Attended a meeting of conference representatives, district athletic directors and site athletic directors earlier this week as they began dialoguing on the new transfer rule that rolls out beginning July 1.

 

Have to say I wasn't as encouraged as I hoped I would be. Not because I don't think the new rule can't work, but because some seem hesitant to implement it as intended.

 

The new transfer rule, passed by the Arizona Interscholastic Association's Legislative Council the first week of March, allows students to transfer without a change of domicile. The rub is the student must sit out half the regular season at the school he transfers to. To keep it simple this allows students to transfer without the quibbling over whether or not the student moved or not which is often contentious and in some cases far short of the truth.

 

The new rule is reasonable in that it makes it easier to transfer with the domicile piece removed, but the cost is clearly stated. As AIA leadershiip urged at the meeting, the membership needs to be united in its resolve to back the rule not only from the site level, but to the top of the district if it's going to be effective.

 

There is more give than take in the new rule. If students (more accurately perhaps mom or dad) want a transfer bad enough then they pay the penalty. Sitting out half a season is not going to inhibit or restrict anyone's ability to get recruited or "seen".

 

As I heard discussion at this high-level meeting, some factions were willing to just sign off and let the students transfer without penalty if all they were doing is going from one school in the same district to another. That's a bad start. In the past some districts have let those kinds of transfers go just so they can keep the student in the district (and guess what) not lose the dollars per pupil each day that student means to the district in attendance.

 

Well, districts don't have to worry about that any more. A student can transfer from School A to School B in their district and not lose the student. The student just has to sit half a season (one season) -- that could be a sophomore year, a junior year or senior year depending on when the transfer takes place. Once the student satisfies the sit-out, they are eligible at that school without further penalty. Assistant principals (ADs) don't have to get certified as private detectives any longer and hopefully will end up with time spent in better ways.

 

The AIA is presently conducting workshops for current athletic directors as to how the language is reworked in the assocation's bylaws and in implementation of the new rule. The AIA will continue to do so as new ADs come on board between now and the start of the 2016-2017 school year.

 

Superintendents, district ADs and site ADs need to be willing to "hold the line" and back the new rule. Their representatives voted to change it and the schools need to follow through. If they don't, there was no reason to change it in the first place. If schools do this right and parents chill ou and take the consquences which are pretty light, the new rule can work.