"I can't speak for this school, ..."
And I can't either.
My comments referred to typical public schools, the only kind existing in my local area or for that matter the entire multi-county area within 100 miles.
I should not have made the assumption that we were talking about private schools, however I would be curious about what percentage of alumni donations are plowed back into the athletic program.
It'll vary from school to school, my high school didn't need to plow the money the football team made back into the program, since the program paid for itself, and then some.
I had friends who played on teams at other schools, and it varied to pouring in alot of to some schools putting nothing back in and depending on donations or "pay to play" schemes.
The big thing seems to be that alumni donations are often tied to the success or failure of the high school football (or baseball or basketball) team. If the team does well, and is in the papers, alumni donations go up, the team goes into decline, the donations go down (and the coach gets fired, this is why high school football coaches get canned, otherwise, no one would care if the team was crappy or not).
My high school has legendary football coach, a big time baseball program and big basketball program. If some of those players make it big, they always chip in some big buck donations back to the school.
In essence, most of the time with these high school sports, if it brings in money and is a factor in alumni donations or revenue, then your going to see some unsavory things.
Let me put it to you this way, my high school also had a big time track team and one of the better ones on the east coast, I doubt most of the teachers or students could name those kids or anyone would hold back a donation if the team suddenly started losing.