schools in Cheyenne, Lyman and Evanston, Schuler turned to her fellow coach and delivered the only reasonable verdict.
“She’s running for Jesus,” Schuler told him. “You better not mess with that.”
That kind of earnest, outwardly Christian spirit is exactly what made Tim Tebow a folk hero long before he won the Heisman Trophy.
A homeschooled kid who had never set foot in a public-school classroom, Tebow showed up at Nease High School in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, to play football under a state law that allowed homeschooled students to participate in public school athletics. Before he arrived, the Panthers were “every team’s homecoming game,” head coach Craig Howard told ESPN.
His new teammates didn’t exactly roll out the welcome mat.
“I was brand new at this place, and you could tell that that group just, it had so much disdain, you know, because I wasn’t part of them,” Tebow later recalled on “Good Morning America.”
Tebow’s legend grew in high school and college as he went on to score a touchdown with a broken leg and win the Heisman Trophy.
Now, the example he set — a kid who wasn’t supposed to be there, transforming a losing program while facing hostility from the establishment — is embodied by a growing number of “Tim Tebow Laws” at the state level. Approximately half of U.S. states now permit homeschooled students full access to interscholastic activities, with about 20 states offering unrestricted participation.
On Wednesday, Wyoming took a step toward strengthening its own version.
Committee Hearing
The Senate Education Committee voted 4-0 to advance House Bill 23, which requires school districts to allow students not enrolled in a district to participate in cocurricular and extracurricular activities.
As introduced, the bill applied only to grades 6 through 12. But an amendment by Sen. Charlie Scott, R-Casper, stripped that restriction entirely, broadening eligibility to all K-12 activities.
“I can remember when my kids were in school and they were in a one-room country school in the grades, particularly four, five, and six,” Scott said during the hearing. “They were participating with a town school in intramural sports among several schools. And it was good for them.”
His kids attended Red Creek School, a one-room schoolhouse at the intersection of Highway 487 and Bates Creek Road in Natrona County that has been educating students for more than 100 years, Scott said in a follow-up interview.
Funding Question
During Wednesday’s hearing, Brian Farmer of the Wyoming School Boards Association raised the issue of money, noting that activities funding was reduced during the state’s school funding recalibration.
Students enrolled in schools generate activities dollars through the average daily membership formula, but students participating only in activities do not generate extra funding, Farmer told the committee.
“Districts are happy to have those kids come and join us but just want you to be aware that that’s kind of the environment that’s in,” Farmer said.
Where districts charge students to participate in sports or activities, all students must be charged the same amount, including homeschoolers, Farmer said.
Boyd Brown of the Wyoming Association of School Administrators offered a potential solution — allowing districts to count participating homeschool students for activities funding — and spoke warmly of the homeschooled athletes he coached as a high school principal.
“We’re happy to have those kids. I can remember some of my homeschool kids being some of the best kids that were out on my soccer team,” Brown said. “We welcome those kids.”
Growing Trend
In a follow-up interview Wednesday, Schuler said she coached homeschool students during her years leading high school teams and never experienced pushback from opposing schools.
“We didn’t, of course, never treat them any differently from anybody else. They were part of our team. It didn’t matter if they went to our school,” Schuler said.
The Evanston Republican said she’s seeing a growing number of homeschool families seeking access to public school activities, from sports to music programs.
“I think because we’re seeing maybe an increase a little bit and people wanting to homeschool, I think we’re going to see more and more of it,” Schuler said. “Everybody needs the opportunity to participate in whatever it is, whether it’s chess club or, you know, track or swimming.”
The bill, she said, is fundamentally about access, with costs remaining a local decision.
“If your district charges kids to participate, then the homeschool kids would need to be charged that same fee,” Schuler said.
Tebow’s Words
Years after breaking barriers as a homeschooled athlete in Florida, Tebow addressed the stereotypes that followed him throughout his career.
“A lot of times people have this stereotype of homeschoolers as not very athletic,” Tebow said, repeating this line in interviews: “It’s like, ‘Go win a spelling bee, or something like that.’”
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
