By Neto Baptiste
Assistant Director of Sports and former national track athlete, Evans Jones, has confirmed that two buses have been made exclusively available to the Ministry of Sports.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show, Jones said the buses that are usually kept at the Antigua Recreation Grounds (ARG), are managed by Stanfield Joseph who is the lone driver available.
“There are two buses that are in [Antigua] Recreation Grounds overnight but those two buses only have one driver where [Stanfield “Shipwreck” Joseph] drives one to assist. The other bussing of the athletes comes from private buses and we utilise the school buses where applicable at times,” he said.
However, Jones said that although the two vehicles are available to the ministry, additional help is required given the large volume of teams in the competitions.
“So let’s say the second term where you have cricket, basketball, netball, volleyball, athletics and at times we have difficulties in taking a private bus off the frontline and we know the issue with the school buses where you have to take home those children from the primary schools from 3 pm. So time is very tight as it relates to those two entities of buses,” he said.
During a previous interview, the Coordinator of Schools Football, Rohan Benjamin, said that transportation is one of the competition’s major financial undertaking. According to Benjamin, schools would often have to arrange private busses for their participating teams.
Several other school sports are faced with the transportation issue given the often high cost of contracting private buses.