THE HIGH SCHOOLS : Athletes Are Taking the Long Way Out

It used to be that kids played musical chairs in school.

Now they play musical schools.

The California Interscholastic Federation has gone to great lengths to make sure that high school transfers do not occur solely for athletic reasons.

And it has failed.

Transferring by athletes from school to school is common. There are rules restricting transfers, but more than one loophole for every rule.

And transfer permits? Count ‘em: There are permits for integration and educational purposes. There is a permit for students whose family plans to move within 60 days. There is a permit that allows a student to attend the high school closest to his or her guardian, rather than nearest the parents. Another permit allows a student to transfer is he or she is having trouble either academically or socially.

Unfortunately, the transfer permits are abused more often than they are used for the purpose they were intended.

In the Valley area, transferring has reached such epidemic proportions that even ninth-graders are getting into the act.

Many athletes are transferring from four-year private high schools to three-year public schools before their sophomore year. In some cases, these athletes attend public school until the ninth grade, then attend a private school for one year and then transfer back to a public school for their sophomore year.

The result is an extra year of high school eligibility.

Jim Couch, athletic director at Bellermine-Jefferson High in Burbank, says that ninth-graders are induced to transfer by promises of greater exposure and better competition.

He said that programs at schools such as Bell-Jeff, a small parochial school, don’t stand a chance against the larger City Section schools.

Couch stopped short of accusing other coaches of recruiting, however.

“The bug is planted two ways,” Couch said. “Coaches let parents or boosters know what players they like and what their needs are, and the parents take it from there. The selling point is usually the other school’s track record. They say, ‘How many kids has your little school sent to major college teams?’ Well, here at Bell-Jeff we’re a little more inclined to send students on to college for academics than athletics.”

Darryl Stroh, football and baseball coach at Granada Hills, acknowledged the problem. Granada Hills is one of 32 three-year schools in the 49-school Los Angeles Unified School District. There are 10 three-year schools among the City’s 17 in the Valley area.

“More and more underclassmen are transferring,” Stroh said. “I see kids bailing out early all the time. Some of them have come here. What their reasons are is really none of my business, but I do have a certain amount of sympathy for the programs they left. We don’t turn anyone away if they’re here legally, but I will say there is a certain amount of disillusion between coaches when transfers like that take place.

“Some of those coaches have invested a lot of time in players, only to lose them to other programs.”

Said Dick Whitney, Kennedy athletic director: “Kids have gone to ninth-grade parochial school and played just to get an extra year of eligibility. I wish something could be done.”

Maybe something can. The Burbank Unified School District has at least a partial solution to the problem.

Two years ago, the district passed a rule allowing ninth-graders to compete for the high school in their enrollment area.

Chuck Rowitz, the district’s director of secondary education, said the decision was made so Burbank and Burroughs high schools would match up better with the four-year schools in its league.

Burbank and Burroughs are two of only 12 three-year high schools in the 474-school Southern Section.

“We thought it was a fair opportunity to allow the students in our district to play at advanced levels like at other high schools in the Foothill League,” Rowitz said. “Avoiding transfers to private schools may have been a part of it, but not the major reason.”

Rowitz estimated that “40 or 50” students at three district junior highs play on high school teams. “Most play at the frosh-soph level,” he said.

But there are exceptions. Last spring, Christy Alves, then a ninth-grader at Luther Burbank Junior High, pitched the Burroughs varsity softball team to the quarterfinals of the Southern Section 3-A playoffs despite not attending that school.

If the three-year City schools adopted the same rule, it just might halt many of the transfers involving underclass athletes.

Jim Cheffers, director of City athletics, said that a similar rule was considered by administrators two years ago.

“We discussed it with a governing body of nine principals and the conclusion was that in a district the size of ours, it would be difficult,” Cheffers said. “The distance between junior highs and high schools can be a few miles in some cases. Transportation is a problem. We certainly couldn’t bus them.

“Setting up such a program would be a horrendous task. We kind of threw up our hands and said we don’t want to get involved with that. The magnitude of the district is one of the biggest obstacles.”

Said Whitney: “I don’t know if that set up would work for everyone under the current conditions, but it might help.”

Said Couch: “I think it’s a workable plan. It would alleviate some of the tension between public and private schools about recruiting. That way, students could make their decision before their freshman year and settle into a program--hopefully to stay.”

There would, of course, be a few bugs in such a plan.

It would not be feasible for every ninth-grade athlete at every City junior high. Transportation problems would surely eliminate most students who are bused from taking advantage of the rule change.

Said Rowitz: “In our district, the student must first meet all grade and citizenship requirements for both the junior high and the high school. Then, they must provide their own transportation to practice. If there are no problems, they can play. Some of the kids are good enough athletes and students, but don’t have transportation.

“Our main consideration was that we wanted to give the kids who could make it the opportunity to do so.”

Perhaps some day, the City might follow suit.

It certainly couldn’t hurt.