Cross Country Runners Left Without Options

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Steve Dominguez in News

Steven Montoya

Chronicle Reporter

The lack of transportation has led the cross-country runners to abruptly miss their invitational meet on Oct. 25. The team was supposed to attend the invitational at San Antonio College in Walnut, a city in the San Gabriel Valley, about 20 miles from Downtown Los Angeles. When the team asked the school administration for transportation to Mt. SAC, they were unexpectedly denied due to a lack of funding.

According to Coach Carcano, the team had other drivers at the ready, but some drivers had unexpectedly dropped, leaving limited space. The team was then forced to resort to transportation from parents and relatives. However, some of the parents could not offer round-trips; others could have round-trips, but would have to take multiple round-trips to take the whole team of 16 participating runners back home from Mt. SAC. The car trips finally had to be cancelled after the school refused to allow any sort of transportation by parents. “The coach has to be with all the runners, so he would have to be on all 3 cars at the same time, which is impossible,” cross-country runner Alex Meza said.

Athletic director Raul Grijalva said the district only has funds available for buses for district-sanctioned events. The Mt. SAC invitational was one of those private events that was not sanctioned by the school district, which was the reason for the bus decision. As for the car trip decisions, Grijalva said that if the team had asked permission earlier, the assistant principals would have approved. “It’s all about liability issues,” he said.

The runners feel that the cross-country team is not being paid the attention they deserve. “I think it is ridiculous that the school could not give us a bus, since it is the only time the cross country team asks anything of the school and I think that we should have been granted the bus,” Alex said.

Runner Josie Medrano, SAS senior, agreed. “It really sucks that there wasn’t enough money in the budget to get us a bus. Mt. SAC is a very prestigious race and the whole Cross Country team wanted to be there and race. Especially for the seniors, this is our last year and we didn’t get the chance to go there,” she said.

Despite these latest hardships, the team has decided not to let these matters get in the way of their upcoming goals. “We plan to win our next race and hopefully win league finals and go to Mt. SAC next year,” Alex said confidently.