A bus shortage led to the cancellation Monday of the first Madras High School junior varsity soccer match of the year. But the match has been rescheduled.
“The district does apologize. The district is sorry,” Communications Coordinator Joey Prechtl said.
Miscommunication and mechanical issues led to the bus shortage, 509J School District said.
“Buses were being used by our Warm Springs K-8 Academy on the reservation to transport their student athletes, as well as Jefferson County Middle School to transport their student athletes. And then another bus was being used by our FFA program,” Prechtl said. “So we had no more buses available for the students.”
The district also says a couple of buses needed to be worked on and could not be used. One bus was available, but due to miscommunication, the bus that came was too small to accommodate the entire team.
The match has since been rescheduled for Friday at 4:00 p.m.
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One parent who wished to not be identified does not think rescheduling is enough to remedy the situation.
“I think the kids need an apology from the admin,” the parent said. They were pretty heartbroken.”
The parent also pointed out what she says are inequities between the soccer facilities and the venues for other sports.
“Our fields are lacking. The [football and track field] next to us are way nicer. We don’t have a dressing room. The kids have to dress on the field. It would be nice to be treated equal to other sports.”
509J did pass a bond in November of 2021 of $28 million. $1.2 million of that is being allocated to the soccer facilities.
Field lights, a new building including a restroom and changing facilities and concessions are all supposed to be constructed with the funds.
The district did apologize to the players that were affected, saying that it can and will be better and will make sure that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again to the athletes.
