Every time the Kahuku High School football team marches onto the field, they collectively take with them about a dozen NCAA Division I prospects, the pride of the North Shore, and about $52,000 worth of equipment.

Running a high school football program takes a lot of work and a lot of organization, but it also takes a lot of money.

To outfit just one player at Castle High School costs about $538, and that does not include the shoes (about $60 to $100), which the kids buy on their own.

A helmet costs $136, but special helmets can run up to $200 each, according to Castle athletic director Richard Haru.

For a team like Kahuku, which has 96 players on the varsity alone, those costs add up quickly.

Fortunately for the Red Raiders, Nike stepped in this season to sponsor their game jerseys and pants, which would have cost the school about $125 per player ($12,000 total).

Unfortunately, Kahuku does not get as much help with transportation. For each game away from home, athletic director Joe Whitford usually rents five buses at about $130 per bus ($650 total). In a season with only four or five home games, that adds up to about $7,000.

The state allocates about $22,000 to each school for transportation throughout the year, and Whitford said Kahuku spends almost half of that by the end of the fall sports season, before winter and spring sports even begin.

Travel to and from the Neighbor Islands for non-league games can cost each team well over $10,000 per trip.

Staging home games is not cheap, either. Hiring special duty police officers alone can cost about $568 per game, according to Haru.

O'ahu Interscholastic Association schools throw all gate receipts into a big pot, and the league pays for the game officials and helps subsidize security costs. But since costs for uniforms and equipment, transportation and game operations often exceed state and league subsidies, the rest of the money must be made up through fund-raising and concession revenue, which each host school gets to keep.

So the next time you buy that hot dog, hamburger or saimin from the all-volunteer concession stand, rest assured the money is going toward a noble cause.

Read Wes Nakama's blog on prep sports at http://blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com.