Over the years, MVXC coaches have heard have had fairly consistent interest from parents in using buses instead of car pools for some of our cross country races. There have always been some logistical and cost challenges involved with bus transportation; however, your coaches are listening to what you are saying. We are going to offer an option for the kids to bus to four of the seven required cross country races in 2019.
Please read the note below…at the end you will see detailed next steps. If we have enough people sign up for the bus option, then we will go ahead; otherwise we can ride pool for all the races as we have done in the past.
Meets Included/Not Included
We have reserved buses for the two weekday meets at Baylands in Sunnyvale
- Tuesday, September 24
- Tuesday, October 22
We have also arranged for buses for the two Saturday meets that the entire team is required to attend
- Saturday, September 7 in Lagoon Valley-Vacaville
- Saturday, September 21 in Stockton.
These are long drives on Saturdays, and the traffic to Sunnyvale can be horrendous and difficult for parents to deal with on a weekday, so we think that having buses will be a big help to the parents as well as being fun for the kids.
There are three meets that athletes are required to attend that will still REQUIRE ride carpools.
- There is a competition at Lynbrook on October 31; Lynbrook is pretty easy to drive to so we figure that the cost benefit is not as great. This is also a spectator-friendly course so parents can see the team run!
- For the two meets at Crystal Springs, on October 8 and November 5, the Monta Vista coaches are also the meet directors. Because a coach is required to be on the bus with the kids, and the meet directors have to be on site before athletes begin to arrive, we can’t support buses on those days. We would like the parents to get the kids to the competition (plus, Crystal Springs is the best course anywhere and our parents should see this course!And it would be nice to have parents at the League Championships to see the kids race at their best and cheer them on.)
Costs
- The cost per athlete for parents that would like to use the bus service will be $110 for transportation for these four races (two races in Sunnyvale, one in Vacaville, and one in Stockton) for all members of MVAB.
- For athletes who choose not to have MVAB memberships, the cost will be $200 (we prefer families to join MVAB). There will be no partial purchases (since all four of these meets are required for all athletes think it is reasonable to purchase complete bus packages). Please note that these bus packages are optional–parents can always choose to drive their own children to these races instead of purchasing a bus package.
If extra bus seats are available, parents can get a ride to come and watch their kids compete. We like having parents come to see how hard their kids work and race. We would ask for parents to contribute $5 or $10 or whatever you can to help with our costs, but if you just want a ride so you can watch your child and the team and we have space on the bus, that is OK–we want to have parents come and cheer.
If any family has a financial challenge that prevents that family from joining MVAB or contributing for bus costs, please come and talk to Coach Flatow or Coach Johnson. We will discretely arrange for a scholarship to cover these costs for your family.
Monta Vista Athletic Boosters
MVAB is a great organization that has contributed a lot to the cross country and track teams, including canopies to keep our kids cool, beautiful uniforms, a hydration station, financial assistance to travel to the State Championships, and more. In addition, with some of the money that is contributed to the team, we will purchase technical workout shirts–these shirts will be given to all kids that are MVAB members so some of the tax-deductible donation will come back to the families right away. If any family has any financial hardship, again, please come and talk to Coach Flatow or Coach Johnson. We will discretely arrange for a scholarship to cover these costs for your family. Any scholarship will still count towards the cross country membership count, and if the team achieves 100% membership including any scholarship members, the cross country team will get a bonus payment from MVAB. Please join MVAB and support our team, and if you have a financial issue please contact us and please don’t just ignore the messages about MVAB. We understand and want to help.
Other Travel Meets
There are two optional, overnight travel meets that MVXC will attend in 2019. Usually approximately 40-45 athletes, or about half the team, are invited to these meets. These two meets are the Clovis Invitational on October 11-12 and the Mt. SAC Invitational on October 25-26. The costs will be about $200 for the Clovis Invitational and $250 for the Mt. SAC Invitational (and we intend to give a cost break to the kids that run in both). These are very high level meets, well run and with excellent competition on great courses. In the past, kids have been uniformly excited about these races (and alumni talk about these races years later–these trips create amazing memories for our athletes at all different levels of competition). We hope that your child will be invited and that she or he will attend! Again, if there is any financial hardship, please contact Coach Flatow or Coach Johnson and we will make this work–we will not let any kid not come because of a financial reason, we promise, and we will be discrete about our help.
How This Is Going To Work
Interested? We hope you think that using buses for these four meets will be a benefit for the parents, be fun for the kids, and be better for all XC families. Here are the next steps for you:
1. First, please join the Monta Vista Athletic Boosters. We hope you planned on joining MVAB in any case! Your membership is tax deductible and you can also make a tax deductible donation directly to cross country if you would like. Please note that if you have two children on the XC team you will need two memberships. Also, please print out a record or a receipt; I am not sure that MVAB has completely switched over to the 2019-2020 year. Here is the link to join with a credit card on line now.
2. Second, for the bus package please write a check for $110 made out to Monta Vista ASB and have your child bring the check to Coach Flatow or Coach Johnson at practice, together with a copy of the ASB membership receipt. . Please write BUS-(athlete name) in the note section of the check. (We will be trying to add an on-line payment option but please don’t wait for that.) Please have your child bring the check and receipt to practice no later than Monday, August 26 because…
3. On Tuesday, August 27, one of three things will happen:
–If less than 30 athletes have signed up for the bus, we will cancel the buses, return all the checks, and go back to the ride pool system.
–if more than 30, but less than 50, athletes have signed up for the bus, then we will cancel one bus and keep one bus. The 50 kids that have signed up will ride the bus and we will assume that parents who did not sign up for the bus would prefer to drive their kids to the competitions.
–if more than 50 athletes have signed up for the bus, then we will keep both buses and all the kids that have paid for the bus will have bus rides to these four races, and parents will be driving the other children.
We hope that this explanation makes sense! We also hope that the many people who have been asking for a bus are representative of the parent group, and that there will be a good response to this plan. We do think that this is a pretty reasonable cost for the kids to get a safe ride to the competitions, share the pre- and post-race experience on a bus with their teammates, and relieve the parents of the burden of driving.
