Connect with us

Boston, MA

Stranded: Bus woes hamper Boston student-athletes – The Boston Globe

Published

on

Stranded: Bus woes hamper Boston student-athletes – The Boston Globe


Day by day this week alone, student-athletes and coaches throughout the town had been left standing or scrambling for contingencies, as buses had been nowhere to be discovered Monday for the Charlestown baseball and O’Bryant softball groups, Tuesday for the Boston Worldwide softball workforce, Wednesday for the Madison Park boys’ volleyball workforce, and Thursday for the English baseball workforce.

Not often does a morning go by with out BPS gamers and coaches arriving in school questioning if they’ll have the ability to play video games scheduled for that afternoon — video games that may assist groups safe match berths and allow gamers to showcase their abilities and enhance their probabilities of competing past highschool.

“We simply don’t have sufficient bus drivers to get every thing executed on daily basis,” stated Rocco Zizza, the longtime softball coach at Boston Latin Academy.

BPS officers stated a scarcity of drivers has precipitated buses to be unavailable for 15 p.c of journeys for sports activities groups, with journey to video games exterior the town disproportionately impacted.

“In an effort to make sure protected transportation to our college students’ athletic actions, Boston Public Colleges has reached out to a number of distributors to accommodate journeys. Nonetheless, each firm that we have now tried to work with has declined to supply their companies, citing the scarcity of drivers,” BPS spokesperson Gabrielle Farrell stated. “We’ll proceed to strategize methods to deal with this subject.”

The president of the Boston faculty bus drivers’ union, Andre Francois, stated he was unaware of the issue however not shocked. He stated BPS has compounded the issue with some poorly designed routes which have made fewer drivers accessible for after-school journeys.

“Once you don’t rent sufficient drivers and make a bunch of unhealthy routes, then you will have this drawback in your palms,” Francois stated.

Advertisement

He stated there is no such thing as a cause why drivers would balk at transporting student-athletes past the town limits.

“We drive anyplace anytime,” Francois stated.

College districts throughout the state have coped with scattered disruptions in sports activities journey resulting from driver shortages. However nowhere have giant numbers of student-athletes arrived in school with extra uncertainty concerning the prospect of taking part in their street video games than in Boston.

In late April, there was the odyssey of the O’Bryant boys’ volleyball workforce. With no bus in sight and a sport pending in Revere, the boys set out on foot from their campus on Malcolm X Boulevard, hopped on a downtown prepare at Roxbury Crossing, boarded a shuttle bus at State Road for Logan, transferred to the northbound Blue Line, climbed off at Wonderland, and hiked greater than a mile amid heavy site visitors to the gymnasium at Revere Excessive College.

As soon as there, they defied yet one more problem going through Boston’s traditionally shortchanged student-athletes by serving, digging, and spiking their solution to victory.

Advertisement

“We’ve been very fortunate up to now to in some way have been capable of play each sport,’’ O’Bryant coach Paul Pitts-Dilley stated.

However challenges loom, as issues cascade throughout the town.

On Monday, the dearth of buses compelled postponements of the Charlestown baseball workforce’s sport in Abington and the O’Bryant softball workforce’s sport in Revere.

On Tuesday, with no bus to hold the Boston Worldwide softball workforce to Randolph, Randolph graciously agreed to journey to Boston to play.

On Wednesday, Madison Park had little selection however to postpone its volleyball sport in Somerville as a result of bus predicament.

Advertisement

And on Thursday, the English baseball workforce, with no bus accessible, managed to muster sufficient mother and father to move gamers to a sport in Ashland.

In the meantime, on Friday, the Boston Latin Academy softball workforce is scheduled to play in Lynnfield.

“The children are asking me if there might be a bus,” Zizza stated. “I say, ‘Effectively, there’s purported to be a bus, however it’s actually hit and miss.’ “

He stated the issue is so frequent now “that it’s actually baked into the bread.”

Latin Academy wanted to postpone a sport in opposition to Bishop Fenwick in Peabody April 4 for lack of a bus. Then, when no bus was accessible for the rescheduled sport Might 10, workforce mother and father took issues into their very own palms and drove the women to the North Shore.

Advertisement

Zizza expects an analogous situation to unfold Friday with Latin Academy’s Lynnfield sport, and Saturday, when the women are resulting from play in Methuen.

Suburban faculties, which typically have had extra bother this spring hiring sport officers than arranging transportation, have been sympathetic. Randolph particularly has helped to accommodate BPS baseball, softball, and volleyball groups which have skilled bus issues.

“It’s powerful for everyone concerned, for the Boston faculties and for his or her opponents like us, to have video games canceled as a result of a workforce can’t get a bus,” stated Randolph athletic director Tony Value, who grew up within the Boston faculties and was a member of West Roxbury Excessive College’s state champion basketball workforce in 1984. “On the finish of the day, we’re disappointing the younger folks.”

Harmony-Carlisle, with one of many state’s greatest funded athletic applications, arrived on time by bus to play baseball Monday in East Boston. Aaron Joncas, Harmony-Carlisle’s athletic director, stated he understands the transportation pressures city faculty districts face.

“There’s a trickle-down impact as a result of they need to get all people house from faculty first earlier than they’ll do every thing else,” Joncas stated.

Advertisement

At O’Bryant, the volleyball workforce, with no bus accessible Thursday, , rode the Orange Line to a sport in Malden. However reaching Danvers Monday for a sport in opposition to St. John’s Prep poses a extra daunting problem.

It will likely be Senior Evening on the Prep, the ultimate house sport.

