Scooter Chapman

It's back to the old grind, folks, as the holidays are over and it's time to start counting fat grams again so I don't look like Santa Claus by the end of the month.

It's back to checking out the fat content of the food I consume after throwing caution to the wind over the Christmas break - those turkey sandwiches, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes and gravy ... yum.

I learned one thing over the past two weeks: I'm way too old to ride the school bus to basketball games.

Many moons ago, in order to save some money, I was a regular on the school bus that carried the Port Angeles High sports teams to football and basketball venues.

I would board the "big yellow car" with the coaches and players, settle down into one of the front seats, grab my pillow and blanket to keep warm and get in a few snoozes on the way to and from games.

I also would pack along my trusty portable typewriter (remember those things?) in addition to radio gear. After the game, driver Paul would set up a portable table and I would type the game story on the way home for the afternoon edition of the newspaper I worked for.

Over the holiday, I took a ride with the Port Angeles Roughrider girls team to Fall City as the team met Mount Si's Wildcats at a middle school.

We left Port Angeles at about 10 a.m. Driver Mark Kitley was at the wheel. There is a definite pecking order on the bus. Varsity girls get prime back seats and get a seat for each varsity player. Junior varsity has to double up in most cases.

Girls bring aboard snacks, pillows, blankets, audio devices, books, schoolwork and big bags full of who knows what.

Coach Mike Knowles had the front right seat and he put me behind the driver. The big new thing in buses, for me at least, is the seats now have very high backs - so high one cannot see out in front. That's the trade off instead of seat belts.

First stop was at the Hood Canal bridge. It was opened for some reason and that put the team 20 minutes behind schedule. Next was a stop at a Safeway in Gig Harbor for food and the pit stop. Little did anyone know that the store only had one toilet in each restroom. Yes, the girls were in line for a while.

Then it was off to Tacoma and the dreaded backup at I-5 and, yes, it was a backup. Short story? Arrived at Fall City a half hour after the junior varsity game was

supposed to start.

Long bus ride? Yes - and it probably contributed to losses in both JV and varsity games. Then it was back on the big bus to head back to Port Angeles. Arrival time was about 10 p.m-ish ... so it was almost 12 hours and that was the sixth Rider away game in a row.

Two days later, the boys asked me if I wanted to ride with them to Puyallup to get more information for my Gazette column. I passed.



Columns by KONP 1450 AM sports announcer Scooter Chapman appear weekly in the Sequim Gazette. He can be reached via e-mail at scooter@olypen.com.