From football to lacrosse, our school has a wide variety of athletics to choose from. Each sport is attended by an assortment of the student body, some of which don’t have a car or personal transportation. This may not seem like a problem when almost all of the sports practice on campus and are provided with a bus to games or playoffs. However, this is not the case with two particular sports; golf and swimming. The swim team practices off-site at Brunswick Community College in Bolivia and the golf team practices at Lockwood Folly golf course in Holden Beach. But neither athletes nor coaches are provided with a bus or other means of transportation and must rely on either carpool or valuable gas in personal vehicles.
“I feel like we were not given the same chance as everyone else,” said junior swimmer Kaylee Jarvis. “I felt overlooked as an athlete.”
With a large budget and fanbase for other more popular sports such as football and basketball, it’s hard for some to see the need for sports that are less “mainstream.” While they may be smaller or lesser known, these teams are highly successful in their own right. The women’s swim team won fourth in the state for the 200 freestyle relay, yet the swim team didn’t have school transportation at all to either regionals or states in Cary, NC. Parents had to drive their kids almost 200 miles for a school sport that they had made states in, yet sports such as soccer, football, and even tennis have a bus to every away game.
“All sports teams should have equal opportunity when traveling,” Cindy Caron, a swim parent, said. “The time spent together helps build a strong camaraderie, which is so important.”
A lack of transportation to events is not only a hindrance to team unity, but it is also a barrier to engagement with the school community; the gas money alone involved in travel for practice and events racks up a price that many students and families cannot afford. We cannot truly be committed to increasing engagement with the school community and extracurriculars if we are not actively eliminating these barriers.
“It makes me feel so left out and neglected, “ said senior Eve Feldman about her golf experience. “The school doesn’t care about our sport to even give us a ride home from a match or half the time a ride to a match.”
The question remains whether this is a school oversight or a communication error. Athletic Director Jimmy Fletcher says that he offers coaches transportation to games or meets. For some sports, getting a driver for the bus wouldn’t be a problem since some coaches have bus licenses. Ultimately, it’s up to the athletes to make the change they want for their sport.
