Travel distances

[dsanders]

What is the furthest anyone will have to travel for a DISTRICT game this season?
Does anyone have to drive farther than 10 hours?
I think that it is ridiculous for Amarillo Heritage Classical Academy to have to drive 10 HOURS on a bus all the way to El Paso to play Jesus Chapel. Is this fair? As the athletic director and head coach at HCA it brings many concerns to mind...namely travel fatigue on my players and other coaches as well as financial issues that are difficult on small private schools. How can we get rid of these long drives that aren't even for the playoffs? I recommended playing at Loop, Midland, or Trent but EP Jesus Chapel wanted a home game so how can I refuse? Last year playing at the D1 level in TAPPS they were in our district and we made the long trip down there only to play on a lousy field in a park. This year we both moved down to D2 and unfortunately we have to travel all the way down there AGAIN (2 years in a row). My ideas of playing at a neutral site for the next 2 years instead of either team having to make that long drive was quickly put to rest by Jesus Chapel. What are ya'lls thoughts on this?

 

[freeagent]

What is the furthest anyone will have to travel for a DISTRICT game this season?
Does anyone have to drive farther than 10 hours?
I think that it is ridiculous for Amarillo Heritage Classical Academy to have to drive 10 HOURS on a bus all the way to El Paso to play Jesus Chapel. Is this fair? As the athletic director and head coach at HCA it brings many concerns to mind...namely travel fatigue on my players and other coaches as well as financial issues that are difficult on small private schools. How can we get rid of these long drives that aren't even for the playoffs? I recommended playing at Loop, Midland, or Trent but EP Jesus Chapel wanted a home game so how can I refuse? Last year playing at the D1 level in TAPPS they were in our district and we made the long trip down there only to play on a lousy field in a park. This year we both moved down to D2 and unfortunately we have to travel all the way down there AGAIN (2 years in a row). My ideas of playing at a neutral site for the next 2 years instead of either team having to make that long drive was quickly put to rest by Jesus Chapel. What are ya'lls thoughts on this?

Coach ... Next year, Jesus Chapel will be playing at your place. Would have been nice to arrange for Jesus Chapel to come to your place this year, but I hope whoever did your district schedule arranged it to even out the trips among the schools.

Our good friends at Jesus Chapel have made a lot of trips (and no doubt, you have also done so in Amarillo). Generally, I hate neutral site games (especially in district) -- at the size of our schools, it guarantees that both schools lose money on the game (gate and travel).

District schedules are traditionally done as home-and-home, be it in the same season (common in basketball or volleyball) or on a two year agreement. I do remember a few years back when we thought we would have a Rio Grande Valley school in our BB/VB district. We decided in volleyball to do the dual series by each of the San Antonio schools play the Valley school in two games (Friday and Saturday), at home one year and on the road the next . In basketball, we had another school in the Corpus area and scheduled each of the San Antonio schools to play Friday/Saturday trips (home one year, away the next). The Valley school ended up not playing and we tossed that schedule ...

 

[cadec11]

i think you are absolutly right coach sanders, even though yall do have to travel an hour or so more than we do, but still, it is rediculous that we have to go to el paso.....for a DISTRICT game. im just glad we dont go there this season......

 

[freeagent]

i think you are absolutly right coach sanders, even though yall do have to travel an hour or so more than we do, but still, it is rediculous that we have to go to el paso.....for a DISTRICT game. im just glad we dont go there this season......

But you'll have to make the trip next year, right? I'm not sure it would be fair to Jesus Chapel to travel to BOTH Amarillo and Planview this year and wait for both of you to travel to them next year. Whatever you do, you try to balance your district schedule (so that there are the same number, or within 1, of home/away games).

There are only so many private schools, especially in NW and West Texas ... if some of them would get their act together and come back to TAPPS, all of a sudden there would be a few more schools around to play in district.

El Paso Jesus Chapel has made their decision to stick with TAPPS. I hope that the other TAPPS schools in their districts (not only football, but other sports, especially the spring sports) understand that and make an effort to occasionally compete against Jesus Chapel IN EL PASO!

All this stuff evens out ...

 

[CoachBHelton]

Dsanders, not sure which route you are taking to get to El Paso, but it should never take more than eight hours max. EPJC has had to make trips to Abilene, Granbury, and Fort Worth for district games in years past, and not just once every other year. We would have to make two trips every season to the Fort Worth area just for DISTRICT, this does not include our multiple trips every season to places like Lazbuddie, Three Way, etc.
Not to jump on Coach Stredic's bandwagon, but the road to El Paso does go both ways.

