BPS athletes dropped out of the game due to lateness and lack of show buses

“It was devastating,” said John Parziale, East Boston’s head football coach, noting that players play only 11 games a season. “They work hard all week with the idea that they will play the game and win. … When I went home that day, I was like a lost soul.”

Across Boston, late and no-show buses are repeatedly upending the lives of student-athletes who already struggle to overcome barriers to participation in sports at substandard high schools that often lack adequate gyms and playgrounds.

Games are postponed or start late. Players and coaches often try to come up with impromptu travel plans, calling car-sharing services, lugging their equipment onto public transportation or hoarding their coaches’ cars. Repeated failures seem like an endless series of instant replays to many coaches, athletes and parents.

Athletes use the same buses that students take to and from school, but they too have been late for years and sometimes never arrive at all. The City Council plans to hold a Nov. 7 hearing on this year’s transportation problems, including two-thirds of buses being late on the first day of school.

“It’s really unfair to the kids,” said Aimee Pelosi, whose son is East Boston’s starting quarterback. “Many children miss out on opportunities to play and may not play after school. … They deserve these moments.”

In a statement, Chris McKinnon, a spokesman for the school district, said BPS cannot accommodate all transportation requests for athletic programs, especially when they coincide with regular daytime bus service. He said about 4 percent of athletics requests went unfilled this year, which is comparable to last year.

He said BPS was committed to improving its transport operations and communications, including for athletes, but stressed there was no shortage of drivers.

“Unfortunately, real logistical challenges can sometimes impact our ability to accommodate all scheduling requests for these trips,” he said. “While these cases can be disappointing, we appreciate our families’ patience and understanding and will continue to work to ensure all students can participate in sports and other extracurricular activities.”

Superintendent Mary Skipper and Mayor Michelle Wu hoped to turn the tide of late and no-show buses around this school year with a number of improvements, including a new GPS tracking system that will improve the efficiency of the bus fleet. But so far these efforts have been even more disappointing.

This fall, daytime buses are generally running more late than last fall, with less than 85 percent of them arriving on time in recent weeks. Morning bus service, after a slow start in September, rebounded in October and is increasingly ahead of the same period last fall, with 90 percent or more arriving on time.

But the numbers remain below a state mandate requiring 95 percent or more of buses to arrive at school on time each month, a benchmark developed as part of the district’s turnaround plan two years ago to avoid government regulation.

While the state’s order does not apply to athletic transportation, late buses during regular after-school departures could create a domino effect, leaving fewer buses available for athletes.

Rocco Zizza, head football and softball coach at Boston Latin Academy, said a bus was scheduled to pick up his players at 4 p.m. last week for a game against English High School in Jamaica Plain. He received all the information earlier in the day, and then 10 minutes after the bus was late, he found out that it was not coming at all. He ended up transporting several players in his truck; others took Ubers. This happened five times this fall.

“The saddest thing when we left was that the cheerleaders didn’t have a bus either. They were still waiting,” Zizza said.

English High, which is merging its team with New Mission, has also faced challenges. On September 6, a delayed bus caused the football team to be about an hour late for an afternoon game against Somerville High School. Quarters of play were shortened to eight minutes, and pre-game warm-ups and halftime were shortened as referees had to switch to another play.

Late buses also interfered on other game days, said Ryan Conway, athletic director and football coach at English High.

“The lack of communication and accountability is very frustrating for coaches, athletes and parents,” he said.

Since the pandemic, late buses have increasingly irked the nerves of coaches, students and parents. In the spring of 2022, many games were postponed or postponed due to late arrivals and lack of show buses, which BPS attributed to a driver shortage, resulting in buses satisfy 15 percent of athletics transportation requests.

In April of this year, City Council members Erin Murphy and Ed Flynn demanded answers after a bus failed to arrive on time to pick up baseball players from Excel High School in South Boston for a game in Roslindale, forcing them to switch to public transportation.

Derek Taft, who helps raise his nephew, an East Boston High sophomore and varsity football player, wonders whether BPS and the mayor are doing enough. He said the lack of buses has been a problem for his nephew since seventh grade, when he joined the junior varsity team.

“Unfortunately, our children are paying the price,” he said.

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James Vaznis can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @globevaznis.