Members of the football, baseball, softball and tennis teams begin by changing in the locker rooms at school, and then, instead of practicing at their own school, they board a bus and travel to their old high school across town - which has been vacant since 2006.

The trip to the old high school wouldn't be an issue if the facilities the athletes were going to were state of the art, but this is not the case.

While basketball and volleyball players don't have to make the journey to the old school because they have a new gymnasium, other athletes aren't getting the same luxury. Tennis players are playing on old, weathered courts in need of a new layer of paint, with cracks and other signs of decay peppering the area.

"It isn't an ideal situation, but this is and has been the reality of sports in Tombstone," said David Thursby, Tombstone High School athletic director and boys' basketball coach.

Football and baseball players share a field that barely seems good enough for one sport, let alone two. The field the teams share is lacking many modern improvements. The baseball field extends much farther in right field because it overlaps with the football field, and there isn't much room for fans to sit for either sport. The majority of seating isn't permanent and some seating is imported before each game. The field could also use new goalposts, lights and batting cages.

"We would like for all of the sports to have their facilities at the new school, but things are very tight right now," said TUSD Superintendent Karl Uterhardt. "To get a facility for what we really want would cost about $2 million, which we don't have."

While the cost may seem high, Uterhardt and district officials just want standard facilities for a high school of their size. The goal for sports facilities at the new school is tennis courts, separate fields for baseball and softball, and a football field with a track around it.

The new school currently has one practice football field that was finished two years ago, but there isn't enough money to make it into a useable game field. Uterhardt estimates just to get lights, bleachers and a scoreboard installed on the practice field would cost more than half a million dollars.

While the school district, like much of the nation, is suffering because of the economy, the main reason that the district is lacking funds is that officials have been unable to sell the old high school building.

"The old building, gymnasiums and fields all have to be sold before we can think about building new sports facilities," Uterhardt said. "I want to build projects all over the district, but most of the money from a sale of the old school would go to the new high school."

The entire property that the district is trying to sell covers three blocks and includes the high school building, gymnasium, administration building, science building, bus barn and football field.

The property has been on the market for three years, despite the typical market in Tombstone usually being just under a year.

"The amount of time the school has been up for sale is unusual, but not shocking," said Tombstone realtor Barbara Highfield. "We have talked to a lot of potential buyers over the last two years and we were even negotiating a contract for almost a year."

As it stands, until the school is sold and the athletics department finds the funds to upgrade its facilities, the journey for its athletes will continue to be one of the more challenging.