
A changing time in high school athletics has people going to different measures to try and gain exposure from colleges. Throughout high school athletes will transfer schools multiple times to try and get on the best team possible in hopes of getting college offers. Parents are getting involved as well and have been able to take advantage of the transfer system throughout school districts around the country. There have been many cases where an athlete will attend a different school each year they are in high school. Many schools in the nation had open enrollment policies, but, as more students began taking advantage of this, rules have started to be put back in place for enrolling in different schools. Even with these rules put in place, people are still taking advantage of them. To encourage team loyalty, prevent conflicts with players from other schools, and to keep their school from getting penalties and going under investigation, all transfer athletes should have to sit out a full calendar year after they transfer.

So how did this problem begin? As colleges get more competitive with their scholarships, athletes try to find the best way to gain exposure to get them. This has been made easy by loose transfer rules. Many school districts had open enrollment policies, allowing athletes to transfer to better schools. Another contributing factor to this growing problem is unethical recruiting practices. While public schools are bound by strict rules against recruiting, private schools do not follow those rules. Public school coaches still engage in recruiting activities throughout the country. Many coaches have gone under investigation for recruiting, but it is very hard to prove that any recruiting happened.  

An example of high schools recruiting cone from an article written in the Washington Post that states high schools are beginning to simulate the college recruiting model. The article discusses a highly sought after 8th grader being scouted and recruited by several high school coaches. Being similar to college, multiple high schools reached out to this star 8th grader by giving them apparel for that high school and doing whatever they could to persuade him into coming to their school. This becomes overwhelming for the parents with so many schools reaching out to their son, and making it a tough decision on where he should go. He finally announced his decision in a similar way college recruits announce their commitments: posting on social media that they are committed to play at a certain school. Years ago this would be a comical event, but now the way high school athletics have changed, it is more and more common (Barr). 

Another reason in the rise of transfers in high school is discrepancies in private and public schools. Private schools have been fueling their athletic programs with lots of money to develop them, causing a lot of interest in them. A recent story of a star basketball player B.J. Mack announces that he will be transferring to the basketball powerhouse of Oak Hill in Virginia. Oak Hill has one of the top basketball programs in the country for the past several years, and they have offered B.J. a spot on their team. As a junior in high school this will be his third school in 3 years. Private schools similar to Oak Hill are part of the reason the number of transfers has risen(Wertz). Along with all the money invested in them, open recruitment. High schools like York Prep are allowed to openly recruit without breaking any rules. An article written in The Herald states that “York Prep basketball in some ways represents the continued dismantling of the 20th century ideal of high school sports, where students walked down the block or made a short bus ride to their neighborhood school with friends they’ve known since birth, to represent (in all likelihood) their parents’ alma mater and try to win a state championship that would make them local legends.”  This has been the new way of high school athletics, transferring to the best school possible in hopes of gaining more college exposure (McCormick, York Prep). 

This isn’t just happening in the south, it is happening all over the country. Eric Sondheimer of the LA Times regards transferring schools as the new norm for athletes. The writer states that star athletes around the state move around schools like a free agent. He argues that this way of moving schools is dismantling the mission of high school sports. In the past, parents sent their kids to the local public school and coaches were not worried about being fired because of their win loss ratio. Now parents can shop around for the best school and not face any consequences. Coaches are constantly facing the pressure of win games or being replaced. One high school basketball program in California recently brought in 9 transfer students to play on their team. By doing this players aren’t taught to deal with adversity, rather they run from a challenge by joining the best team that they can (Sondheimer). 

All across the country high schools have created powerhouse teams that dominate all their competition in the area. These schools become more enticing to join. Instead of having years where they struggle because of losing star players, but now schools just reload with transfer students and do not have any off years. An example of one of these schools is Valdosta high school in Georgia. With a 10,000 seat stadium and their own TV show for the football team, they have built up a program unlike any others in the area(Gehring). 

So, what should be done about this problem?  There have been many proposed solutions to this, most of them being controversial. Fox 5 News in Atlanta brought up a solution that coaches should have vetos over transfers in their district. This would prevent someone from leaving and switching to a different school in the same district without moving. One of the local high school coaches gives an example of several of his students that transferred to a rival high school in their area without moving. The coach goes on to state that that’s when the veto would be beneficial. Criticisms of this have been that an angry coach could prevent the athlete from transferring just out of spite, and also it is in the athlete’s best interest that they are able to choose where they go to school and where they would like to play. Another argument against any transfer rules is that parents should have the ultimate decision on the matter, not a coach or an athletic board(I-Team). But this rule would not pass as it is too controversial. The best solution is to make any athlete that transfers, no matter what type of school they transfer to, sit out a full calendar year. This rule will significantly lower the number of athletes that will attempt to transfer schools. Also schools must clearly communicate this rule, as it has already been put in place in some places and many people try to claim they were not aware of any rules they were in violation of. This eligibility rule is aimed towards fairness towards all athletes. Transfer students are coming in and taking the spots of athletes that have worked hard and earned a spot on the team, and have been loyal to the school. Also many times transfers end up badly because they do not mesh with the team, or they lose a significant amount of playing time. Other times coaches have promised them exposure but they cannot guarantee it(“Transfer”). This rule being put in place will also keep athletes from running from a challenge, and promote loyalty to their high school team keeping them in place. Overall this is the most logical solution to the transfer problem 