 

[dsanders]

It takes 10 hours in a bus that can only do 60mph

 

[big kahuna]

I think that it is just a logistics nightmare either way you look at it. EP is dealing with the travel each and every week in pretty much all their sports. Look at it this way..... At least you don't have to do it each road game. This is the one district game you have to travel that far but EP has to travel to all the panhandle schools this year or next. If EP can do it then I am sure the panhandle teams can bite the bullet and travel that far for the one game a year.

 

[mudcat22]

I say get some cheese to enjoy with that "whine" and make it a party. If you traveled to EPJC last year and are in a district with them again you and Stredic should have discussed it at district meetings.

 

[dsanders]

That's the point...THEY shouldn't have to travel that far either!

 

[coachrodricks]

mudcat, just fyi Stedic is n longer at Jesus Chapel, he is at El Paso Bethel Temple.

 

[big kahuna]

It was mentioned earlier that there are some schools that need to get into TAPPS and out of TCAL this way there are teams closer to EP than Amarillo. This is the way it is and we deal with it.

 

[yung'en]

Coming from a players perspective.. Its kind of fun getting to travel like that... I know its district and all but for kids its fun.. I played at Amarillo San Jacinto and we had to play El Paso Faith and El Paso Jesus Chapel in El Paso... and El Paso Immanuel came to Amarillo.. We beat Faith 65-48 in a great game and lost to Jesus Chapel 65-48.. funny thing in that game is we scored the same amount of touchdowns.. JC could kick field goals, we could not.. But the whole trip it self was a blast.. Now that I am a coach, I can see the complaint of having to travel.. It gets hard but I still believe the kids enjoy getting away with all their buddies.. I know I did

 

[Gear 31]

El Paso Travel
I think it is time to put on your big boy pants and stop whinning about how far you have to travel for one football game, and suck it up and go play.
If you make the play offs are you going to gripe abot travel?
You have to remember this is just a game.

 

[CoachSobey]

Coach Sanders,
As a former Jesus Chapel and Faith Christian coach I have made many trips to Amarillo (and - as mentioned by Coach Helton - Dallas, Ft Worth, San Antonio, ...). Jesus Chapel has even competed in the NACA 8-man championships held in Tennesee. Travel was a normal part of the job and culture of the school.

I am speculating that your dislike comes from not having to travel very often. I also noticed that you do not "complain" like others on this thread are trying to insinuate. You state your point very well and support it with compelling information.

The current administrator of Jesus Chapel School was one of the volleyball coaches that built the JCS volleyball program into a state-level competitor during the same years that the JCS football team was also dominant. So, the culture of absorbing travel and making it fun for the kids and successful for the school lives on as JCS continues to build itself back into a formidable academic and athletic school.

If you might consider the following advice, it might make the trip less uncomfortable:

1. Leave early Friday morning for the Saturday game.
2. Call Midland Trinity school and arrange to have a light, pre-game practice at their field. Eat a really good meal in Midland.
3. Travel into El Paso and try to catch a Friday night game.
4. Set a comfortable schedule for Saturday morning with a good breakfast.
5. Your kids will be relaxed, you will have rested well, you will have not missed any practices, and you will actually have a good time.

As far as hotel expenses, if it is not in the budget to stay 2 nights, call the folks at JCS and arrange to stay at one of the churches or gyms in the city after the game. I can not speak for them , but I do believe the JCS crew would even feed you dinner on Saturday after the game to help cut travel expenses even further.

While they may remain inflexible about travel, they have never lost their Christian charity. Some times it is hard to remember that we are all one family - all children of God - and we usually act like it.

Whatever the outcome, Coach, I wish you well and extend my congratulations on a very impressive start to your football season.

Coach Sobey

 

[dsanders]

Coach Sobey,

Thank you for the pointers, they are greatly appreciated and will be taken into consideration. I myself love traveling but it makes my job difficult when I am constantly questioned about the financial necessity of doing so(especially after diesel prices skyrocketed). Other problems arise from the fact that I am the only full-time coach on staff at the school...my competent, capable, and irreplaceable assistant coach (Tim Walton) is only at the school part-time for football. It is very difficult for him to get away from his demanding full-time job to travel those greater distances.

Respectfully,
Coach Sanders

 

[CoachS]

Since my name has been referred to, Hi I'm Coach Stredic. Travel, travel, travel. Nope I'm not at Jesus Chapel anymore, but their coaches are still my friends. Just to comment on their field; that's wrong to say they have a lousey field, they are doing the best they can. But if people don't want to play on their field, don't play, forfeit. We played on their field and the field did not cause any injuries. As my pastor would say about the field and travel,"toughen up butter-cup."