Finn Garrison is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Notre Dame Prep for AZPreps365.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the way we live in many ways, including some that may not be as noticeable until it’s time to get on the bus.

For the Notre Dame Prep football team, the lack of available bus drivers in Arizona has forced them to look outside of school and toward private charter buses in order to travel to games this season.

Compared to last year, the number of charter buses needed to transport players, coaches, cheerleaders, members of pom and adults to supervise, has increased.

“We had to get double the amount of charter buses that we would normally get,” said Lisa Johnston, finance director at Notre Dame Prep. “Usually, we would take two or three (school) buses, now we have to get four to six (charter) buses just to send people to these games.”

Notre Dame Prep uses American Explorer Motorcoach to travel to its away games. American Explorer Motorcoach charges about $500, according to Johnston, for trips within Maricopa County and upwards of $1,000 for trips that go outside of Maricopa County. Notre Dame Prep football scheduled five away games, including one against Mountain View in Tucson. With this being the case, Notre Dame Prep has spent at least $12,000 on transportation for its five regular-season away games.

If Notre Dame Prep used its own school buses and in-house drivers, the cost of trips within Maricopa County would be between $200 to $250, according to Johnston, half of what it costs to use charter buses.

Other student travel opportunities have been affected by the bus driver shortage, in addition to sports teams. 

American Explorer Motorcoach has a fleet of approximately 30 buses that seat 55 people apiece. Only 12 of those 30 are registered, insured and in use because they don’t have enough drivers. Di Moore, a travel coordinator for Project Exploration Inc., which operates American Explorer Motorcoach, said they have lost about half of their drivers since the pandemic started in March 2020.

“We lost a lot of our drivers that found other positions and have not returned to work,” Moore said “Consequently, we are short on drivers. All the charter bus companies and the school districts. We all lost drivers, so everybody is extremely short, and people are not coming back to work for whatever reason.”

Moore has had to turn businesses away because they don’t have enough drivers. To supply the demand for charter buses, Moore has had to reach out to a company in California to acquire more bus drivers.

“Because of the shortage in the Valley, I have a company that I have been working with, out of California that will have their drivers come in for a week at a time and help me out as far as helping to do my runs,” Moore said.

Despite the expensive bus trips and the bus driver shortage, Notre Dame Prep football players have used their time on the bus to build camaraderie and relieve any stress before the game.

Head coach George Prelock said, “That’s a time that they enjoy where they’re talking to one another, whether it be about the game or listening to music. It’s their time to kind of just decompress and not get so high strung.”

Notre Dame Prep played its final away game of the regular season on Oct. 29, defeating Gilbert 49-10.