In this age of education, there is a shortage of everything. A major example is bus drivers; not only are there fewer busses for students to and from school, but also for athletes trying to get to away games. Many athletes are forced to either drive themselves or find someone else to take them. Until we obtain the drivers we need, our school is forced to find alternatives to transporting athletes.

Junior tennis player Owen Godley states, “I know there’s been a bit of a driver shortage so that probably plays a big part in why we haven’t gotten busses to our matches.” Owen, like many other fall athletes, has to find his own way to his matches because there isn’t school-provided transportation for his team. “I don’t think it’s that much of an inconvenience because we have a lot of moms that are willing to take us,” he noted. Owen and his team are very fortunate, but what if they didn’t have moms to help carpool?

Most people understand that there are way too few drivers for the school, which creates some understanding, but it’s still a challenge for many athletes to get to their games, especially the underclassmen.

I also asked senior soccer team captain Noah Burr how it affected his team, and he said, “It’s hard because some of us can’t find rides and we don’t all get there at the same time to be able to warm up and prepare for our game.” The soccer team has also used private charter buses as an alternative; however, it is far more expensive for the school. Noah had also talked about how he liked taking the charter bus as an alternative, but he worries about the strain that it puts on school and team accounts.

“The budget only goes so far, but we’ll do what we can to make it work.” FHC Principal Steve Passinault is determined to make sure athletes can get to their games, despite the driver shortage. He wishes we could save money by using our own buses instead of charters, but he’s willing to make the sacrifice for the good of the athletes. “There has been an increase in the number of drivers, just not enough yet to cover the extracurriculars after school. They are talking about, within the next month or so, that there are more drivers in the pipeline, and once they’re ready they’ll have to complete some training and test driving, and from my understanding, we’ll have a few more drivers that can hopefully positively impact fall sports.”

Many efforts are being made to give assistance to the fall athletes looking for rides, but unfortunately, not all are working. For the time being, athletes are going to find alternative measures to get them to their games. Hopefully, we can resolve the issue soon so that our FHC student-athletes can focus on their opponents and not on the opponent of transportation.