From the USRowing Youth National Championships in Florida to the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) Division 2 Hockey State Tournament Final at TD Garden, the Boston Latin School athletic community excels under Boston Public Schools and Boston Latin School Association funding with a combined total nearing half a million dollars.
According to their mission statement, the BLSA ensures academic and athletic excellence through “building and maintaining relationships among alumni, families, and friends; raising funds to enhance the school’s learning environment as well as Association activities; and, championing the school through thoughtful advocacy in the best interest of its students, alumni, and families.” Head of School Jason Gallagher explains the funding system of the athletic programs at BLS: BPS funds the head coach positions and secures permits to Boston-owned facilities and school buses, while everything else falls on BLSA.
One drawback of BPS funding is that sports that are not recognized in the MIAA, like fencing, sailing and crew do not get any funding from BPS, leaving the cost of the head coach’s salary to the BLSA. As Athletic Director Jack Owens puts it, “The district covers the funds necessary to operate, the BLSA supplies what is needed to compete in the DCL [Dual County League] and win state championships.” Since BPS only subsidizes one head coach for each sport, the burden of assistant coaches, junior varsity coaches and freshman coaches lies on BLSA and makes up the majority of the BLSA budget.
Following the cost of coaches, Gallagher states that “the next biggest part of it [the BLS athletic budget], believe it or not, is transportation. It’s the buses to get to and from all of these events.” The Head of School goes on to explain, “if you had tennis on the road somewhere and volleyball on the road somewhere and baseball on the road somewhere and softball on the road somewhere and you get all these buses, you have to pay for each of those buses to get to where you need to be. Boston almost never is able to provide us with the number of buses that we need.” The BPS yellow bus deficiency from BPS leads to the costs being covered by BLSA for private buses, which are more costly and add to another large percentage of the holistic athletic budget. Boys’ varsity soccer captain Aidan Zaphiris (I) states that the support from the athletic department “comes with field permits for Westie High, getting buses to and from games (not practice), and [practice] jerseys for players at all three levels.” As many BLS athletes know, the bus shortagethe bus shortage imposes many difficulties on the numerous teams and programs, leading to a lack of buses to practice and irregularities when it comes to yellow school buses versus private, Crystal Transport coach buses. Several teams must travel to practice through public transportation and carpools organized by parents, which adds significant time and energy to their commutes.
When asked about the budget distribution between programs, Coach Owens states, “The Athletic budget is designed to be equitable amongst all programs bearing in mind several factors including Title IX, participation numbers and trends, and equipment and infrastructure costs as it pertains to the individual programs.” Title IX comes from the Education Amendments of 1972, which seeks to offer equal opportunities to all students regardless of gender by preventing discrimination in education events. As both Coach Owens and Gallagher explain, the distribution of the budget is a balancing game that is largely need-based, which means that while the budget is not split evenly, it is split equally to allow every program to benefit from the support whether that is through free city permits or renting out swimming pools from Simmons College. A common misconception throughout the school is that teams like crew, who receive less recognition, do not receive any financial support from the athletic department. Although these programs do not get any BPS assistance, the BLSA offers financial support in order to allow these teams to compete. In addition to these program necessities, teams also have the ability to request for more funds from Coach Owens in order to purchase equipment, which is then evaluated by the athletic director and presented in the budget proposal voted on by the BLSA board.
Most of the sports programs at BLS compete in the Dual County League (DCL) with the likes of Bedford High School, Concord-Carlisle High School, Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, Newton South High School and Westford Academy. Mr Gallagher comments on the BLS competition, explaining that, “It’s incredible what they have, Concord Carlisle has acres of space, acres of space with their own playing fields, with swimming pools, with multiple gyms, and the BLSA allows us to stay competitive with those leagues because the Boston Public Schools, while they value athletics, what we what we get from them is funding for head coaches and then help getting permits for spaces that are public.”
Despite the numerous strains on athletic funding, BLS athletes are able to compete year after year with these suburban schools which have their own facilities. This ability is in part due to parents who organize program-wide associations like the Friends of Soccer and the crew team who fundraises through the yearly Ergathon. BLS athletics have had countless success like recent involvement in the MIAA State Tournament of boys’ and girls’ soccer, boys’ basketball and girls’ hockey. The Boys’ track Sprint Medley Relay team, additionally, finished second in their heat at the New Balance High School Indoor Nationals, the crew team placed top 20 in the U17 division of the USRowing Youth National Championships in Florida, and the boys’ hockey team became MIAA Division 2 Champions for the second time in BLS history. As the spring sports season hits off, the athletic department and BLSA will continue to provide support for sports in hopes of keeping up our success.
