Around Iredell Sports

2008 Jun-30

Rising gas prices have Iredell sports programs scrambling

By BRAD NORMAN

Rising gas prices and increased mileage rates have several area high schools searching for ways to save on travel costs.

With the upcoming athletic season less than two months away, some programs are searching for nearby nonconference opponents — or dropping some nonconference games altogether.

“We pay a flat rate per mile fee when we travel,” Statesville athletic director Bobby Morrison said. “We were getting a rate increase on that as gas (was increasing), so we’ll have to pay more anyway.”

Five of the county’s six high schools — Lake Norman, Mooresville, North Iredell, Statesville and West Iredell — are members of the immense, 10-member North Piedmont 3A.

With 18 conference games in most sports, those programs only have to schedule a handful of nonconference games.

But when the North Carolina High School Athletic Association realigns for the 2009-10 year, Lake Norman and Mooresville will join a 4A league heavily populated with schools in the Charlotte area.

That will also cause the remaining 3A schools to play more nonconference games.

“The season after next, we’re probably going to have to do what we can to schedule as many games as possible at places near our school,” Morrison said. “We (may) even have to drawback on some games.”

If traveling costs continue to rise, South Iredell, the county’s lone 2A school, may have to consider additional measures, like reorganizing junior varsity games.

The Vikings currently play JV games at the opposite site of varsity, meaning they always travel on a game day.

“I think that’s something the schools will have to look at,” South Iredell AD Bobby Deal said. “We don’t have JV and varsity baseball games same-site in our conference right now. We’ll have to look at them playing same-site and travel on the same bus, or at least having the JV baseball team and softball team play on same day.”

A change in scheduling is the primary way schools are trying to crunch numbers and save money.

Scheduling and travel are two things the schools can partially control as opposed to other increased costs, like for game officials and security.

“What we have done, we have made some adjustments in the scheduling process,” West Iredell AD Mark Weycker said. “We are trying to be proactive. We have told each sport to try to stay to their traditional play date. If the state athletic association gives them a 10-week playing period, they could play 20 games. An 11-week season would be 22 games.

“With our large conference now, that will cut down some of the nonconference contests we play this year.”

Weycker also noted that playing less nonconference games would not affect the Warriors when it came to any sort of playoff seeding.

South Iredell faces higher travel costs than most other schools.

The Vikings typically play most county schools in non-conference games, but still have to travel — sometimes extensively — to fill out their schedule.

And conference games in the Southern Piedmont 1A-2A are still a haul. South will realign with schools from the Hickory area in 2009, but still faces one more year of the trek to Gaston County.

“We’re traveling to Bessemer City, Cherryville and Highland Tech,” Deal said. “When you talk about getting on (N.C. Highway) 150 to go to Lincolnton and then getting on the Highway 321 bypass to go all the way to Interstate 85, that’s a travel.”

Some lengthy trips this year, like an 80-mile roundtrip trek to South Caldwell for football and boys soccer, could not be avoided due to a two-year commitment.

But other trips will be dropped — the soccer team will not participate in this year’s Freedom Classic, a three-game tournament that was a staple in previous years.

“We’ve had to cut back,” Deal said. “In softball, we’ve had Starmount and Forbush scheduled. And for teams like my girls golf team, which is small enough, we usually try to play in-county. I’ve already told my coaches to try to cut back on where they’re going, to try be as close as possible in nonconference games.”

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