Athletes’ transportation to games and practices had a sudden shortage this year.

Mid-Pacific believes that the bus shortages are COVID-19 related.

“There are plenty of buses out there, bus companies have the buses, they just don’t have enough certified drivers to fill all the routes they need to,” athletic director Scott Wagner said.

Certain laws mandate how schools can transport kids. To change transportation requires a lot of paperwork and exemptions from the state and the insurance company, but Mid-Pacific has found enough transportation to get students to their games and practices. Even though the buses come late, Mid-Pacific uses the Roberts’ Hawaii School Bus company and they are good at setting a certain time to pick up athletes.

Some athletes don’t ride the bus because they drive their own cars.

“I carpooled with my friend to this game but my teammates did not come until we were three-fourths of the way done with our warm-up from the bus,” senior varsity soccer player Matt Murashige said.

The winter season was the start of the bus shortages, targeting sports like soccer first. . The boys had a game at 4:15 p.m. at Kapiolani park and the buses did not come to pick them up until around 4:00 p.m.

“Roberts has been really good at identifying hey we can’t be there any earlier than say 3:45 and they are pretty good at coming by 3:45,” Wagner said.

With Mid-Pacific’s intel on the bus schedule, they can update the coaches and tell them when their athletes are roughly going to arrive.

“I tried out for the golf team and the buses would come 45-50 min late to tryouts,” senior Noah Gosiaco said.

Reliable transportation became a problem due to the off-campus nature of spring games and seasons, which can affect an athlete’s future.

“Spring season games start a little bit early for a couple of sports. We have more sports such as travel off-campus golf, sailing, track and field,” Wagner said.

Since the spring season started, the buses take a little more time to come, but Mid-Pacific has thought of other ways to transport their athletes. Carpools and parent pick-up have been in play to take student-athletes to games and practices.

“One time I carpooled with my friend to practice because the buses were running late,” Murashige said.

As COVID-19 numbers go down, bus drivers are coming back and starting to come earlier and more frequently.

“I hope the bus shortages end by the next school year so the next seniors don’t have to have been there last year like this,” Gosiaco said.

“I hope the bus shortages end by the next school year so the next seniors don’t have to have been there last year like this,” said Gosiaco said.