The parents who dare to keep up with their student-athlete kids’ travels require stamina and resourcefulness that border on the heroic.
Crissy and Madison McEntire first commence traveling to observe their Logos , Will , playbaseballwhen he was in simple school . They did n’t know at the fourth dimension , of course , that he would go on to be one of the top high-pitched school mound inArkansas , eventually securing a dapple at the University of Arkansas and pitching in the College World Series . They just knew that his move around youth baseball game team , the Bryant All - genius — identify for their little hometown 20 minutes southwestern ofLittle Rock , Arkansas — kept show up and gain ground expanse tournament .
Winning in key Arkansas meant invitations to regional and internal tournaments . One year it was Louisiana . Another it was the mete town of Eagle Pass , Texas . Those games were so near the Rio Grande that you could smell a home run into the river . The parent repeatedly warn their 10 class old not to wander across the delimitation .
The Bryant All - Stars kept winning that year , and the syndicate wound up at the World Series for their division in Winchester , Virginia , almost a thousand statute mile from abode , to determine their kid sales talk . It ’s no wonder they , like so many other American sept , have come to treat their college jock ’s season agenda as a family travel itinerary .
Fayetteville, Arkansas|DenisTangneyJr/iStock/Getty Images Plus
The NCAA countsmore than half a million studentscompeting each year across dozens of human beings ’s and woman ’s sports . The parent who dare to keep up with those kids ’ travels require stamina and resource that could be considered acrobatic in its own right .
For scholar like Will McEntire who played during seasons affected by the pandemic , the route has been in particular long . Spring athletics in 2020 - 2021 were canceled mid - season , which the NCAA adjudicate was grounds to give those athletes another season of eligibility , if they wanted . If you expect around the stands this year and find the parent of seniors and so - call top-notch seniors , you ’ll make out , they ’ve seen some thing .
How do they do it ? With a big calendar at the startle of the year , for one . They connive out personal and sick Clarence Day , negotiate with bosses and coworkers , and enter remotely from hotel lobbies ( the one lasting blessing from the pandemic ) . They hold their lodging months in onward motion , before cost billow , and they signalize up for the quotation card at the hotel chain tightlipped to their kid ’s home stadium , for the points . Some even relocate in - season , moving close to their kid ’ school for month at a stretchiness while renting out their own rest home .
Will McEntire (center) is flanked by his father Madison and mother Crissy at the College World Series in Omaha in 2022.|Courtesy of the McEntires
Also , they drive . During their son ’s college years , Madison and Crissy have mostly seen the 200 - mile , three - time of day drive from Bryant to Fayetteville . Madison , an engineer and an inexpert actuary , read he ’s racked up 53 of those trips alone . And looking back at his bundle of ticket check stub , he figures that between 2020 and 2024 they put an extra 41,000 miles on their 2013 Chevy Tahoe go to Will ’s games : By the close of his college calling this year , that total will guess two full trips around the Earth ’s equator . And that does n’t depend the trips they drive separately when things like a wedding or a surgery kept them from traveling together . ( Madison broadcast these calculations via a foresightful text that he concluded with a single mind - blown emoji . )
They ’ve driven all over the Southeast , mostly with Madison behind the wheel nod to the countdowns on Sirius XM ’s ‘ 80s on 8 duct while Crissy taste to catch a nap and not get seasick . In Auburn , Alabama , Madison posed next to the campus ’s Bo Jackson statue , and on Kentucky Derby weekend in Lexington , Crissy and other Arkansas moms rolled up with Razorbacks - themed Derby hats .
Their hitch are modest , if they get to kibosh at all . Getting to Columbia , South Carolina call for a 24 - hour round misstep on the road to watch three games in two days . They ’re not too keen on see Texas A&M ’s Blue Bell Park — the student there pound the metal bleachers with ring , one helluva racket — but they do make a point to blockade at Buc - ee ’s when in Texas . Wherever they go , they do their best to take Will out for a meal and to take along other player who could use some adoptive parents for the weekend .
Crissy McEntire poses at the original Sonic Drive-In location in Stillwater, Oklahoma.|Courtesy of the McEntires
The one time they opted for a plane tag was 2022 , when Arkansas go to North Carolina to act for a berth in the College World Series . Madison and Crissy flew to those games , and met up with a couple of old college class fellow who used the games as an excuse to take flight in from Seattle for a mini - reunion .
A few days after they regress from that trip , they were out driving when the visible light in the Tahoe ’s dash flare up . They draw into a flatulence station to cool down down and found it would n’t start again . turn out they had at long last run their transmission into the ground . Its last resting place was two myopic mi from their house .
Youth sports did n’t always make demands like these . The difference today is that even when a high school ’s team is n’t in time of year , other amateur teams are competing — insist , much , that teenagers with college - sports ambitions play yr – unit of ammunition to stay penetrating and to get as much exposure as possible .
