chaminade transfer policy

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SoCalHoops High School News

Open Enrollment & Athletic Transfers:
Chaminade Takes A Stand--(Sept. 21, 1999)

Here's another one of those little items which was buried in the "Letters to the Editor" section of the LA Times. Eric Sondheimer was evidently so moved about the letter (republished below) that he devoted an entire column to it. First the letter, then Sondheimer's column:

Not long ago, high school athletics was a way to build character, to learn valuable lessions about teamwork, effort and determination, and ultimately to have fun. While these still remain the objectives of any legitimate athletic program, it has become increasingly difficult to maintain these goals. Adults in education, parents and the media have taken tthe innocence out of the endeavor and turned it into a cynical activity solely based on winning and material reward. The most recent phenomenon is the "free agency" of student-athletes created by open enrollment, promoted by high school coaches, administrators and parents, and subsequently highlighted by the media.

The children can't be held responsible for this development. Adulsts created the rule,adults steer their kids toward winning programs, adults find ways to contact student-athletes and tryto woo them from one school to another. And adults write about "impact transfers" in the newspaper, further chipping awayat the virtue of youth sports.

It is up to adults to reverse this trend. Parents must seriously weigh any decision to change schools. It should not be based solely on their chil'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 admission criteria, not simply on how they may help the schoo's athletic program. And the media, while bound to report news, must take a role in deglamorizing open enrollment.

Unless and until adults start to reverse this trend, high school athletics willdrift farther away from the very noble goals they were originally intended to achieve.

Gary Murphy, Principal, Chaminade High
Rob Webb, Athletic Director, Chaminade High

Eric Sondheimer took the letter one step further in his column in the LA Times on Sunday. Here's what he said:

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."

We certainly don't disagree that high school athletics, both on and off the playing field or the court should be a noble pursuit. But open-enrollment is the law in the State of California. Really. It's in the California State Education Code. Students can transfer, at least in public schools, for any reason at all, subject to the residency rules, hardship transfers, interdistrict and intradistrict transfer rules, in short, enough rules to drive a truck through. And open-enrollment mandates that if there's a seat in a school that a student wants to attend, the district has to let the student transfer. Really, it's the law. And as Barbara Fiege, the LA City CIF Commissioner put it last year, "I think the time will come when there will be no restrictions at all on transferring. A student wants to be in the best band, the best drama department, so he transfers. Why not for athletics too?"

Private schools are, of course, free to look at whatever criteria they want to look at so long as they don't receive any goverment money or other State assistance. We don't doubt that Chaminade will not accept transfer students any longer based solely on athletic ability. But we're also willing to bet that if they were doing that, they are the only school in the Mission League willing to admit that they used that criteria. It is a little known fact that in order to gain admission to most private schools these days, a student has to get an acceptable score on the ISEE (the Independent School's Entrance Exam). Evidently Chaminade didn't use that standard in the past, at least that's what a "new" policy suggests. Whether the pronouncement is a vain attempt to turn back the clock to a simpler time is something we can't say. Only time will tell.