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Post by Wolfgang on Nov 23, 2014 2:09:11 GMT -5
I have seen entire teams travel by charter bus between airport, hotel, and stadium/arena. These were mostly football teams. Once, several years ago, I saw the Pacific women's volleyball team get on what looked like a chartered bus after a Cal Poly match at Mott Gym (in San Luis Obispo) to drive, presumably, back up to Stockton that very night. (There was a lot of girl-shouting and merry-making.)
I have also seen teams unload a couple of vans of softball players at the airport. I think they were a team from Missouri, IIRC.
I have read about, but have never seen, teams rent sedans at the airport and drive to their hotel and, subsequently, the arena/gym. This actually frightens me because for reasons having to do with my advancing age (I'm not as old as you think, but I'm getting up there), I believe people are doomed to die in horrific car accidents. This is, of course, irrational because people die of other causes like disease and cancer more than car accidents, but fear is a slave to the irrational and all logic is out the window. So, when I read about the Hawaii team flying in to LAX and then driving up to Santa Barbara for a match and then driving up to San Luis Obispo for another match, and finally, driving all the way back down to Santa Barbara and LAX to fly back to Honolulu, I thought to myself, Jeez Loueez, that's a lot of driving! Me, I hate driving on highways. I always make a stop after 90 minutes just to pee and stretch my legs and grab a drink at McDonald's. Even though the stretch of HWY 101 between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo is quite beautiful, I still hate driving there.
So, anyway, how do your teams travel between places? Bus, van, car? How exactly? Who does the driving? I assume coaches and other adult "chaperones" (e.g., SID, trainer) handle the driving responsibilities for liability purposes. Why haven't there been more accidents? I've always been curious about this. (Well, not "always" but once in a while.)
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Post by tomclen on Nov 23, 2014 2:16:08 GMT -5
Years ago, my wife and I read an article about a NTHS study showing that 75% of car accidents happen within 1 mile of your home. So we moved. And have liked it here ever since.
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Post by mikegarrison on Nov 23, 2014 2:18:02 GMT -5
I recommend flying as often as possible. There is no finer way to travel.
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Post by mikegarrison on Nov 23, 2014 2:19:45 GMT -5
So, anyway, how do your teams travel between places? Bus, van, car? How exactly? Who does the driving? I assume coaches and other adult "chaperones" (e.g., SID, trainer) handle the driving responsibilities for liability purposes. Why haven't there been more accidents? I've always been curious about this. (Well, not "always" but once in a while.) I assume professional drivers do the driving.
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Post by Wolfgang on Nov 23, 2014 2:22:16 GMT -5
So, anyway, how do your teams travel between places? Bus, van, car? How exactly? Who does the driving? I assume coaches and other adult "chaperones" (e.g., SID, trainer) handle the driving responsibilities for liability purposes. Why haven't there been more accidents? I've always been curious about this. (Well, not "always" but once in a while.) I assume professional drivers do the driving. Yes, for chartered buses and commercial vans, but how about rented vans and sedans? I doubt they hire pro drivers for rental cars.
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Post by Wolfgang on Nov 23, 2014 2:24:10 GMT -5
I recommend flying as often as possible. There is no finer way to travel. I was talking about AFTER the flight has landed. Obviously, Stanford will not take a bus to Seattle for a match against UW. How do teams get around on the ground?
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Post by mikegarrison on Nov 23, 2014 2:27:46 GMT -5
I recommend flying as often as possible. There is no finer way to travel. I was talking about AFTER the flight has landed. Obviously, Stanford will not take a bus to Seattle for a match against UW. How do teams get around on the ground? As an aeronautical engineer, I don't really care how they get from the airport to the gym. But as a resident of Seattle, I can predict they got there slowly, with some delays due to traffic. Probably hit the stop-and-go around the Columbian Way exit. Or if they flew charter, they likely landed at Boeing Field. In that case I expect they only got onto I5 somewhere downtown, which means they avoided the worst of the problem.
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Post by Mocha on Nov 23, 2014 2:34:48 GMT -5
This reminded me of the bus carrying the Garfield High softball team a couple of years ago, the driver was following GPS instructions and did not see the posted signs warning the maximum height allowed under the bridge.
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Post by mikegarrison on Nov 23, 2014 2:38:20 GMT -5
This reminded me of the bus carrying the Garfield High softball team a couple of years ago, the driver was following GPS instructions and did not see the posted signs warning the maximum height allowed under the bridge. At least the bus didn't knock the whole bridge down.
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Post by rogero1 on Nov 23, 2014 4:38:13 GMT -5
FWIW, most DI, DII, & DIII schools hire professional drivers to take teams around.
Coaches driving a van do not need a commercial driving license. Coaches driving a bus do need a CDL.
IMHO, schools that do not have the money to pay for a driver are asking for a lawsuit as coaches are usually mentally fatigued after matches.
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Post by Coach John on Nov 23, 2014 5:01:03 GMT -5
IMHO, schools that do not have the money to pay for a driver are asking for a lawsuit as coaches are usually mentally fatigued after matches. Backing that up, I had an experience once that really drove home how foolish it was to have coaches driving teams around in vans. We'd had a bad match and a very emotionally charged post-match meeting. It was night and the weather was wet and windy. No accident or anything like that, but I distinctly remember thinking to myself as I was driving that I was in a poor state to be driving a vehicle which is already inherently unstable.
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Post by volleydude444 on Nov 23, 2014 6:55:38 GMT -5
When I was at a DII school the coaches had to drive the team in school vans. This was almost 10 years ago so things may have changed since then. When I was at a DI school a professional bus company drove the team for every away match and trip to the airport.
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Post by volleymom1532 on Nov 23, 2014 7:18:10 GMT -5
Many teams use the white vans driven by assistant coach, GA or Athletic Trainer when traveling to and from the airport. Unless you are football or basketball, then you get a chartered bus. But softball, cross country, volleyball, and etc. use the white vans or even regular vans. There just is not money in the travel budget to allow for a chartered bus. This is DI.
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Post by rockhopper on Nov 23, 2014 9:41:50 GMT -5
After Jacksonville won the ASUN tournament yesterday, their bus (looked like a charter in the instagram picture) shredded a tire somewhere between Ft. Myers and Jax.
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Post by donneyp on Nov 23, 2014 10:48:24 GMT -5
I coach at a D3 public in NJ. Something to do with our insurance, we are not permitted to drive our student athletes. We take a coach bus for every trip, including the 7 road trips of 30 minutes or less this season.
We flew to LA this year, and Dallas 2 years ago, and my admin paid for the buses to the airport and when we got there because we are not permitted to use vans, period.
As Charles Barkley used to say "Anything less would be uncivilized."
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