The hop in their step was gone and rightfully so. After all, they were embarking on an 11-day odyssey, featuring four games in four cities and three states, covering more than 2,000 miles and replete with only three days at home.
“I don’t remember us ever having a road stretch like this since I’ve been here,” Crusaders senior Michael Ivey said before lugging his travel bag to the bus. “It should be interesting.”
The journey began Wednesday with the ride to Pineville, La., where the teams practiced that evening before defeating Louisiana College on Thursday. It continued with Friday’s jaunt from Pineville to Clinton, Miss., for more practices and today’s games against Mississippi College.
The bus will carry the teams back to Belton, where it will arrive early Sunday morning. Players will be in class for the first two days of the spring semester Monday and Tuesday before departing early Wednesday for the trip west to Alpine.
Practices that night in Alpine will be followed by games Thursday against Sul Ross State. Up next will be a Friday bus ride to Brownwood for more workouts, then games Saturday against Howard Payne.
The last of the 2,000-plus miles will be traveled Saturday night on the return trip to Belton.
In all, the players will have missed three of the first five days of the semester and could have traveled to somewhere just south of Alberta, Canada, for the same number of miles.
So how do team members do their school work?
“It is the student’s responsibility to arrange any work while they’re gone,” UMHB interim provost and vice president of academic affairs Steve Oldham said. “Whether the work is turned in prior to leaving or after they return is up to the professor.
“Our standards are not lowered for athletes. The main reason they are here is for academics.”
It can be a delicate balancing act between athletics and academics, but it’s a routine most of the players have become accustomed to.
“The most important thing is to have a really good relationship with your professors and communicate with them,” Lady Crusaders junior Kellie Thomas said. “Sometimes I think the road trips actually help me because I’m sitting on the bus for long hours with nothing else to do but study.”
The men’s and women’s coaching staffs handle the academic aspects slightly differently, but both tactics have proved successful.
“Even on road trips, we’ll usually have study hall on our off days,” UMHB women’s coach Kim Kirkpatrick-Thornton said. “We make sure there are a couple of hours where they can get their work done.”
The men’s team doesn’t hold an organized study hall once the season begins but hasn’t found the need to.
“It helps that we’ve been able to recruit guys who are good student-athletes,” men’s assistant coach Kenny DeWeese said. “We let them know how much down time they’re going to have during a road trip, so they know they’ll have time to study.
“Some guys are good at it, and some guys you have to stay on them to make sure they do.”
And other than the hours spent riding down the highway, there actually isn’t an overabundance of free time on road trips.
After the hours spent feeding a large group three times per day, practicing, playing games and watching film, there aren’t many hours left over.
“We have film sessions on the road just like we do at home,” DeWeese said. “Although there aren’t actually films or even DVDs anymore.
“This is our DVD now,” he said while holding up a flash drive. “I can fit six games on one of these. We’ll plug it into a laptop, then plug the laptop into a television at the hotel and that’s how we do our scouting reports.”
Modern technology certainly makes some things simpler, but lengthy trips can still be a hassle - or at least somewhat boring and draining.
“If we’re not practicing, then most of us usually listen to music or sleep or study,” Ivey said. “It starts to wear on you a little bit. But usually by the second day after we get back, I’m feeling pretty good again and back to normal.”
Or as normal as can be for a college student who squeezes in a three-state, 2,000-mile, 11-day journey to start the new semester.
edrennan@temple-telegram.com