The College World Series is held each June in Omaha, Nebraska.|Jay Biggerstaff/Getty Images
“ Some people who have n’t participated in fun or been a early days play parent , they might say , ‘ wow , these masses are demented , ’ ” say Chris Martinovic , whose Logos , Niko , is a rising high - school elder at Bentonville High School in northwest Arkansas , and a top college expectation as a punter .
Chris played juvenility soccer as a kid , and remembers traveling around the Northeast for tournaments , blowing out the candles on his 10th natal day cake at a hotel . He and his wife , Marcy , met in college , at Seton Hall , in New Jersey , and traveled often to watch basketball game and soccer — their honeymoon in Japan , no less , included a World Cup match . As an grownup he has coached elite youth soccer , beat back to Colorado for his older Word Kristian to wreak in the national championship .
“ Some people who have n’t participated in summercater or been a youth sport parent , they might say , ‘ wow , these people are crazy . ’ ”
— Chris Martinovic
Even with his experience , Chris is hit at how much commitment it film to keep up with his own kids .
“ We expend a lot of clip in front of the calendar , ” he say . “ Frequently we get together to talk about the schedule . Sometimes it ’s for the week , sometimes it ’s for the calendar month , sometimes it ’s for six months . Are we all going to go as a kinsperson ? Or are we separate - and - conquer ? There are overlap initiatives . ”
And even the most maniac planning eventually confront some kind of surprisal . They were in Gatlinburg , Tennessee for a four - day camp this summer when they found their flight family had been scrub . As his parent fretted , the eminent schooler suggested : Let ’s hire a car . And so at 2 pm on a Sunday they pile into a rental and started the 12 - hr cause back to northwest Arkansas .
“ In the middle of the state , it ’s hard , ” Chris said . “ From here it ’s five 60 minutes to Dallas , three - and - a - half to Kansas City , three - and - modification to Oklahoma City . You get beyond that , push back make a short harder . ” He does some back - of - the - envelope math . A mountain of factor will go into his son ’s choice of college — the luck to playact , the vibe with the coach and players , the caliber of the clientele program Niko intends to pursue . The right fit could be a half - minute down the highway in Fayetteville , or it could be a thousand miles off . “ If he stop up attain his dream of act Division I football , ” Chris concludes , “ our goal is to be at as many [ game ] as we can . ”
There ’s a toll to being in the stall , beyond the monetary value of a ticket . As the McEntires can tell you , the most flighty person in any baseball stadium is the hurler ’s female parent . When she ascertain her son pitch in 2022 , the first year where he really got a nip to play , and on a team that finished the twelvemonth No . 3 in the country , Crissy ’s nerves got so fray her arms would go numb , from her berm to her fingertips .
Last season , Will got the black eminence of coming into a 0 - 0 biz in the bottom of the 11th frame at Texas A&M , with the bases load , and walk the one batter he confront . Run score , game over . The Aggies lover went berserk , thump those damn metal bleachers . Crissy wept . She and Madison said nothing as Will walk with his head down to the squad motorcoach .
“ All we did was sent him a textual matter that enounce ‘ are you going to be okay ? ’ ” Madison said . “ And we draw a reply about 10 hours afterwards that said , ‘ I ’ll be okay . ’ ”
“ It ’s just rough , ” Crissy said . “ Stuff like that does shift the conduct of the trip , especially if that ’s the first game on the road . ”
“ I always say , ” her hubby added , “ if you gain ground that first game , you ’re kind of play with home money . ”
" I call back talking and whisper in his ear . I told him how lofty I was of him . "
— Madison McEntire
A better memory was at North Carolina in 2022 , with that trip-up to the College World Series on the line of products . Arkansas win the first in the best - of - three series , and Will started Game 2 . He struck out four batters and did n’t allow a run in more than five frame on the mound , as Arkansas won 4 - 3 . For a kid who had been dun with a lack of playing time , it was an indelible memory . He cried as he hugged his parents .
“ I retrieve talking and whispering in his ear . I told him how proud I was of him , ” Madison say . “ I allege , ‘ You ’re going to the World Series . ’ ”
Omaha , where the College World Series is held , is not a myopic road trip from central Arkansas River : more than 600 miles each direction , and a fair distance from the cheaper motels in the outskirts of townsfolk to the stadium . Arkansas made it to the semi that year , and again it was Will on the cumulus deliver light source - out to get them past Auburn into that unit of ammunition , come upon out nine batsman in seven innings . After the game , between interviews , Will hopped a fence and crowded together with his parent , his sister , and her married man .
“ I think if we ’re all together , everybody ’s here , and this is a very special import , ” Crissy said . “ He hate taking family Christmas photos . I say , ‘ rent ’s take our sept Christmas picture . Get it over and done . ’ ”
The appointment was June 21 — the first day of summertime . Sports parent continue undefeated on long - range preparation .
