Open Season in the City for Football Transfers

Football season officially began Monday for City Section teams, which means . . . it’s time to find out who has gone where and who’s upset about it.

Some coaches are ecstatic about the transfers courtesy of the state-mandated open-enrollment policy. Others are not.

For decades coaches have cried foul when a blue-chip player enrolled in a school with an established program.

“Check the residence,” opposing coaches complained. “That kid doesn’t live within that school’s boundaries.”

Since open enrollment became a state law in the fall of 1994, spurned coaches have changed their tune.

Students can transfer (if there is an opening) to any L.A. Unified school of their liking regardless of where they live. Now, coaches cry “recruiting violations” and “illegal contact” when a talented athlete shows up at a school known for its championship-caliber football.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that City players transfer around more often than Southern Section players. L.A. Unified is the second largest school district in the country. Players have 49 high schools to choose from compared to other Southern California school districts with an average of five to 10 schools per district.

Nor should it surprise anyone when one of the area’s perennial powers--Kennedy, Sylmar and Taft--gets a top-notch transfer. Where else would a player in search of a college scholarship want to transfer?

When an established program gets a good player, however, people assume recruiting is involved.

“I’m sure that’s human nature, but that’s not always the case,” said Kennedy Coach Bob Francola, who this summer welcomed four open-enrollment transfers from Monroe into his program.

“I can feel for the programs that are losing them, but this is the way the rules are,” he said. “The object is to make your program as successful as you can and make it as attractive as is possible so kids want to play there.”

Francola frequently gets blue-chip transfers and has virtually escaped the finger-pointing of other coaches who allege he acquired players through illegal means.

“We’ve been pretty fortunate in that sense,” Francola said.

Sylmar Coach Jeff Engilman and Taft’s Troy Starr haven’t been as lucky. Both have been accused often and slapped with suspension and probation at least once.

Engilman, whose program will come off a three-year probation Sept. 15, always seems to find himself at the center of controversy during the summer months--except this year.

“We’re gonna have a big party--we’re finally off probation,” Engilman said.

Last year he served a two-game suspension for breaking a City Section rule regarding contact with a player not enrolled at Sylmar. He was cleared of recruiting violations, but not the illegal contact rule when the player wandered into his weight room for a workout.

When a kid shows up at Sylmar, the coaching community isn’t happy about it.

“Instead of the program simply being successful and working harder than everybody else, they all think you cheat,” Engilman said.

Engilman mentioned, as an example of success breeding controversy, the situation at UCLA. Two basketball recruits are being investigated because of the late-model cars they are driving.

Engilman referred to the situation as the classic Catch-22.

“You don’t win national championships without blue-chippers [but] blue-chippers don’t go unless you’re a national champion,” he said.

To be sure, nobody cried foul in Engilman’s first five years at Sylmar. As soon as he won City 4-A titles in 1992 and ‘94, the accusations were flying.

Last year, Darrell Daniels came from San Fernando and Donald Carpenter from Taft to Sylmar.

This year, Sylmar acquired one City player through open enrollment, wide receiver-defensive back Terrance Brant from Poly. Since the Parrots won one game (by forfeit) last season and Brant was the only Poly player to catch a touchdown pass, one might understand why he opted to transfer.

By Engilman’s own admission, if he wasn’t such a demanding coach, he’d probably get more transfers.

“Kids don’t really want to come to Sylmar if they have to work too hard,” Engilman said. “My style of coaching scares them away.”

Less volatile, perhaps, but every bit as controversial is Taft’s Starr.

Van Nuys Coach Mark Pomerantz last week accused Taft coaches of recruiting All-City 3-A linebacker David Melo, who checked out of Van Nuys and into Taft on Thursday. Starr “categorically” denies the allegation.

The mere mention of illegal recruiting raises eyebrows when Starr is involved because his reputation precedes him.

“I think whenever we get a transfer, it’s always gonna be scrutinized,” he said.

Who can forget the Dante Clay mess when Starr was accused of giving the eighth-grader a campus tour, a Taft T-shirt and cap. After an investigation, Clay chose to attend his home school, North Hollywood, and Starr’s Toreadors got a year’s probation.

Starr, who through the open-enrollment policy acquired Sedric Hurns from Van Nuys and Keith Johnson from Chatsworth among others, has learned the hard way.

“The mistakes of the past have forced me to know those rules inside and out,” he said. “Not knowing a rule is not a defense.”

While Pomerantz alleges Melo’s recent transfer was because of “illegal contact” and “undue influence” on the part of Taft’s coaches, he is further annoyed by the rich-getting-richer scenario that open enrollment promotes. Especially when his school has no chance of benefiting from it.

Pomerantz said Van Nuys has an enrollment of 3,700 students and the school is closed to anyone wishing to transfer in.

“We’re capped, so in my opinion, it’s an uneven playing field,” he said.