A lot of logistics occurs when a director of operations for a sports program has to plan out every travel detail to ensure the trip goes smoothly. They must account for food, transportation to the city and hotel rooms while keeping costs within the season’s travel budget for a program. Southern Utah University student-athletes, however, are the ones who have to figure out a balance of travel, practice and academics during the season.
“For me, a lot of my stuff is due Sunday, and I really don’t want to spend all of Sunday doing homework,” said gymnast Aubri Schwartze. “So, I try to space it out during the week before we start traveling. I also try to look at the itinerary because they’ll give us some time to do homework, or we will have a five-hour layover so I’m saving an assignment for then, but kind of looking ahead and using some time management skills can really be helpful and make travel smoother.”
Like many institutions, SUU places academics as its number one priority for student-athletes. It takes a lot of communication with their professor, and although some work with SUU athletes, others typically avoid adjusting their course, no matter the student. This makes sense since, in the name student-athlete, “student” comes first, and the athletes realize that.
“Traveling is hard on us student-athletes. Many teachers are willing to work with us, but some are not,” stated women’s basketball player Samantha Johnston. “I have found that it is best for me to take online classes so that my attendance is not affected and I am able to complete all my work before travel.”
However, travel is not all about student-athletes and their academics. It is also a time to build team camaraderie and chemistry that helps the team in a match. Teams make a lot of great memories, whether they are good or bad experiences.
During a Flippin’ Birds gymnastics trip to Centennial, Texas, in 2004, then head coach Scotty Bauman observed that everything that could go wrong, did. The team landed in Dallas, which is usually a two-hour and 45-minute drive from their hotel, but it took them about six hours due to heavy rain and accidents along the way. It wasn’t until late that night that the team arrived at their hotel and was able to get settled in.
The meet was scheduled for 9 p.m. the next day, and when the team arrived at 5 p.m. for warmups, there was a club practice taking place in the arena that prevented them from warming up until 7 p.m. Unfortunately, they lost the meet and took the bus back to their hotel. However, when the team got back, the hotel had sold all of their reserved rooms and every hotel in the area was booked. So, with a flight at 7 a.m. and it already being midnight, Bauman decided to head to the airport, where the student-athletes slept for the night.
Johnston had a similar travel story when the team had a two-game road trip to Texas in 2023.
“We played at [the University of Texas] Rio Grande Valley and had a flight after the game to Arlington for our next game. Our flight got canceled, and the next flight wasn’t until midday the following day,” said Johnston. “With the uncertainty of the flight, we left that night and took a bus to Arlington. It was a nine-hour bus ride through the night. We then played the following day and played horribly. It is crazy how the travel affects us.”
The women’s basketball team was on a nine-game winning streak and the hottest team in the Western Athletic Conference by a wide margin, so the loss certainly upset the players and coaches.
Although travel is sometimes difficult, it also brings some of the best moments for the athletes. For example, the team took a charter flight to the University of Notre Dame for their first March Madness appearance and traveled to Australia in the summer of 2023 for a foreign tour.
The football team travels a lot less than the others. They will normally have five to seven road games compared to other teams that reach 10+ road games per year. Offensive lineman Lyle Santos talked about how different the flight back is after a loss compared to a win. But for him, traveling with his buddies and coaches really doesn’t have too much of a downside since his schedule is open.
“Travel is a lot of things — it’s fun, it’s exciting, it’s when you really get to bond and work well with your team,” said Bauman. “This is when you really make big friendships: when you are sharing rooms on the road and getting to know people in depth that you don’t normally stay with.”
Author: Chevy Blackburn
Photos courtesy of: SUU Athletics
Editor: Kale Nelson
sports@suunews.net
This article was originally published in the March 2024 edition of the University Journal.