Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 12, 1993 TAG: 9303120096
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: COLUMBIA, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
YOU `PRAY IT DOESN'T HAPPEN'
Accidents like those this week involving Winthrop University's tennis team and Delaware State's baseball team are a school's worst nightmare, athletics officials said Thursday."You make sure you have safe vehicles, drivers who are certified, and pray it doesn't happen," said Walt Nadzak, athletic director at The Citadel. "I worry about it all the time."
School officials say they don't have the money to charter a bus or airplane to transport teams to every game. Teams with fewer players - most likely in sports that don't generate a lot of public support and money - often ride to games in rented vans or school vehicles.
"You can't just make a schedule and say, `This is what we're going to do,' " said Jack Williams, athletic director at Newberry College. "You have to look at the budget, how much this is going to cost."
One Winthrop tennis player was killed and several team members were injured when the team van ran off Interstate 59 in Mississippi, flipped twice and crashed into road-building equipment early Wednesday.
Police in Hattiesburg, Miss., said the van driver, a Winthrop graduate assistant coach, may have fallen asleep at the wheel.
The team competed at Tulane on Tuesday and then began a 350-mile drive from New Orleans to Birmingham, Ala., where it was scheduled to play Wednesday afternoon.
Winthrop has canceled the rest of its men's tennis season.
Later Wednesday, two members of the Delaware State baseball team were slightly injured in a van accident near Jacksonville, Fla., as they headed from Florida to a game at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg.
The driver tried to avoid another vehicle on the highway, then crossed two lanes of traffic and struck a guardrail, authorities said.
"Those long trips in vans have always been a disaster waiting to happen," said Tom Meinhardt, men's tennis coach at Towson State near Baltimore. "I just don't feel safe with driving all night."
Towson State, like Winthrop a member of the Big South Conference, has adopted policies to try and ease travel hardships on athletes.
"I don't really know a whole lot of ways to solve it," said Howard Bagwell, athletic director at Charleston Southern. "It's extremely expensive to charter a bus with a professional bus driver.
"When this sort of thing happens, it makes you aware all over again. You think you've got to do something about it, but in reality, what can you do?"
Williams and Nadzak said each school is responsible for ensuring schedules are reasonable and that proper arrangements are made to transport athletes. Neither the NAIA or the NCAA are equipped to impose schedule or travel restrictions, they said.
"The NCAA can't possibly police and legislate that," Nadzak said. "I think we're already over-regulated."
Until NCAA members ask to discuss the safety issue, the association will not make rules or guidelines, spokesman Jim Marchiony said.
The Citadel requires van drivers to take a safety course, pass a test and be at least 18 years old, Nadzak said. Several other South Carolina schools also said they had requirements about who drives.
Presbyterian College and Charleston Southern say they plan to use more expensive buses on longer trips.
"It's amazing to me with teams traveling all over that more of this doesn't happen," Nadzak said. "Think of how lucky we've been with thousands of athletes going to events like that."
Keywords:
FATALITY