Rome cancels opener against Creekside after bus crash

Rome’s football team pulled out of this week’s opening game with Creekside because of Thursday night’s bus crash that sent 15 players to the emergency room, Rome coach John Reid announced Monday morning.

“We had a bus roll over four times with all our quarterbacks and the first- and second-team offense on it, and right now we’re still assessing the degree of injury and concussion protocols,” Reid said. “Many of these kids have suffered what you’d suffer when you think about rolling a bus three, four times going 60 mph. So with that said, it’s pretty much a no-brainer to cancel the game.”

Rome, ranked No. 7 in Class 5A, was to play Creekside at home Friday night as part of the 11-game Corky Kell + Dave Hunter Classic that runs Wednesday through Sunday.

The bus crash occurred late Thursday evening following a scrimmage game at Rockmart. The bus was traveling north in Polk County when it was struck by a car that crossed the yellow line. The driver, Jeyonna Jariah Underwood, 21, of Rome, was charged with DUI.

“We want to go into the opener without any excuses,” Reid said. “If these injuries were due to a scrimmage, we would play. But we got hurt because a drunk driver hit our bus. Not many players have had to deal with that trauma or being in the emergency room until 6 in the morning.”

Reid said he was riding in the third of Rome’s three buses that night, following the one that crashed. He didn’t see the accident occur but came up on it quickly.

“We were probably 500 yards back,” Reid said. “As we were coming up on it, all of a sudden there’s a car spinning out of control, and off to the side, you could see the white top of our bus, which was pointed the wrong way on the opposite side of the road. It had cut into a pole.

“My first reaction is that’s our kids,” he said. “My inside was feeling absolute fear that we might be coming up on a scene with casualties. Coaches got the driver out and we were picking up kids and seeing who was injured. We didn’t know if somebody was under the bus or had fallen into the ravine. It was a miracle [that injuries were not worse].”

No one was seriously injured, but Reid guessed that 10 players got CT scans for possible head trauma.

Rome’s next scheduled game is Aug. 30 against Carrollton.