Sylmar transfers could be heading to different schools
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Faced with either fighting a City Section ruling that declared them ineligible or moving on, four boys’ basketball players who left Sylmar for Van Nuys seem ready to cut their losses and move on.
Bill Hankins, the father of Sylmar transfers Mat and Willie Hankins, said Friday he’s leaning toward sending his sons to a prep school.
‘The kids just want to get an education and play basketball,’ he said.
Two others, Victor Rudd and Guy Landry, could end up moving to other schools in the City Section. Rudd, a 6-foot-8 junior, is reportedly considering Lake Balboa Birmingham.
All four were declared ineligible because of a new state CIF rule that makes any transfer student ineligible if they follow a former coach to a new school. If he wanted his sons to stay and play at Van Nuys, Hankins would have to appeal the decision and prove there was no recruiting involved. If he lost the appeal, he’d have to go to court to challenge the rule, and that would take time while his sons couldn’t play until a decision was made.
CIF Executive Director, Marie Ishida recently sent out an advisory to principals across the state that clarified the new transfer rule because of confusing language contained in the original rule.
The advisory states: ‘The intent of the new transfer bylaws was to make any transfer to a new school where a student follows a high school or club coach to the new school a violation of CIF bylaws and prima facie evidence of undue influence or recruiting. Regardless of the language contained in CIF bylaw 207.B.(5)d., a student cannot follow his or her coach to a new school without having to prove the absence of undue influence or recruiting.’
The former Sylmar players transferred over the summer to Van Nuys, which hired former Sylmar assistant Charles White to be its new basketball coach.
-- Eric Sondheimer
-- Image from www.cbc.ca/