Principle Is Not Lost on This Principal

In five months, Gary Murphy will lock the door to the Chaminade High principal’s office, get into his truck and drive away, ending a six-year reign at the West Hills campus.

He’s leaving as a visionary, someone who has not been afraid to challenge assumptions and demonstrate leadership in a time of turmoil.

It was Murphy’s decision in the fall of 1999 to no longer accept students transferring to the Catholic school solely for athletic reasons.

Several of his coaches weren’t pleased. It put Chaminade at a disadvantage because most schools wouldn’t think of taking such a drastic philosophical stance.

“There are coaches who aren’t against the theory but feel like they have to compete with one hand tied behind their back, and I acknowledged that,” Murphy said. “But it seems to me if you’re not going to stand up for the right things, it doesn’t matter if you win.”

Soon, he started lobbying his fellow Mission League principals to pass a rule making students who transfer within the league ineligible to compete at the varsity level for one year unless they receive a hardship waiver.

There was resistance. It took 18 months of prodding before the rule was passed. It went into effect in January.

“We need more people to be convinced they can make a difference,” he said. “Everybody complains how bad it is. They claim there [isn’t] anything they can do. That’s not true. It’s relatively easy if you don’t care what people say about you. What I hope I have done is create a climate where it is safe to say, ‘We’re going to play by the rules.’”

Murphy, 45, has been a trendsetter in trying to develop a response to the surge of high school athletes changing schools. There have been close to 3,800 transfers in the Southern Section since 1999 and 945 in the City Section in the same span.

Not all the transfers are based on athletic reasons, but the movement of so many athletes creates animosity, suspicion and has the potential of turning friends into bitter enemies.

“I’m more concerned with the issue of high school athletics in general and the role adults play in it,” he said.

“It’s the coach who knowingly breaks the rules. It’s the administrators who look the other way at best and promote it at worst. Kids, ironically, aren’t the problem.”

Murphy’s solution is to institute rules that discourage transfers. His logic: College athletes have to sit out a year when they transfer. Why shouldn’t the same rule apply in high school?

“I don’t see a lot of athletes [transferring] because they want to become better competitors,” he said. “They do it because of the dream of a college scholarship, glory, and some of them think there’s money down the road in the pros. And for some, there is.

“I don’t blame any parent for wanting to maximize their son’s or daughter’s talent athletically. But it has to be done within reasonable parameters. There has to be a cost. It can’t be the way it is now. I don’t mean it to be punitive. If it’s that important [to transfer], you have to give up something.”

Murphy was a cross-country and track coach at Encino Crespi for 10 years before he became an administrator. When he applied to be principal at Chaminade, there was little said in the job description about the role of sports. Then he learned, like most principals, how much time he must devote to the school’s athletic program.

“The reality is, on a day-to-day basis, athletics and athletic-related issues can take up to 20% and sometimes 60% of your day,” he said. “The overemphasis we put on sports from the pro level to college to high school is not good. We’ve got people dying half a world away, and I’ll get angry phone calls about a freshman not making the JV team. There’s something wrong with that.”

Murphy said high school athletes are taking huge risks if they don’t prepare for life without sports.

“I worry about kids who put everything in one basket, all their hopes, giving up other sports, moving residences and putting all their eggs into this dream to be a great athlete,” he said. “I just worry what happens when it doesn’t happen because it doesn’t happen more often than it does.”

Murphy might seem a casualty of the transfer issue, since he’s surrendering a powerful position at a time when debate is focused on whether reform is needed. But he’s not leaving because of outside pressure.

He has chosen to return to teaching, his real love, and plans to stay involved in athletics.

“From the outside, I think I can continue to light a fire under people,” he said. “I think there’s going to be a revolution.”

A transfer controversy involving Woodland Hills Taft and Van Nuys Birmingham presents more evidence that high school sports have reached a breaking point.

This month, Taft basketball Coach Derrick Taylor removed high-scoring senior guard Mustafa Asghari from the team for shooting too much and not following directions. Birmingham Coach Al Bennett removed sophomore guard Jordan Farmar from his team after learning that Farmar planned to transfer to Taft for academic reasons.

Asghari has since changed his residence and transferred to Birmingham, making him eligible immediately.

Farmar is apparently transferring to Taft on Feb. 1 but won’t be eligible until next season.

Is Asghari wrong for pursuing his dream to play college ball? Is Farmar wrong for wanting to switch schools to take specialized classes?

Were the coaches wrong for exercising their authority to make team decisions?

All of them have valid points, but the line separating right from wrong is blurred.

Both players followed the rules, but since Asghari’s family chose to move, he gets to keep playing. Farmar isn’t moving and won’t be playing.

It’s just another example of the confusing, unequal playing field in high school sports.

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.