West Boca offers a large number of sports, yet most of them do not have transportation provided to games for them. All the sports that West Boca has to offer are as follows: bowling, cross country, football, golf, swimming, volleyball, basketball, competitive cheer, soccer, weightlifting, wrestling, baseball, flag football, softball, tennis, track & field, volleyball, weight lifting, and lacrosse. Out of all these sports, only football is given charter buses as transportation to their games.
While it seems unfair to other sports, there are reasons behind this. The athletic department at West Boca is restrained by the little money allocated to athletics in the Palm Beach School District budget. The West Boca athletic director, Gerard Albert, said that the “small amount that is in the budget for charter bus transportation is basically put in to cover the cost of buses for the football teams.” The football teams are given transportation because they draw the largest crowds, which presents a security issue. To counteract this security issue, the football teams are expected to all go to and from games in one vehicle under supervision. Additionally, Mr. Albert said that the football teams “need to arrive at the away schools much earlier than any of the other teams that play in front of large crowds,” which is another part of the reason that only the football teams use charter buses to get to their games.
If any other West Boca teams want to provide transportation for their athletes, it is up to them to raise money for their program. This can be done through fundraising or player fees. It is on the individual sports program to plan ahead and fundraise if they want transportation to away games. However, this is particularly hard to do as transportation costs increase every year. So even if teams fundraise for their transportation, they might not even make enough money to cover all transportation costs to and from games.
However, sports can occasionally get transportation provided by the school. Teams are provided with charter buses when they go to play-off matches a large distance away. This is somewhat unique to West Boca. The transportation costs are paid by the general athletics fundraising account. West Boca’s athletic director also said that the general athletics fundraising account is “built through various efforts, mostly funded through sponsorships or partnerships” that the athletics department has with various generous people in the community or local businesses.
In the end, only the football teams at West Boca have transportation provided for them. Any efforts to provide transportation for all sports will have to address the cost of fundraising first.
