Chaminade Draws the Line on Purely Athletic Transfers

Gary Murphy, the principal at West Hills Chaminade High, has decided to take a step that will cause him to be viewed as a hero or a fool.

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

It is a decision filled with risk 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. But if he discovers a student is transferring solely for athletic reasons, then that is not compelling enough 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 said he rejected a high-profile athlete who wanted to transfer to Chaminade.

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

They state, “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 schools in Southern California 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 schools that play the game of open enrollment are also playing with fire.

Mission Hills 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 co-league championship. But what was the price of success?

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

Judge the cost to Alemany’s reputation vs. 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.

The Oxnard Union High School District is one of the few public systems that has tried to slow the movement of athletes by making ineligible for one year students who transfer outside their school of residence.

Won’t private schools be shooting themselves in the foot if they reject athletic transfers and send them on to public schools?

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 Mission League meeting two weeks ago, Murphy encouraged his fellow principals to join him in trying to prevent high school athletics from drifting “farther 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 problem.”

Eric Sondheimer is a columnist for the Times Valley Edition. He can be reached at (818) 772-3422 or eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.