Critics of this system have many arguments against it. The biggest one being it is the athletes best interest to go to the best program available to them to help better their skills and hopefully further their careers. Brian Mack, the father of the star from Charlotte Christian school states in an interview that if he was a star at math and science and was given the opportunity to study at one of the most prestigious institutions it would be a no brainer, so being able to transfer for athletics is in his best interest as B.J. will be able to be a part of one of the top programs in the country for basketball while being coached by one of the best high school coaches in the nation as well(Wertz). Another argument against this is the parents should be able to make the final decision, not a school board. Being able to shop around for schools has not always been the option. With more private and charter schools opening, more opportunities open up to find the best fit for their child. Another concern on the schools’ side is an increase in the amount of paperwork required to document everything regarding the transfer rule. Athletic directors and the leaders of the school are worried they will be drowned in the paperwork, perhaps why many places have not adopted this rule yet. But in areas that have implemented this rule have reported success as it has done its job.

High schools in Rock Hill, SC have implemented this rule due to the increased amount of students that have transferred for athletic purposes. Having a loose transfer system like before created the rise in the number of students that took advantage of this. The only thing necessary to change schools before was a change of address, which can easily be obtained by another family member that is zoned for a different school. They have also added in this rule an appeal process where you are allowed to appeal your time you are ineligible. This helps with any hardship cases, or anything sudden like a divorce or family tragedy where moving schools is necessary. The director of communications for the Rock Hill school district has said that this rule has been acting as it should and is effective in its purpose. It has decreased the amount of athletes transferring and has not led to an increase in the amount of paperwork, as confirmed by a local principal Ozzie Ahl (McCormick, Rock Hill). 

The D.C. area has also implemented this rule with some statistics regarding transfers in the area. While it is hard to estimate the number of students that are only transferring for athletics, the number of transfers total has risen dramatically. The Washington Post estimates that somewhere near 15,000 students leaving the D.C. school system and 17,000 entering it, which is about 50% higher than the surrounding counties. The surrounding counties have put in place transfer rules to discourage this, but in the D.C. area there is a significantly larger amount of students taking advantage of the ease of transferring. The school they are zoned for holds a spot for them, while surrounding schools have open enrollment policies if there is enough space to transfer in. Because of this they later implemented the transfer rule to keep all transfer athletes from playing a whole calendar year after they transfer. While the rule has discouraged some from transferring, cases are still slipping through and it has made it difficult to enforce this rule. With many anonymous calls regarding people who have broken the rules, officials have had to juggle multiple investigations at the same time, so to combat this they have made it necessary to have a signed written report stating the issue (Stubbes and Maese).

While this system is not perfect, it is the most logical to combat the number of people that are transferring schools for athletics. It will continue to need changes due to people that will still try to break the rules but this way it will deter a large number of potential transfers. 

For players thinking about transferring, thinking about a few issues will also keep them from jumping on board of transferring. Going on to a better team will diminish their playing time, and could possibly expose some of their weaknesses such as attitude issues that will make college coaches look at them differently. Also coaches cannot guarantee anything to their players. Just because they transfer to another school does not mean they will receive the exposure or the scholarships that the coach promised them. Continuing to transfer will also raise questions from college scouts of why you have transferred multiple times, and if the reasons aren’t enough to convince them that it was the best decision for you they will begin to look at you differently (Kosmalski).  

 

High schools should not allow athletics to continue to be dismantled by the amount of transfers in high school. Loose transfer rules will only make this problem worse, so tightening the rules up sooner rather than later will begin to bring high school athletics back to their original mission: Being loyal to the school and not running from challenges. As this is a growing problem and continues to get worse, schools and school boards must crack down on the number of students transferring for athletics. By adopting the eligibility rule and forcing athletes to lose a year of eligibility, the number of transfers will go down and high school athletics will begin to return to the way they used to be. Also by having a better communication system in place the number of people claiming they did not know they were breaking the rules will go down as well. 
