Thursday, Jan. 6, 2005 | 9:23 a.m.
Every morning, around 1,700 students from across Las Vegas wake up for their bus ride to the Southern Nevada Vocational Technical Center, on Whitney Mesa in southeast Las Vegas.
The bus comes as early as 5 a.m. for some students, who attend Vo-Tech to study subjects such as information technology, car repair, air conditioning and cosmetology.
By the time school's over early in the afternoon, most Vo-Tech students are ready to go home. But for a group of the school's student athletes, the day's only halfway done.
With practices going until 4 p.m. and games lasting as late as 8 p.m., sports season makes school an all-day, nearly every day affair for the Roadrunners, who compete in the 4A Southeast Division in basketball, volleyball, swimming, bowling, soccer and cross country.
Vo-Tech is the only magnet school to offer sports, whereas Las Vegas Academy and Advanced Technologies Academy students who want to participate in sports have to travel to the school they're zoned for to play interscholastically.
"It's very hard; these guys are at the bus stop at 5:30 a.m.," Roadrunners boys basketball coach Jeremy Shelton said. "We've got kids coming from all over the valley, they haven't played together."
And some haven't played at all, having bypassed middle school sports to try to prepare to get into the selective magnet school. Shelton, in his fourth year as Vo-Tech's coach, slowly works his teams up through the freshman and junior varsity programs, and encourages participation in offseason leagues.
"They're very inexperienced," he said. "We've got to teach them like they were in sixth grade; it's very difficult."
With students coming from all corners of Las Vegas, Saturday practices are a luxury. And while the boys basketball team isn't in as bad shape as the girls -- cosmetology and culinary programs have extra after-school study -- there's still only one banner hanging in the gym at the 40-year-old school's campus, and that was for the boys soccer team winning its division in 2002.
"We know we're underdogs, but we're ready for the season to get here," Roadrunners senior Quinton Mason said.
Kevin Crockrum, a junior and Vo-Tech's leading scorer this year, said things got so bad last season he thought about transferring.
"I thought about moving," he said. "I was frustrated. We started off on a bad season, and then I got my head together."
Crockrum said it was his bond with his teammates that kept him from leaving.
"These two guys right here," he said, pointing to Mason and senior Lamarc Mingo. "It's their last year, and I wanted to play with them."
If SNVTC administrators have their way, the long-term prospects might be a little bit better than this year's. Athletic administrator Faron Springer said that the school has proposed to the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association to join the 3A South despite its larger enrollment, putting it in league with Virgin Valley, Moapa Valley, Boulder City, Faith Lutheran and Pahrump Valley. The proposal for the move will be evaluated in early 2005.
"If we stay at 4A, we'll work to be competitive," Shelton said. "If we go to 3A, the guys might have a chance to be more successful. Wherever they tell me there's a game, I'll show up."
Springer lauded his school's athletes' dedication, given the hours that they have to put in.
"The kids here are pretty special. It's not your typical high school student -- these are kids that want to be here," he said. "To get involved in athletics, it speaks volumes."
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