When the dismissal bell rings, students flock to their cars, their parents’ cars or their designated buses to leave. While all the automobiles clear the parking lot, athletes are left waiting for a bus.
This delay of buses has caused setbacks on scheduled departing times, warm-ups and stretches and has become an issue on arriving on time for their games and meets.
“[First Student] is struggling to get bus drivers to apply or stay for the job,” assistant athletic director Bill Herman said.
First Student’s main responsibility is to cover all the bus routes taken, and District 7 happens to have the biggest area to cover compared to nearby towns. Until 4:15 p.m., there are only four extra buses for the district to use between the middle schools and the high school. Due to the middle school needing the buses more because they are unable to drive, extracurriculars or sports teams from the high school are left waiting for a bus.
Cross country, a team that travels a lot for their meets, waited almost an hour for a bus this past Saturday.
“We were supposed to leave at 6 a.m. and be there at 6:30 since the first race was for girls varsity at 8:30 a.m. But we didn’t end up leaving until about 6:50 since the buses were late,” senior cross country runner AnnaBella DeAvilia said.
Harmony, a small bus company from Bellville, has aided EHS. Due to them not being familiar with EHS pick up spots for each sport, the teams have been arriving late to games or meets.
“It was mainly a misunderstanding on where we were,” field hockey coach Kristina Johnson said.
The bus was a little over 30 minutes late to pick up the field hockey team on Sep. 6 for the Rockwood Tournament.
“We don’t have the option to use the shuttle, so we would have to rely on parents to get the team to and from games,” Johnson said.
The shuttle buses are mainly used by the golf and tennis team. Usually, the teams are given three but this year they only have two at hand making it difficult to travel.
“We had to take the suburban and not all of our equipment fits so we had to have other players transport them,” senior golfer Ruhhee Gupchup said.
The main issue with the bus and shuttle shortages is the stress the athletes experience. Arriving late can cause less time to stretch or warmup, making the athletes perform worse, according to Gupchup.
“It can cause a lot of stress for our coaches and athletes since it might not give them the chance to prepare right and could even delay some start time races,” DeAvilla said.
DeAvilla said her biggest concern is being able to get to their meets on time, so they aren’t rushed to the starting line.
Mr. Herman says the issue of getting kids to their events is an issue that has been actively getting worse since COVID-19. According to Mr. Herman most of the drivers were older and went into retirement or found new jobs when the Amazon Warehouse opened.
“The bus drivers or workers we had can’t be replaced,” Herman said.
While the bus shortage is expected to continue for the rest of the school year, District 7 is wanting to aid the shortage the best they can.
“Our central office has had numerous meetings to try and aid the situation, the powers above me are well aware of the situation,” Mr. Herman said. “The goal is to try not to rely on parents.”
Mr. Herman said he has faith that the issue will get better next year or the following years. He wants to point out that Harmony has been a big help to District 7.
“They have been angelic in helping us and our athletes,” Mr. Herman said.