Stephen Slezak Campus Carrier asst. sports editor

Traveling to away games involves many unseen phone calls and check books to be able to safely transport the team. Berry’s athletic teams have traveled across the United States in the past. Teams have traveled out west to California and all the way up north to Minnesota. There are costs that have to be dealt with when traveling that include transportation, hotels and food. 

David Beasley, associate athletic director, and head coach of the baseball team has been responsible for coordinating everything involved in traveling to away games for many years now. 

“Every individual sports team does their own travel,” Beasley said. “Some games are all budget related. Some games we do not have to go the night before, and some games we will go the night before, some teams may not mind driving the day of. Head coaches handle all the travel.”

When on these road trips, athletes need to have meals provided for them throughout the trip and enough meals to be able to sustain their workload. Providing food for an entire team is another part of the budget that is needed on the road.

“I would like to get the kids on the same routine that they have here and eating three meals a day,” Beasley said. “We will try to provide breakfast for everybody. If we are playing at one o’clock, if the schedule dictates, then we may have a snack before [the games], then have something for between games, and will eat after the game.”

After covering the costs of the food, transportation is also needed for these teams to get to their away games. This can either come by bus or plane depending on each away team. Traveling by plane is increasingly rarer as the schools get smaller like Berry being a division three school. As Trinity University and Southwestern University become integrated into the Southern athletic Association (SAA), teams will now be required to fly even more.

“We will definitely be flying to Texas,” Beasley said. “Baseball will have one flight a year, we will fly to Texas and next year we will be going to Ohio to play, roughly a nine-and-a-half-hour drive. Flying is much more hectic on the preparation. Not only do I have to get you there, I have to get you transportation when you get there.”

Scheduling non-conference opponents can be challenging, especially when trying to create the best schedule possible for your team to play. The volleyball team went to Minnesota this year to play at The University of Northwestern and University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. The football team went to Virginia to play Randolph-Macon College.

“I like playing [teams] that I enjoy playing,” Beasley said. “Lagrange has a good program, I know David [Kelton] well, I like the way he competes. So, yes I want to play against them. Doug [Simmons] at Covenant, all the close guys that are nearby. If you want to travel, then you want to go somewhere where you respect what they’re doing.”

The past two years, baseball has gone to Kannapolis, North Carolina to play a round robin tournament style against teams around the country. The team travels back out this year to play again in the same venue. The venue is at Atrium Health Park, home of the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers, single-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. 

“[Kannapolis tries] to get the good quality teams, the teams that are successful,” Beasley said. “They want to put the best division three tournament on that they can. Kannapolis is trying to get the division three world series down the road. The city is trying to show that they can put on a good tournament.” 

While on the road, student-athletes do not get any freedom in due dates from their professors. Homework still must be done by certain due dates that do not get changed just for traveling. Senior baseball player, Jackson Halla, shares his experience on how he deals with these deadlines while being on the road.

“I try to get as much as I can done before the trip,” Halla said. “I finish anything I do not have done on the bus ride. I feel like I do get a lot of time whether at the hotel or on the bus to try and get all of my assignments done. It can be challenging but once I get into my routine, it does not affect me much.”

Traveling for the athletic teams involves detailed planning and expenses, including transportation, hotel, and all meals. Managing these logistics seem complicated, however are thoughtfully planned out by the athletic staffs.