English High Won Its First League Title Since 2021. A Missing Schedule Entry Means the Win Does Not Count and the Team Is Out of the Playoffs
The MIAA says the Oct. 30 game against O'Bryant was never entered in its scheduling system before the Sept. 18 deadline, leaving English one game short of playoff eligibility. The City Council has asked the association to reconsider.
Boston English High School's football team beat John D. O'Bryant School 12-6 on Oct. 30 and clinched its first league title since 2021, MassLive reported. Under state athletic association rules, the win does not exist.
According to MassLive, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association notified the school the day before the game that the O'Bryant matchup had not been listed on Arbiter Live, the association's scheduling platform, before the Sept. 18 schedule commitment deadline. Head coach Ryan Conway told MassLive a clerical error was to blame.
One game short
Under MIAA Handbook Rule 34.6, a game that was not properly listed by the deadline cannot count as an official game, MassLive reported. Without it, English has technically played six games. Playoff eligibility requires seven. The team had been ranked No. 12 in Division 8 in the final regular-season power rankings, inside the top 16 that qualify.
Conway told MassLive that headmaster Caitlin Murphy approached him on the sideline during the first half of the O'Bryant game with an update after conversations with the association. He returned to coaching, and English won. The association did not recognize the result, and the team is not headed to the postseason.
Conway told players the following Monday. "It was tough for me to see boys I'm supposed to protect sit there and cry silently," he told MassLive. "Just silent."
A four-year climb
The seniors on this year's roster finished their freshman season without a win, according to MassLive. The program won three games the following year, four last year and, counting the O'Bryant game, five this season.
"This is a wonderful, excellent group of kids," Conway told MassLive. "They care about each other. They literally would walk through fire for each other. ... You can only control what you can control I guess." He said practices since the decision have suffered: "They're all there, but they're not."
City Council weighs in
The Boston City Council has urged the MIAA to overlook the error and allow English into the playoffs, Universal Hub reported Thursday. The MIAA had not announced any change as of Thursday morning, and the reports reviewed by Boston Uncut do not describe any appeal ruling.
The case puts the spotlight on who is responsible for entering games into the association's system at Boston Public Schools, and whether a scheduling entry, rather than the games played, should decide eligibility. The reports reviewed do not say which school or district office was responsible for the entry.
English still has a non-playoff game against Pentucket and its annual Thanksgiving game against Boston Latin, which Conway called the team's biggest game of the fall.
Additional reporting
Set weatherBack To Main MenuCloseWeather in -Change LocationCurrent -Mostly SunnyTonightLow -Mostly SunnyTomorrowHigh -Mostly SunnyFull Weather ReportHigh School SportsBoston English football misses state playoffs due to clerical error Updated: Nov. 04, 2026, 8:39 p.m.|Published: Nov. 04, 2026, 8:08 p.m.MassLive football thumbnail.Gage NutterSet as Google Preferred SourceBy Gage Nutter | [email protected] the first half of Boston English’s football game against O’Bryant on Oct. 30, head coach Ryan Conway was approached on the sideline by his school’s headmaster with a message.
The English football team, ranked No. 12 in Division 8 in the final power rankings of the regular season, was notified the previous day from the state’s athletic association that the game against O’Bryant wasn’t listed on Arbiter Live before the Sept. 18 schedule commitment deadline.
Conway told MassLive that a clerical error was to blame, but since the game was not properly listed before the deadline, it could not count as an official game, per MIAA Handbook Rule 34.6. If the game did not count, then the English football team would have only technically played six games. The minimum number of games played needed to be eligible for the playoffs is seven.
Although the program was within the top 16 of its division, its playoff fate was unknown at kickoff on Friday. But now headmaster Caitlin Murphy had an update after back and forth conversations with the state’s athletic association. “We got a response back,” Murphy told Conway. “It’s not good.”
Conway went back to coaching the game. English went on to win, 12-6, earning the school its first league title since 2021. But because of the error, the win, and game, was not recognized by the MIAA, meaning the team is not headed to the postseason.
Once Conway got the final word, he met with players the following Monday to break the news “It was tough for me to see boys I’m supposed to protect sit there and cry silently,” Conway said. “Just silent.” Conway and the rest of the team’s coaches have tried to keep the program’s players in good spirits, emphasizing that they can’t control things that are outside of their control and to focus on the team’s upcoming non-playoff game against Pentucket.
What is still unknown
It is not yet known whether the MIAA will respond to the council's request, whether the district has filed a formal appeal, or what steps BPS will take to prevent a repeat.
