The Long Bus Ride Home
On Friday night I drove to Kamas, Utah to cover a high school football game between South Summit and Grand County High School from Moab. I wasn’t really covering the game on this one though. This assignment was about how the Moab football team was taking on one of the longest road trips in the state for a regular season game. These guys had to ride in a bus for 239 miles to get to the game, play, then jump back on the bus and ride for five hours back to Moab.
I produced a multimedia (audio slideshow) piece that can be found here.
I tried to look for story telling images on the sidelines during the game and was able to get into the locker room before the game, half time and after.
But the key part of the assignment was that I left my car in Kamas and rode the bus with the players back to Moab.
The mood was very subdued. They had just lost 20 to 0. It wasn’t long before everyone passed out. It was a very long trip. Imagine being packed in a bus with about 50 teenage young men that had just played a football game. It was hot and smelly. But it was fun.
It was interesting to watch the guys interact and watch the hierarchy system that was in place. Seniors and varsity players had the back of the bus. JV players and the younger players up front.
I was up front for most of the trip. At one point I tried to venture to the back, but found I couldn’t go anywhere. It was complete blackness and there were sleeping people everywhere,
The isle was stuffed with kids sleeping on the floor. I couldn’t step anywhere without actually stepping on someone. I tried to photograph this scene, but I couldn’t use a flash because it was distracting to the driver at night and when you’re traveling across the desert to Moab, there are no lights from a city.
I made due though and did most of my shooting when we were passing by some kind of light source like businesses or oncoming big rigs.
We finally arrived in Moab after 3AM. I did a quick preliminary edit before I went to sleep at the motel. Slept for about three hours, then was back on the road with reporter. She had to ride both ways on the bus and was now driving me back to Kamas to get my vehicle before either one of us could head home.
It was an interesting assignment, but I would not recommend riding in a school bus for five hours to anyone.