Transfers
LA Mayor Eric Garcetti has said that sports events may not resume until 2021.
“I see a mass influx in Arizona,” Mesa Desert Ridge football coach Jeremy Hathcock said. “You want to give kids an opportunity. I see Nevada blowing up and Arizona just blowing up with kids.”
This could impact not just football, but all sports.
First, Arizona high schools need a plan to resume fall sports.
Dr. Karissa Niehoff, executive director of the National Federation of High Schools, which the AIA falls under, in a release Wednesday regarding the reopening of high school sports, said, “At the high school level, sports and other activity programs will most likely not return until schools re-open.”
It still isn’t clear when Arizona high school football teams can get back on their fields and in their weight rooms to work out.
June 1 is a best-case target date for some schools.
“If anything, it will not be until June at the earliest,” said Steve Hogen, athletic director of the Mesa Public Schools. “Discussions are scheduled this week with other 6A District Athletic Directors and another with our superintendency and Community Education leaders.”
Gilbert district officials met May 13 to discuss a plan, said Gilbert Mesquite and Gilbert Highland football coaches Scott Hare and Brock Farrel.
“They will give us instructions going forward, but I am hopeful that we will be able to do something with our teams this summer,” Farrel said.
Chandler Hamilton Athletic Director Brett Palmer said everyone is waiting on their district guidance.
But Palmer is getting a sense that Chandler district campuses could reopen soon and sports could be played.
Dave Bagchi, whose son Dominik will be a sophomore quarterback at Scottsdale Notre Dame, said two California parents who have football players in high school recently asked him about the Arizona high school landscape.
Former Angels star Tim Salmon, the Scottsdale Christian baseball coach, has a nephew in Southern California who is a Division I prospect and doesn’t want to lose out on his junior football season for recruiting next fall. He is a top football and baseball player who recently picked up a football offer from Maryland.
Salmon said his brother is contemplating a move to the Valley if nothing gets cleared up in California concerning the future of the 2020 high school football season.
“You think about California, you might see an influx in the state,” Tim Salmon said.
The AIA doesn’t penalize out-of-state transfers.
If there are mass out-of-state transfers from other states that are still on lockdown, Arizona high school coaches won’t complain.
But would this cause a backlash of resentment from parents whose kids could lose starting spots to out-of-state standouts?
Would the AIA add a transfer rule regarding out-of-state transfers?
How do you make a kid sit in this situation, though? This would fit the “beyond their control” criteria that is presented to get a hardship waiver to play, especially if jobs were lost in California because of stay-at-home orders.
No doubt, the bar would be raised in Arizona for a level of competition not seen before, if there are a lot of California transfers.
Already, Hamilton picked up two big Colorado transfers this spring -- quarterback Nicco Marchiol (top-rated 2022 prospect in Arizona) and defensive back/receiver Jack Howell.
The California Interscholastic Federation is meeting next week, Palmer said he was told by San Diego Helix’s athletic director. That may clear up some of the uncertainty regarding the 2020 football season. Hamilton is scheduled to play Helix in football next season.
Hathcock has been thinking outside the box in case AIA football winds up canceled.
“This is just me thinking, but if they cancel in Arizona, we’re going to have football ready to go as a non-profit club sport,” he said. “As long as there is pro football here . ... We won’t call it Desert Ridge. We’ll call it Jaguar football team. You’ve got to do something. You’ve got to be ready to pivot.”