As the fall athletes begin to settle into their seasons one thing ailing all teams has been the long haul that Warrior athletes are having to make when playing away games this season. With the termination of the 7A division in all sports, the alignment of regions has been switched up, unfortunately for North Atlanta athletes, most of their region opponents’ play around 45 minutes away from the school. Leaving long bus rides for athletes, and a short amount of time for handling studying, dinner, and other everyday activities.
The softball team may just have it the worst during the early days of their season, with them playing up to 3 games a week the long bus rides and late nights never end. Most games are played in double-headers, meaning long nights on the field followed by the dreaded bus ride home. Sophomore Sophie Yano is adjusting to the new swing of things, just like everyone else has to. “Balancing nighttime activities and softball is already hard enough, but now getting back at 11 pm doesn’t help much,” said Yano.
Softball isn’t the only team that is seeing side effects after their OTP (outside the Atlanta perimeter) journeys. The women’s volleyball team also plays double headers on game day, meaning long nights on the court, followed by the outrageously long bus ride home. These long rides home late at night make it virtually impossible for these athletes to complete any school work, causing them to miss out on sleep trying to catch up on all their work. Junior volleyball player AJ Snider has had her fair share of issues when it comes to balancing school work after a late night playing volleyball. “Getting home so late leaves little time for me to finish schoolwork, I end up losing sleep completing all my work,” she said.
Another sport that faces the same challenge but in a different way is the football team. Although they play on Fridays and don’t have double headers, the traffic they face is brutal. Friday rush hour is infamously no joke in Atlanta. For the football team rush hour is just about when they leave to make the trip up to Forsyth County where a majority of their region opponents preside. This means the bus ride which is normally 45 minutes can now take up to an hour and a half. Senior right tackle Reis Holzworth can’t stand the long bus rides, especially when they have no air conditioning. “Those buses can get so hot, I break into full sweats hours before the game,” said Holzworth
Even with the long bus rides, late nights, and lots of traffic, these warriors are still having plenty of fun in their respective sports. Every student-athlete knows that sacrifice comes with the territory of the lifestyle they live, however, unnecessarily long travel times can be cumbersome obstacles. Luckily for the sports fans on Northside Drive, a little bit of traveling up North can’t stop these dominant dub athletes.
