HS transfers still high despite 50% penalty
Will it ever end? Or at least show signs of reversing? When the Arizona Interscholastic Association two years ago adopted a new transfer rule, the hope was to curtail so many athletic transfers.
The rule states that athletes must sit out the first 50 percent of the season before becoming eligible without moving residences for first-time moves and ineligible 100 percent of the season for second-time transfers (if not awarded a hardship appeal).
But according to numbers azcentral sports obtained from the AIA, when the new transfer measure was put into the AIA bylaws for the 2016-17 school year, there were 3,973 transfer forms processed.
That was an increase of nearly 500 from the 2015-16 school year when there were 3,482 transfers.
This past school year, there were 3,606 transfer forms processed by the AIA, the second-highest single-year total.
The AIA did not break down transfers per sport, but a new data system will do that beginning this school year.
Joe Paddock, assistant director of the AIA, said there were 387 filed hardships last school year. More than 100 were fast-tracked as “no-brainers,” with obvious reasons for transferring, allowing the athletes automatic eligibility.
He said 222 of the athletes who applied for hardships were given full eligibility, and that 125 were given no eligibility.
Transfer numbers
Source: AIA 2010-2011: 2,612 2011-2012: 2,845 2012-2013: 2,955 2013-2014: 3,056 2014-2015: 3,438 2015-2016: 3,482 2016-2017: 3,973 2017-2018: 3,606
Answers?
It is obvious there is no easy answer to try to keep athletes to play for their neighborhood schools.
But other state associations are trying to curtail transfers.
This school year, the Ohio High School Athletic Association is banking on a new change by making athletes sit out the second half of the season, including the playoffs, if the transfers don’t have a valid exception.
In May, Ohio’s member schools reportedly voted 450-244 for the change.
The AIA would have to get member schools to vote in a change to do the same as Ohio. But not everybody in Arizona is on board with what Ohio is trying.
“The potential issue with sitting out the second half of the season, if the (football) team goes 5-0, then those players have to sit out, it might win three of the last five and go 8-2 and qualify for the playoffs,” Paddock said. “Is it fair to keep those guys out that got them there?”
Recruiting checkpoints
Arizona high school football coaches are mixed on what the AIA needs to do to try to keep players from leaving schools.
Buckeye Youngker coach Tony Cluff said he likes the AIA’s current transfer rule, but he feels there needs to be more effort made to prevent recruiting, “whether it be coaches or organizations affiliated with certain schools.”
“I feel that is left unchecked and unpunished,” Cluff said in an email.
Movement
Chandler Hamilton coach Mike Zdebski, who moved from Michigan this summer, said he likes the Ohio rule, but “if you physically move into a high school attendance area, you are good to go with no sit time.”
Phoenix Arcadia coach Kerry Taylor believes there should be a five-game sit-out period for varsity athletes but not for those who haven’t played varsity yet.
“I don’t like punishing young athletes that haven’t even played a varsity sport because they’re still figuring it out and finding out what a good fit for them is,” he said in an email. “By the time you make varsity, you should have all that figured out.
“Also there should be a rule, if the head coach of your program leaves, you should be able to leave at the varsity level without penalty.”
Teaching lessons
Winslow football coach Brandon Guzman likes having the games to sit out at the back end of the schedule, unless there is an exception.
“They will still be able to get film on themselves for colleges in the first five games,” Guzman said.
Paradise Valley coach Greg Davis, in an email, said he also is in favor of Ohio’s rule.
“This transfer plague is teaching our young men, if you don’t like, go somewhere else,” Davis said. “This will translate to having men that bail on families, bail on jobs and have no concept of loyalty.”
Having rights
Yuma Catholic coach Rhett Stallworth, who also is the school’s principal, believes if administrators sign off on it, a kid shouldn’t have to sit out any of the season.
“If admin can’t agree, I think that the kid should have to sit the first half of the season,” Stallworth said in an email. “If there is a second transfer, then the whole season.
“This is America. A kid should not have to sit in a dead-end program. Adults can quit a job and go to another. They don’t have to not get paid for the first part of the year and then they can get paid after that. There are a lot of kids that are mediocre kids that are transferring for a lot of other reasons other than athletics and they are punished under the current system.
“Either way, what is wrong with a little competition? There are kids that are good athletes stuck in programs that have coaches that couldn’t coach their way out of a wet paper bag. Their schools don’t care about athletics and nor do they care about hiring qualified coaching. Why should the kid have to sit and waste away in that school when the school doesn’t care either?”
Protect integrity
Phoenix St. Mary’s football coach Tommy Brittain said the transfer rule should strive to protect the integrity of high school athletics while recognizing that sometimes a change of schools and programs may be best for a student-athlete.
“The idea that this trend of options ought to extend to eligibility for high school athletics is profoundly misguided,” Brittain said. “Freedom to pursue a good education is a human right. Freedom to shop around throughout high school in order to find the perfect team is not.
“Thus, the previous rule of being ineligible for an entire season (barring clearly defined exceptions) in any sport in which a transferring student competed was much more balanced. This rule more effectively discouraged impetuous transfers while still allowing a young athlete longing for change to eventually compete again.”