Area teams fighting costs of gas
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By Brian Hunsicker
Published: August 6, 2008
Sometimes that other venue is just down the street, if Osbourn Park and Manassas Park were to meet in a game. Other times, particularly in the postseason, tournaments and games can be held hours away. The trips use gasoline all the same, and schools are trying to find ways to save money by cutting down on consumption.
Wayne Gryder, the activities director at Osbourn, said a few years ago, before gas zoomed past $3.50 a gallon, he paid $21,000 in transportation and hotels. With gas costs rising, Gryder and other activities directors are trying to offset those costs through varying methods.
The most drastic measure is cutting sub-varsity sports or eliminating some sports altogether, though that’s not an option for Gryder.
“We want [the kids] to be involved,” he said. Still, it was a consideration for others; Gryder said he heard of the idea during meetings with other athletic administrators.
In Prince William County, schools are charged a flat rate for transportation costs, Gar-Field ac-tivities director Rudy Zimmermann said. He added he was unaware of any cost increase, or of any directive from either principals or the superintendent to cut back on costs.
Fred Milbert, who supervises athletics for the county schools, said that schedules — long since decided upon — make it difficult to implement any short-term plans.
“We have our schedules and we’ll follow through on them,” he said. “They’re done a year in ad-vance, so we’re locked into them.”
He said that the topic has been brought up, but there’s been no push to act immediately.
“We’re in a situation where we can keep going on what we’re doing,” Milbert said.
But, Zimmermann said, “if we don’t face it this year, we’ll have to face it next year.” Zimmermann believes that gas prices, though currently trending downward, will eventually start rising again. Then, he said, it will be time to come up with some creative solutions.
Bruce Whitehead, the executive director for the Indianapolis-based National Interscholastic Ath-letic Administrators Association, said schools have been coming up with those creative solutions.
Among them:
• User fees. Whitehead said he had heard of the institution of user fees at a school district in Northern Indiana. One school in Massachusetts, Apponequet Regional, also floated that idea this spring, according to a nearby newspaper.
The user fees can extend beyond athletics and may include all extracurricular activities. Appon-equet, for instance, proposed a one-time, $100 fee for any student wishing to participate in a non-sports activity. The fees for athletics ranged between $125-$325, depending on the sport.
• Using more than one team per bus. Gryder said that Osbourn had partially implemented such a plan in the spring. The drawback came in how long the games could take.
Softball games are usually much quicker than baseball games. Having softball players sit around waiting for the end of the baseball game isn’t ideal, particularly on a school night; that’s why Gry-der said the plan was only used on Friday nights.
• Using more than one school per bus. Zimmermann said that such a plan between county schools would be simple; the only negotiation would be between activities directors to figure out who would pay for what.
Involving Manassas schools would be more involved. Zimmermann said a plan like that would need approval from both school systems, though he seemed optimistic that the systems would be willing to help each other out. Gryder said that his school and the county schools have a solid work-ing relationship and it wouldn’t be difficult to work out such an idea.
• Different busses on the departure and return trips, especially for all-day events. If two schools near each other are participating in all-day events — particularly for weekend wrestling or swim meets — one school may drive the teams to the event, while another school may provide the bus on the return trip.
“That’s still two bus round trips,” Whitehead said, “but there isn’t a driver sitting there all day at an hourly cost.”
Milbert said, however, that the bus costs are the same whether it’s on the road or standing by.
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