This Murphy’s Law Looks Totally Right

Gary Murphy, the principal at Chaminade High, has decided to take a step that will cause people to look at him either as a hero or a fool.

Sensing a situation that is growing more unstable and unreasonable with each passing athletic season, Murphy vowed this week to no longer accept “purely athletic transfers” to the West Hills campus.

It is a decision filled with risks and uncertainty in the era of open enrollment, where students are allowed to switch schools whenever they please, no matter the reason, no matter the cost.

“We’re not trying to be self-righteous,” Murphy said. “Everybody talks how bad it’s getting, but there’s nobody putting it on the line. By publicly stating it, we’re taking a gamble because we have to live with it.”

Murphy is not saying he won’t accept any transfers who are athletes. He wants to have a top athletic program, just like he wants a top band program, a top drama program, a top academic program. But if he discovers a student is transferring solely for athletic reasons, then that is not a compelling reason to let the student enter Chaminade.

“People are going to laugh at us,” Murphy said. “They’re not going to believe us, but you have to start somewhere.”

Already this school semester, Murphy rejected a high-profile athlete who wanted to transfer to Chaminade.

In a letter explaining his decision, Murphy and athletic director Rob Webb challenged the wisdom of parents allowing their children to switch schools for athletic reasons.

They stated: “It is up to us as adults to reverse this trend. Parents must seriously weigh any decision to change schools. It should not be based on their child’s place on a depth chart.

“Coaches must stay true to the letter of the CIF law regarding improper contact with student athletes. Administrators must seriously and carefully examine any transfer. All applicants should be evaluated on their ability to meet the school’s admissions criteria, not simply on how they may help the school’s athletic program. And the media, while bound to report news, must take a role in deglamorizing open enrollment.”

Murphy is hoping other private schools in the Mission League follow his example, but nobody is betting the family dog that’s going to happen.

It’s important for school morale and fund-raising to have winning sports teams, and what competent principal is going to turn down a big-time athlete who suddenly wants to transfer?

Very few, if any.

Coaches and administrators grumble and complain about the troubles open enrollment has created, but just as quickly, the same people go silent when they are the beneficiaries of a transfer student.

They are hypocrites, but who can blame them? The system has left many not knowing when to roll their eyes in disbelief at the latest “unbelievable” transfer.

But those schools that play the game of open enrollment are also playing with fire.

Alemany accepted three senior students who transferred from San Fernando last year simply to play basketball for one year under their former club coach, Darryl McDonald. They did what many expected--they led Alemany to a league co-championship. But what was the price of success?

McDonald was subsequently fired after the school learned he was a registered sex offender. The athletic director for 16 years, Dudley Rooney, was fired when the Archdiocese of Los Angeles made him the scapegoat for an administrative blunder.

Judge the cost to Alemany’s reputation against the benefit of winning on the court.

Since Chaminade is a private school with tuition costing $6,000, Murphy has the power to pick his students. Public schools, however, can’t prevent students from transferring for athletic reasons.

Won’t private schools hurt themselves by rejecting athletic transfers and sending them to the likes of Taft, Chatsworth and Simi Valley?

Probably, but there is a positive.

“I think it will help us get the kind of kids in their freshman year that have character,” Webb said. “We don’t think it’s sending the right message to kids to bail out when it gets tough. To win at the cost of sacrificing what we believe in is the wrong road to go down.”

At the next league meeting, Murphy will encourage his fellow principals to join him in trying to prevent high school athletics from drifting “further away from the very noble goals they were originally intended to achieve.”

And what happens if no one follows his lead?

“We don’t care,” he said. “We’re going to be part of the solution, not part of the problems.”

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Eric Sondheimer’s local column appears Wednesday and Sunday. He can be reached at (818) 772-3422 or eric.sondheimer@latimes.com