3/7/2008 - Taking a Hard Look at the New Transfer Rules
Athletic advantage. Ask 10 people to give their definition of the term and, most likely, you will receive 10 different answers. But it is this term that is at the crux of the battle between the public and non-public high schools in the state of New Jersey.
So how you define it usually determines what side of the debate you are on when it comes to the subject of competitive balance in high school sports. But this also begs the question, is there a right and wrong definition? Well, when it comes to high school sports in New Jersey there is only one definition that matters and that one comes from the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association.
Until recently, the NJSIAA turned a blind eye to the debate on competitive balance until its member schools almost passed a resolution that would have blown up all the athletic conferences in the state, separating the non-public and public schools. Just prior to the vote in December, the NJSIAA formed a committee to look into the issue which will hopefully solve the problem. One solution could include a complete restructuring of all the conferences in the state.
As we all know, the wheels of a bureaucracy can turn painfully slow, but the NJSIAA may have jumped the gun a little bit this week when its executive committee approved a radical change in the transfer rule for student-athletes. The new rule, which will go into effect in September, will require all athletes in grades 10-12 who transfer without a bona fide change of address, to sit out a full calendar year in any sport in which he/she participated on any level at the previous school.
The rule exempts freshmen, allowing them to transfer until Sept. 1 of their sophomore year without penalty if they competed on the sub-varsity level. Freshmen who earned a varsity letter will have to sit out 30 days, which is the current standard for all transfers.
The rule passed 29-0, but not without a couple of exceptions, which were voted down before the final tally was taken. There was a motion to limit the one-year penalty to just varsity athletes by Monsignor Michael Kelly, the headmaster at Seton Hall Prep and a powerful player on the New Jersey high school sports scene for years. According to published reports, Kelly said that the rule was intended to limit star athletes from jumping from school-to-school. Penalizing a non-varsity athlete seems too harsh, he said.
But Michael Zapicchi, the president of the executive committee and principal at West Windsor-Plainsboro North High School said watering down the rule would take the teeth out of it and would not solve the problem. He added that there still is an eligibility appeal process for individual cases.
Two of the exceptions approved were transfers for financial hardships and transfers for educational necessities. But once again, those standards must be approved by the eligibility committee on an individual basis with the onus being put on the student-athlete to prove cause.
On the whole, the NJSISAA should be applauded for finally taking some action on the issue. However, it seems on the surface that the new transfer rule will hurt public schools more than non-public, which brings us back to square one on the issue of athletic advantage. According to a study done by the NJSIAA, 40 percent of the close to 1,600 student-athletes that transferred over the last three years involved students going from non-public to public schools. Roughly 30 percent of the transfers made the switch from public to non-public with the remaining 30 percent involving non-public-to-non-public and public-to-public transfers.
In a previous blog, I agreed with the state on the one-year penalty for transfers, but at the time, it was not disclosed that it would apply to all student-athletes. I’m all for varsity athletes to have sit out a year if there is no compelling reason to transfer. I’m not getting enough playing time or I hate the coach are not legitimate reasons to transfer. And if it can be proven that a coach guaranteed a player a certain amount of playing time before a season even started to keep them from transferring, they should be sanctioned as well.
To penalize a sub-varsity athlete for a year is a bit too much for my taste. The state should have compromised and made it a 30- day waiting period. You are hurting the average athlete, the kid who might work hard, but just doesn’t have the talent. What message are you sending him? I know the all encompassing rule was probably enacted to keep everything equal, but let’s use a little common sense.
Say you’re a sophomore, you play junior varsity at a non-public, but you are a little homesick. You want to play with your buddies from your hometown and you are sick of trying to find rides back-and-forth to school for practice and games because there is no activities bus from the school that services your town. Let us assume that going to the non-public school wasn’t really your choice because Mom and Dad went to one and they felt it was in your best interest to go to a non-public. But it is just not working out on all levels—athletically, academically and socially.
Why should that kid be punished? Who knows, if they have to sit out a year, maybe they won’t come back the following year and play that sport, and isn’t getting kids to participate in sports one of the goals of everyone involved in high school athletics? The things you learn playing high school sports can last a lifetime. Just ask anyone who has played sports and they will tell you.
I agree with Monsignor Kelly wholeheartedly that the rule should just deal with varsity athletes looking to gain an edge. Now, every family has it reasons for sending their child to a non-public school. But if one of those reasons is due to the success of the school’s athletic programs, than they must accept the transfer rules that go with it. They can’t have it both ways.
So it is a good thing that the state is taking some action, I just wish it put more thought into the new transfer rule because in the end it will affect the publics more than the non-publics and isn’t that where this all started?
ODDS AND ENDS-- Speaking of transfers, two of the favorites to win gold medals at the high school individual wrestling state championships this weekend are transfers. Trevor Melde of DePaul at 140 and Frank Cagnina of Queen of Peace at 112 are looking to win state titles in consecutive seasons but for two different schools. Melde was a state champ for Delbarton last year and Cagnina won gold for Bergen Catholic.
Queen of Peace’s wresting team is the poster child for the transfer rule. The school started its program this year and hired well-respected coach Scot Weaver from Non-Public B power St. Mary’s of Rutherford to lead the program. But the problem was that several wrestlers from St. Mary came with Weaver as well as Cagnina, which raised a red flag. The school denied any wrong-doing, but the NJSIAA slapped the school with a two-year postseason ban in the team tournament.
I wonder if the new transfer rule was in place would these guys have switched schools. If they weren’t transferring for athletic advantage, then what would be the big deal if they had to sit out, right? We’ll never know, but it will be interesting see in the future if studs like Melde and Cagnina will still switch schools with such a severe penalty.
As far as local grapplers are concerned, the Sussex County Interscholastic League dominated Region 1 last weekend with nine champs in quite a display. High Point had three champs in Nick Francavilla (103), Billy Gould (112) and Gavin Tarsa (145), while Newton and Wallkill Valley had two. Austin Alpaugh (152) and Ed Mattice (Hwt.) won titles for Newton and Kodie Silvestri (130) and Ryan Callahan (160) did the trick for Wallkill Valley. Andrew Wrede of Lenape Valley (119) and Trevor Salvatore of Jefferson (171) also struck gold.
It was nice to see Salvatore bounce back from his heartbreaking 5-3 overtime loss to Vin Gallo of High Point in the District 3 final. Salvatore was absolutely distraught after the match, a match he was in control of until the final moments. But he showed what type of character he has by coming back the following week to win a region crown. At this time of the year, mental toughness is the key because everyone at this level has the physical tools to win. Here is hoping that the SCIL brings home some more hardware from Atlantic City.
That’s it for now, see you on the sidelines.
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