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Sunday, February 08, 1998 Page: 2C
Wyoming Seminary dean says situations complicate PIAA transfer issue
Dear Steve Sembrat,
The PIAA transfer rule is frustrating to anyone who has an interest in it,
and
I applaud your concern and attempt to suggest a more workable rule than the
current one. However, as with most situations where human nature is involved,
the transfer rule does not lend itself to simple solutionsPerhaps years
ago, when families lived in the same home for generations, parents didn’t
divorce, people worked at the same jobs for entire careers, GAR played Meyers
on Thanksgiving afternoon, and all was right with the world, a one-year period
of ineligibility might have been a reasonable way to prevent athletically
motivated transfers. Unfortunately, life is more complicated now, and the
result of such a rule would be to deny young people who transfer schools for
good reasons, reasons many times beyond their control, the opportunity to play
high school sports.
Furthermore, I am reminded of the bumper sticker claiming that “When guns
are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.” I can’t figure out just how the
scofflaws will get around the rule, but I am confident that they will, and in
the meantime, rule-abiding student-athletes will sit out. There are just too
many complicated situations now for a simple rule. Families move, parents
split up, jobs are eliminated or transferred. Teenagers suffer enough when
they are pulled from a familiar situation; sometimes school activities, sports
or otherwise, give them meaningful involvement, a positive peer group, and
some stability when other parts of their lives are changing.
As most schools, Wyoming Seminary has students transfer in and out every
year. Students come because they find the academic program interesting, their
parents move, they want a boarding experience. Students leave because of
academic problems, financial reasons, or more interest in other schools’
academic programs. I can think of at least 15 of our students who would be
ineligible under your rule; I can honestly say that not one of them came
primarily because of athletics. I can also think of several students over the
last few years who left our school. None of them left because of any athletic
reason, and I would fight vigorously for their eligibility at their new
school, even one young man whose performance against us cost the game.
In this district alone, you have public, parochial, vocational-technical,
independent day and independent boarding schools. The diversity of these
schools makes it likely that families will change for reasons other than
athletics. A no-transfer rule would cause the same problem in reverse that it
seeks to prevent: Students would remain at a school for athletic reasons
rather than sit out, even though another school’s program is better suited to
their needs and interests. The PIAA has amended and studied the Transfer Rule
more in recent years than any of its other hundreds of regulations. As the
principal of a school with students from all over the world, boarding and day
students, I have had to keep up with their changes and proposed changes. I
honestly believe that the PIAA has attempted in good faith to prevent
athletically motivated transfers.
The rules aren’t bad; the system breaks down in the implementation. It is
probably unreasonable to expect member schools to police their peer
institutions. First, we do not have access to student records nor is there
time to inspect transfer records from every other school in the district. (The
time it takes to do the paperwork for one’s own school is staggering.) Also,
the politics of making tough decisions for other schools in one’s district
probably dooms such a process. A possible solution is to set up a committee
whose members are not at the local level to review transfer applications and
make the hard decisions. They would have to be armed with clear-cut guidelines
but would need the authority to exercise discretion.
Furthermore, the PIAA office would have to give this committee more backing
and respect than they have given local district committees in the past. I
don’t know exactly who would be willing to serve on this committee, sin