“These children labored actually onerous and deserve their Senior Evening,” O’Bryant’s Pitts-Dilley stated. “We don’t need to stand them up.”

Pitts-Dilley has dominated out making an attempt to achieve Danvers by way of the MBTA commuter rail to Beverly. Most probably, he stated, he’ll “beg mother and father” with automobiles for assist.

Or the almost unfathomable might occur.

Advertisement

“Who is aware of,” he stated, “perhaps they’ll shock us and provides us a bus.”

Globe correspondents Matt Doherty, Ethan Fuller, and Ethan McDowell contributed to this story.


Bob Hohler could be reached at robert.hohler@globe.com.



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Boston, MA

ICE blasts Boston: Feds say BPD refused 198 immigration detainer requests for ‘egregious crime’ in 2024, not 15

Published

on

ICE blasts Boston: Feds say BPD refused 198 immigration detainer requests for ‘egregious crime’ in 2024, not 15


Federal authorities said the Boston Police Department refused to act on 198 immigration detainer requests last year, far exceeding the 15 reported by BPD’s commissioner, while blasting the city for jeopardizing “public safety and national security.” 



Source link

Continue Reading

Boston, MA

Egg prices have doubled amid shortage, Boston diner owner says

Published

on

Egg prices have doubled amid shortage, Boston diner owner says


Bird flu driving up egg prices for Boston restaurant

Advertisement


Bird flu driving up egg prices for Boston restaurant

02:05

Advertisement

BOSTON – South Street Diner is an institution in the city. They see Bostonians coming at all hours of the night. The line out the door comes for the breakfast, particularly the eggs. Only these days, a shortage in the country is making eggs harder to stomach for the only restaurant in the city licensed to serve 24 hours.

“Just about six weeks ago, middle of November, we started getting phone calls from US Foods,” said Solomon Sidell, owner of South Street Diner. “Our pricing has not changed at all. We have ingested the pricing to be able to make sure we can serve the customer at this time.”

Impact of bird flu

The price of an egg has doubled for Sidell and his team now that the shortage has impacted their supplier. Chickens became impacted by an avian flu. Roughly 40% of the country’s hens are raised in cage-free facilities, and 60% of the bird flu cases were found in such type farms. In addition to the price hike, Sidell also has to order two weeks ahead just to make sure they keep coming.

“We have about just under a pallet of eggs about 150 dozen left,” said Sidell. “We buy those Friday morning, Saturday morning, and then by Monday morning they are gone, so we have to start the process again.”

On a given weekend, they can go through 400 dozen eggs. Their busiest night of the year is New Year’s Eve through New Year’s Day.

Advertisement

“To have the highest prices for eggs for the year on your busiest day of the year is a punch in the gut,” said Sidell. “I would prefer not to raise pricing in inflation time.”

He expects the shortage to end in mid-February. Right now, they have no plans to adjust their pricing, but if the shortage continues past February, he says they will have to re-evaluate. 



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Boston, MA

Defending champions Hellen Obiri and Sisay Lemma are returning to run Boston Marathon – The Boston Globe

Published

on

Defending champions Hellen Obiri and Sisay Lemma are returning to run Boston Marathon – The Boston Globe


“Boston annually brings together the world’s best each April, and this Patriots Day is no different,” said Jack Fleming, CEO of the BAA. “Coming off an Olympic year, top contenders from around the world have turned their attention to Boston and hope to etch their name into Boston Marathon lore with a victory.”

The last woman to win three straight Boston Marathons was Fatuma Roba in 1997-99. Just three others — Bobbi Gibb (1966-68), Sara Mae Berman (1969-71), and Uta Pippig (1994-96) — have three-peated.

Hellen Obiri is biding to become the first woman to win three straight Boston Marathons since Fatuma Roba in 1997-99.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff

Among the threats to Obiri’s bid are Ethiopia’s Amane Beriso and Yalemzerf Yehualaw, whose personal bests top the women’s field, at 2:14:58 and 2:16:52, respectively.

Advertisement

Sharon Lokedi, who finished second last year, also will return, along with fellow Kenyans Edna Kiplagat (a two-time Boston winner), Irine Cheptai, Viola Chepngeno, and Mary Ngugi-Cooper.

The BAA said the women’s race will include the best-ever field of Americans, with 2018 champion Desiree Linden joined by Dakotah Popehn, Keira D’Amato, Emma Bates, Jessica McClain, Sara Hall, Sara Vaughn, and Lindsay Flanagan.

Ethiopia’s Sisay Lemma, who finished 41 seconds ahead of the second-place men’s finisher last year, will face a deep field trying to keep him from repeating.

Sisay Lemma won the 2024 Boston Marathon by 41 seconds.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff

It includes Kenya’s Evans Chebet, who finished third last year and has won Boston twice. John Korir and Albert Korir, also from Kenya, will be back as well, after finishing fourth and fifth, respectively, last year.

“I was very happy after winning the Boston Marathon last year, and in 2025 I know it will be an even bigger challenge to win again,” said Lemma. “I was unlucky, because of an injury, not to be able to participate at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, and I was not completely ready at the Valencia Marathon last December, but I will be 100 percent ready next April because the Boston Marathon is a special event.”

Advertisement

Among American men, Olympians Conner Mantz and Clayton Young, who finished eighth and ninth, respectively, in Paris last summer, will run Boston. So will CJ Albertson, who finished seventh last year and first among US men. Also in the Boston field will be four runners who finished in the top 10 at last year’s US Olympic trials: Zach Panning, Nathan Martin, Reed Fischer, and Colin Bennie.


Michael Silverman can be reached at michael.silverman@globe.com.





Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending