The Mystery Machine: BU’s Underutilized Athletic Bus

Photo provided by Rampage student photographer Elle Gunter.

Despite being a valuable resource for Bluefield University’s sports teams, the BU athletic bus has been underutilized, according to Athletics Director Corey Mullins.

“We must use the bus as much as possible,” Mullins said. “With the exceptions of football and golf, every other sports team uses the bus.”

Mullins explained that while several teams have used the bus, it still could see more frequent use across the Athletic Department. Both men’s and women’s basketball teams consistently take advantage of the bus, showing its potential to support student-athletes more broadly.

“While basketball is in season, we get to use the bus regularly to get to most of our away games while occasionally having to use the vans,” said Lauren Bragg, a junior member of the women’s basketball team. “While the bus is more spacious, it often takes us longer than anticipated to get to most places, and we must share with the men’s team.”

Since the women’s team typically plays first in double-header competition trips, Bragg added that waiting for the men’s team to finish their game “leads us to getting back closer to 1-2 a.m. for most trips that are around three hours away. She said having an additional bus and bus driver so the teams could travel separately would be beneficial.

“I think having a bus driver for each gender would help eliminate this issue of favoring certain teams over others,” Braff said.

But that, according to Mullins, would pose an even greater challenge. He said the current bus is already underutilized because getting an available bus driver is already a difficult task.

“We only have one driver, and he drives another bus, so we try to work around his schedule,” Mullins said. “We have budget constraints, as well. We have a list of things we want to get done for the university and priorities to hit, but we have been knocking them down.”

The limited number of drivers and overlapping schedules sometimes prevents the bus from being used as much as the teams would like. Budget considerations also play a role, but Mullins said the department is actively working to balance priorities and make the bus accessible when possible. Some athletes think the bus is not equally accessible to all sports teams.

“I do not think that all of the sports teams have equal access to the bus,” said Chesed Russell, a member of the women’s volleyball team. “I think that it wavers depending on if the bus is broken or not and if the driver feels like driving. This year was definitely the lowest (use) in my time here. I think we got it for three trips. The men’s volleyball team last year…didn’t get to use it once, not even for the conference tournament.”

Russell added that she prefers traveling on the bus versus other forms of transportation to away games. She said that because the bus is so large, it gives the players more room for their legs and bags. She agreed that the university needs to use the bus more, but acknowledged the challenge of finding bus drivers. Teammate Eledy Torres-Jimenez agreed.

“I believe the school should really take into consideration hiring another bus driver and that would make it more equal for teams to get the bus for away games,” Torres-Jimenez said. “This year we (women’s volleyball) didn’t get (the bus) as often as the past two years. We got it like three times compared to last year getting it almost every time. I prefer the bus because it’s more spacious compared to the vans. In the vans for trips three-hours plus, it gets uncomfortable compared to the bus where we get a row to ourselves.”

In addition to providing a safe and reliable way for teams to travel, Mullins added that the university would like to use the bus as a way to promote BU.

“We have discussed decals on the bus and branding it as Bluefield,” Mullins said. “Budget constraints have played a factor, but we will work toward the bus being part of Bluefield.”

Mullins’ vision is for the bus to not just serve as transportation but also to represent the university visually, adding personality and school spirit. Some teams have nicknamed the bus “The Mystery Machine,” giving it a unique identity that makes it more than just a standard vehicle. While the bus’s availability remains a question, the Athletic Department continues to work on improving scheduling, branding, and overall usage.