State plays hardball with athlete transfers

With a few exceptions, the FHSAA now requires transfers to sit out their first year or play JV.

By DAVID MURPHY
Published January 25, 2006

GAINESVILLE - In his 35 years as an educator, Gary Shiffrin has spent time as a middle school principal, a high school principal, a coach, an athletic director and a conference commissioner.

So when he saw the transfer of athletes between Brevard County schools reach an all-time high in the late 1990s, he used his expertise to author a rule that would take away a year of eligibility from any athlete who transferred from one county public school to another.

Five years after it was enacted, Shiffrin, now the principal at Brevard's Merritt Island High, estimates transfer requests are down nearly 800 percent.

And after the Florida High School Athletic Association's Representative Assembly voted Tuesday to adopt a similar measure that will affect all of its member schools, he was one of several people who looked past potential problems with its legality and ramifications and offered praise.

"I think it will have a tremendous impact," Shiffrin said. "I think you heard some of the frustration (with the current situation) from some of the delegates."

Indeed, on a few occasions, the conference room at Tuesday's vote turned into a therapist's office as some representatives vented their frustrations at the current situation.

One baseball coach from the Panhandle spoke of making it to the state semifinals only to lose to a team laden with transfer students. Another said a "yes" vote would "take back control" from those outside the sporting arena.

Though he wasn't at the meeting, King football coach Joe Severino agreed.

"I've lost players that are going to be seniors and if that rule was in effect, they never would have left," he said. "There's a lot of recruiting going on down here and anything that puts a halt to this recruiting nightmare, I'm all for it."

The rule says a student who transfers will have to spend his first year at the new school at the junior varsity level or sit it out altogether. There are 10 exceptions to the rule, ranging from change of address to financial distress, which, FHSAA commissioner John Stewart contends, cover virtually every legitimate non-athletic reason for transferring.

Of the 52 delegates who voted, 44 voted to adopt. Most of the opposition had come from private schools, many of which said passage would hurt their bottom line by discouraging students from enrolling. But 10 of the 15 private schools that voted opted to adopt, joining 34 of 37 public schools.

Some dispute remains.

Even Stewart, who has pushed for this rule since becoming commissioner last year, admitted the FHSAA will never totally halt recruiting and that parents, students and coaches will always find ways around the system.

"No rule is perfect," he said.

Gulf girls basketball coach Mike Quarto pointed out that coaches who do engage in recruiting will simply start going after kids before they have enrolled as freshmen.

And Hernando High boys basketball coach Jeff Laing said the rule could affect foreign-exchange students who obviously aren't in the country for athletic reasons. The Leopards' football team, for example, finished below .500, but had a kicker from Germany, and its soccer team, also with a losing record, has a couple of foreign-exchange students.

But the biggest criticism is levied by people such as Russell Richards, the headmaster at Foundation Academy in Winter Park, who say the rule contradicts school choice legislation.

Daniel Webster, a Republican state senator since 1998, wrote in a letter "the amendment would be in direct violation of the legislation's intent in the recent revision of the laws governing high school athletics eligibility." According to state law regarding public schools, "eligibility requirements for all students participating in high school athletic competition must allow a student to be eligible in the school in which he or she first enrolls each school year."

Brevard County's rule has not been without challenges. Shiffrin said students have hired lawyers on a few occasions, but "it has never gotten past the district level."

"That's what it may come down to," said Shiffrin, who added his biggest concern with the rule is the potential for blue-chip athletes playing at the JV level, "letting the courts decide."

Times staff writers Izzy Gould and Keith Niebuhr contributed to this report.

[Last modified January 25, 2006, 00:56:11]