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YSU men’s basketball team stuck on team bus for hours in New York City
By Brian Dzenis
YOUNGSTOWN
The Youngstown State men’s basketball team got stuck in one of New York City’s biggest snowstorms Thursday night.
The Penguins (2-2) are in the Big Apple for the three-game Johnny Bach Classic at Fordham University this weekend in the Bronx and were stuck on the George Washington Bridge. New York City was hit with 6 inches of snow in what was the biggest single-snowfall for November in the Big Apple in 136 years.
“We didn’t move. We saw three to four accidents on the opposite side of the road,” head coach Jerrod Calhoun said Friday. “We helped push a few cars out of the snow. We ended up staying on that bus for about 91/2 hours.”
The team arrived in New York on Wednesday and visited the National September 11 Memorial & Museum on Thursday afternoon. The plan after the visit was to have lunch before hitting the road for a 5:30 p.m. shootaround. The team knew snow was coming, so it left One World Observatory about 2:30 p.m. for the 15-mile journey to the Bronx.
Once the bus got onto Interstate 95 – which in New York is connected to the George Washington Bridge – traffic reached a standstill.
“It looked like the city wasn’t ready for the snow,” Calhoun said.
“There were probably 10 accidents at one time. I figured there wasn’t going to be any practice, so let’s just settle in.”
While a few assistant coaches got off the bus to help push a couple of stuck cars, the players remained on their chartered bus. The team had plenty of snacks, water and went through five movies. On social media, the team learned that others were not faring as well as they were, and the Penguins had no complaints.
“When you see little kids on school buses, I can’t imagine what it’s like for the parents,” Calhoun said. “We were warm on the bus. It wasn’t like we were outside.”
YSU arrived at the team hotel at 11:30 p.m. and had its team meal. The team only conducted a shootaround before Friday night’s 94-83 win against Columbia.
The only real consequence of Thursday’s traffic jam? The team had exhausted its entire movie library for the road trip.
“We brought seven or eight movies from the Red Box for this trip, and we probably watched them all,” Calhoun said. “I think we’re going to hit one on the way back.”