The first game for the season was called off when a bus never showed up to take the East Boston High School boys’ basketball team to Fall River.
Late school buses have been a problem in Boston this year, and now, they led a basketball team to miss its first game of the season.
The boys' basketball team at East Boston High School was set to play Friday in Fall River, Massachusetts. The bus there never showed up.
Student athletes told NBC10 Boston Tuesday that they were upset to miss the game, and that transportation impacted the team last year, too.
"We had a game where we had to ride in, like, a small compact van to Charlestown, right across the bridge, because we didn't have a bus," recalled Islam Allouane, a basketball player for East Boston High School.
Jonathan Rodriguez, a classmate who plays football for the school, said the bus issue also caused his team to miss a game.
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"Unfortunately, real-world logistical challenges sometimes can impact our ability to meet all scheduling requests for these trips, particularly when they overlap with scheduled afternoon drop-offs," Boston Public Schools said in a statement to NBC10 Boston. "While these instances can be frustrating, we appreciate the patience and understanding of our families and will continue to ensure all students can access athletics and other afterschool activities."
The district has struggled with transportation issues this year. Two-thirds of buses arrived late on the first day of school in September. Despite rolling out Zum, a bus-tracking mobile app, afternoon drop-off performance had not improved when we checked into the data in late October.
Boston City Councilors Ed Flynn and Erin Murphy have called on the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to look into the root causes of the delays.
"Our bus gets canceled, it's just unfortunate," Allouane said. "For everybody — not even only for seniors, but for players that are coming up, and up and coming, that need the recruitment they need."
The district says it is in the process of rescheduling the game in Fall River.
