Eligibility Limits Put on Transfer Students

In an effort to limit movement by students for athletic participation, the City Section will implement a new rule regarding transfers for the 1998-99 school year.

Athletes will be allowed one transfer and also will be allowed to transfer back to their residence school without losing varsity eligibility, City Commissioner Barbara Fiege said. However, athletes who transfer from their residence school to another, and then to another, will not be eligible to compete unless hardship is proved.

“The rule brings the L.A. City Section more in line with what’s going on in the rest of the state,” Fiege said. “Students should not be able to transfer to three or four schools during their high school years for the purpose of athletic participation.”

Fiege added that a residential move by an athlete’s family would supersede the transfer policy. The hardship option is available when an “unforeseeable, uncorrectable and/or unavoidable” burden is placed on the student or the student’s family, Fiege said.

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Harbor City Narbonne will appeal the City Section’s decision to strip the school of its 4-A girls’ basketball championship in a hearing scheduled for Tuesday.

Jeri Durham, administrator of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s office of operations, will oversee the hearing but will not be part of a three-member panel that will vote on the appeal. Durham said Wednesday that district administrators, who have yet to be determined, will serve on the panel.

Narbonne, which also won the state Division I championship, lost its 4-A title on April 17 when the City Section rules committee determined that the Gauchos had used ineligible players. The girls’ basketball program was ruled ineligible for the playoffs next season and was put on two years’ probation, and three players were ruled ineligible for one year because of residence issues.

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Three-time defending champion Palisades is the top-seeded 4-A team and Eagle Rock is the top-seeded 3-A team in the boys’ tennis championships, which began Wednesday.

The 4-A bracket has eight teams, the 3-A has 16.

Finals are May 8 at the Racquet Centre in Studio City.