The lights, the crowd and the action are quintessential parts of sports games for Northwood athletes as they compete around Orange County. But what fans don’t see is hours before games, athletes shuffling onto school buses funded by the district and enduring long drives to get to away games, and the many hours of work required to make that happen.
At the beginning of every athletic season, Northwood’s athletic directors Sierra Wang and Erik Terry collect each team’s calendar for upcoming games. Then, they put together schedules to send to the district based on teams’ preferences, ranging from how early teams want to arrive to competitions and how long teams want to warm up before matches.
“Some teams only want 30 minutes of warm-up time, and some coaches want 45,” Terry said. “We try to work with the coaches and we talk to our athletic assistant, [Amanda Hansen], and get her recommendations. Everything starts with what time we need to get the team to that event.”
After sending in their requests, the district sends the appropriate buses to Northwood—all of which are contracted from different companies all over the county—along with district bus drivers. Each trip typically costs about $810.
Athletes don’t only ride the stereotypical yellow school bus. Vehicles are assigned based on team size and IUSD’s availability for vehicles. While teams with larger rosters such as track and field need bigger school buses, teams with smaller rosters use charter buses, and even smaller teams such as golf travel in vans.
IUSD does not provide transportation for games starting after 5 p.m., with an exception for inter-city matches; if the game is local, students are expected to find their own transportation to and from games.
“We want all kids to have equal access to opportunities. When a game is far away, we don’t want to assume that parents can take [them] or that students have cars,” assistant principal Alissa Changala said. “We want every kid to get the opportunity to go play their sport and have a great time with their team.”
With the growth of the district’s high schools and student-athlete population, IUSD is now changing where it gets its buses. While the district used to primarily rely on district-owned buses, IUSD now contracts buses from companies such as JFK Transportation and Durham School Services.
“There’s just so much need for buses around the county,” Terry said. “We often have buses showing up 15 minutes after we had asked for them. That’s where it becomes hard, because we’ve asked for a bus at 2 p.m. because we need to get the team to Laguna Beach by 2:45. If the bus shows up at 2:15 p.m., and the players don’t arrive until 3 p.m., their warm-up time gets shortened.”
On the other hand, the long wait times and drives often foster crucial team bonding. Several athletes cite the bus rides as a way to connect with their team, celebrate victories or forget about losses.
“A lot of people are bummed out after meets, especially because they didn’t hit their personal record,” frosh/soph cross-country freshman Maanvi Sringeri said. “But I feel like when you’re in the bus, nobody really cares if you won anything or not. Everybody’s just kind of tired, but also they’re just trying to have fun.”
