BY MICHAEL OLIVER.
“We’re flying by the seat of our pants,” said St. Bonaventure University’s (SBU) Director of Internal Operations, Steve Campbell, while describing the transportation situation for SBU athletics.
Wednesday, Sept. 15 was the first day St. Bonaventure had a glimpse of how the pandemic hindered the motorcoach industry, according to Campbell. It was then that he and the women’s soccer head coach, Steve Brdarski, were blindsided by a phone call from Niagara Scenic Tours (NST).
“Women’s soccer had a bus pulled out from underneath them by Niagara Scenic,” Campbell said. “They had no availability… basically canceled the trip with three or two days’ notice.”
Brdarski recalls the initial call from NST before their first conference matchup of the season. He said, “It’s a company that we’ve been working with ever since day one, since I’ve been here… The manner in which we were told, it kinda took away all the relationship that we had worked so hard on to build with them.”
Coming to the rescue was SBU’s softball team, which — under Coach Mike Threehouse — decided to give up their Empire Coach Lines bus intended for an off-season event in Buffalo.
“They, right away, offered up their bus to be able to help out,” said Coach Brdarski. “They didn’t ask how they were going to get to Buffalo, which I thought was pretty incredible.”
Alex Thompson, a starting defender for the women’s soccer team, described her team’s reaction to the softball team’s generosity: “We’re so grateful to them… we ran over in the middle of their practice and interrupted it… just to say thank you.” The women’s soccer team was able to travel to the University of Richmond for their game on Sept. 19.
The softball team, without a bus, was forced to improvise, according to Emily Lewandowski, a member of the team. “We realized we were on our own to get to Buffalo for the games,” she said. “I started talking to Buffalo girls, seeing if they would be willing to house a player or two for the weekend, and we ended up sending about half the team to Buffalo on Friday night. The other half of the team carpooled to Buffalo Friday morning.”
According to Campbell, it was the very next weekend that Niagara Scenic Tours dropped both the men’s and women’s soccer matches, and he was devastated by the sudden change.
“Niagara Scenic … canceled all remaining trips for men’s and women’s soccer for this Fall, because they can only accommodate those they have exclusive contracts with,” he said. “Niagara Scenic, along with a lot of bus companies, have a tremendous bus driver shortage… They’ve got buses sitting on their lot that are not being utilized.”
Hadley Bos-Fisher, Vice President of Niagara Scenic Tours, said: “We are probably at… 50% of our driver pool that we were pre-[Covid]… Not for a lack of trying, we’ve been trying to hire for the past six to eight months.”
According to Bos-Fisher, it’s been difficult to keep drivers and hire new ones when some decide to leave. As a result, he confided, he’s been forced to make some tough decisions — and even tougher calls to clients.
Bos-Fisher said he knew there was a decrease in the amount of incoming drivers and he knew he wouldn’t be able to cater to all of his clients. “We stuck to working with schools that had exclusive contracts with us… So, what we’ll have is… for an example, would be Canisius College… we have a multi-year contract where we have exclusive transportation rights.” Canisius College, because of its deal with NST, is prioritized over other clients when drivers are in short supply.
St. Bonaventure does not have formal contracts with any motorcoach provider.
Another common partner with SBU Athletics is Empire Coach Lines (ECL), according to Campbell. Based in Olean, Empire has transported a number of Bonaventure programs including men’s and women’s soccer, according to the owner of ECL, Dave Carucci.
Carucci expressed similar concerns to Hadley Bos-Fisher: the driver shortage is affecting more companies than just Niagara Scenic Tours.
“We had 19 drivers before the pandemic; we have seven as of today,” said Carucci. “I’m working too many hours… We’re doing the best we can.”
Carucci said, “We are turning bus work down every day… My phone rang this morning, someone looking for a bus… don’t have one for tomorrow.”
He even described one incident where he had to cover Niagara Scenic Tours when they didn’t have a bus to fulfill one of their trips: “This is the first time, that I can remember — ever — that Niagara Scenic has contacted us trying to get a bus,” Carucci said. “They’re looking for buses, you know, on a regular basis. We’re trying to help them out as best we can… My daddy always had a saying: You get a lot more with sugar than you do with vinegar,” he said.
While these motorcoach companies stretch to keep their heads above water, Steve Campbell and others struggle to find buses for the SBU teams.
Joshua Pulla, the leading goal-scorer for the men’s soccer team, recalls the chaos leading up to the match scheduled for Oct. 2 at the University of Rhode Island (URI). “We actually had to end up flying to URI,” said Pulla. “It’s been a little bit of a scramble.”
Rarely do teams take flights to their games outside of town, and it may have been a tough decision for the athletics department, but some players seem to prefer these expensive alternatives to the ordinary motorcoach.
Tsianna Barnwell of the women’s soccer team said, “Our transportation time is less… we won’t have as heavy of legs. It’s kind of hard to sit on the bus for… hours on end without moving.”
Pulla echoed this idea as well, describing how long bus rides can stiffen the players’ legs, which makes it harder for players to get loose before game-time.
The teams only resort to flights when they cannot get a bus, according to Campbell.
He said: “Bedore out of Buffalo, Grand Tours out of Buffalo, Coach USA out of Erie… It’s pretty sad that I know all of these… Anderson Coach Lines out of Meadville, Campbell Coach Lines… out of Slippery Rock.” These were just a few of the many names he mentioned, an obvious side effect of the chaotic search for companies to cover the rest of St. Bonaventure’s men’s and women’s soccer matches for this season.
After a mad scramble, a travel schedule for both teams has been approved for the remainder of the season, Campbell said.
Adding another layer to the search are the potential issues surrounding basketball season.
According to Campbell, the men’s and women’s basketball teams are planning now for the upcoming season.
He said Niagara Scenic Tours is still being considered for later seasons: “They’ve been very good to us… this season and beyond; I think that if they come back and they’ve got a substantial number of drivers and then assurance that they can handle men’s, women’s basketball, or swimming… we probably would still continue.”
olivermt18@bonaventure.edu
