BROWNSTOWN — Over the past 45 years, Alan Ballard has been behind the wheel of Brownstown Central Community School Corp. buses.
Whether it was taking kids in all grades to and from school or transporting sports teams to road games, he became a fixture known for greeting everyone who came aboard and providing a safe, smooth ride for the precious cargo.
In mid-April, though, he made the tough decision to retire.
While students, parents and coaches alike were sad to hear the news, they expressed appreciation for what he has done for them and showing them he cares.
“I’ll miss saying ‘Hi’ to them in the morning and that kind of stuff, just the rapport that you have with some of them that way,” the 66-year-old said. “It’s just time to do a little something different.”
Ballard grew up on a farm outside of Brownstown and graduated from Brownstown Central High School in 1974. He then worked on the family farm for a few years, raising corn, soybeans, cattle and pigs.
Then in 1977, he added bus driving.
“Dad drove a school bus,” he said. “The timing then and until just the last few years, it worked out well with farming. The farming was smaller. You could drive in the morning and help a few hours. … It just was a good fit. It just worked out pretty well.”
For 39 years, he drove bus No. 6. He had a few different buses but the same number. He finished his career with Route 9.
“I was blessed with good kids for the most part,” he said.
About five years out of high school, Ballard began playing in a Friday night coed volleyball league in Brownstown. Since then, he has been involved with the sport as a coach at the school and club levels and played in leagues and during open gyms in the area.
“I wasn’t athletic, but I got out of school, I ended up losing some weight and I have five sisters. Four of them played volleyball,” he said. “I just had taken a liking to volleyball actually before they played. … We actually had volleyball in phys ed for like six weeks (when he was in school). It was different then. I wasn’t athletic, but I did pretty good at that in phys ed, so I took a liking to that and played a little bit. I could talk about volleyball stuff. That was my outlet.”
Two of his sisters, two of their friends and two other men were on the league team with Ballard.
“All of them had played more ball, and it just ended up that I got on serves,” he said. “From then on, I just played. … I’ve played a lot of ball, and I’ve just made a lot of friends through volleyball that I just really treasure those.”
In the early 1990s, the equipment on the family farm was getting older, making it tougher to get stuff done, and Ballard talked to his dad about renting the farm ground. At the time, he also had a brother-in-law who was a house builder.
“I could work for him in between bus routes, so Dad was receptive to that, and we rented the ground out to a guy I got to know running around. He still farms it,” Ballard said.
Shortly after that, he added working at the school corporation’s bus garage to his list.
“I casually mentioned if they might be interested in somebody else helping down there, and so I started down there doing minor maintenance,” he said.
Then when Jennifer Shade became volleyball head coach at BCHS, Ballard combined his loves of that sport with bus driving and transported the Braves to road matches.
“They went to the state finals her first year in ‘98, and I missed one match taking them to everything they went to after that,” he said.
Brownstown made several more trips to the Class 2A state finals, and Ballard was the teams’ bus driver.
Then in 2019, playing at the Class 3A level, the Braves became the school’s first team to win a state title. This time around, Ballard also was a volunteer assistant coach.
“Oh, I loved it. I loved that,” said Ballard, who just like the players and other coaches received a medal and a ring. “I still think about that. It was just a neat deal.”
That season, the players and coaches wore shirts that said “Volleyball is my favorite season,” and to this day, Ballard still likes wearing that shirt.
“I try not to wear it during basketball season or on the football bus,” he said, smiling. “I told Jennifer a number of times I never wanted volleyball to end.”
In the early 2000s, Ballard began taking the football team to road games, so that made for a busy fall sports season. That required two buses to transport all of the players, coaches, managers and equipment, and Gary Wischmeier was the other driver.
Ballard also spent many winters driving the bus for the girls basketball team, and at different points in the spring, he drove the bus for the softball, girls track and field and girls tennis teams. That included when his nieces were on the softball and tennis teams.
Ballard took a few years off from driving the softball team to games after his nieces graduated, and when he came back one year, one of the players, Leah Stidam, said from the back of the Brave Bus “It’s good to have you back, Alan.”
“Darren (Bryant, assistant coach) said, ‘She means it. They love you. They like it because you greet them and you cheer for them when they’re there, and you talk to them and all of that,’” Ballard said. “I always felt good about that. It showed that I cared, so I appreciated that.”
Ballard received more praise recently when he told girls basketball coach Brandon Allman that he was retiring from bus driving but he was still going to be a fan.
“He said, ‘Alan, I’ll always have a ticket for you,’” Ballard said. “I appreciate that out of him, too, and the others, just the rapport that we have. I’ll always be a fan, and if you need me to try to help you out, I’ll do all that I could for them.”
Some of the kids he has taken to and from school in the bus said they will miss him, too.
“I tried to be fair with all of them,” he said. “It was all good most of the time anyway. I had good kids, and even if they got aggravated at me for a little while, they would get over it.”
In retirement, besides continuing to work on his own farm and at Triple Valley Farms in Brownstown, Ballard plans to keep playing volleyball at open gyms, going to Brownstown sporting events and spending time with his family and his Australian shepherd, Blue.
Ballard file
Name: Alan Ballard
Age: 66
Hometown: Brownstown
Residence: Brownstown
Education: Brownstown Central High School (1974)
Occupation: Recently retired after 45 years as a bus driver for Brownstown Central Community School Corp.; works at Triple Valley Farms in Brownstown and on his family farm
Family: Five sisters, five nieces, five nephews, 13 great-nieces and -nephews