Working Through Transfer Trends
December 2, 2015
By Jack Roberts
MHSAA Executive Director
One of the responsibilities that schools have asked organizations like the MHSAA to execute is the management of transfer student eligibility. Historically, many associations have linked eligibility to residence ... thus, for some the regulation has been called the “Residency Rule” or “Transfer/Residency Rule,” not merely the “Transfer Rule.”
Over the years, as society became more mobile and families less stable, these rules became more and more complicated; and now, for most state high school associations, this is the regulation that consumes the most (or second) most pages of their handbooks. Over the years, this has also been the regulation most frequently challenged in court.
Over the years, some states have relaxed their transfer rule and others have refined their transfer rule. In either case, the transfer rule remains an imperfect rule, an imperfect net. Sometimes this net snags students who should not be made ineligible, and for those situations all associations have arranged some kind of waiver or appeal process.
And sometimes, and much less easily solved, the net fails to catch the situations it really should ... the transfers that are not hardship related or the result of some very compelling educational need, but those that are obviously for athletic reasons. It is those that we have been most focused on in Michigan.
Our first effort to get at the most problematic transfers was the adoption for the 1997-98 school year of what we called the “Athletic-MOTIVATED Transfer Rule” ... Regulation I, Section 9(E). Examples of an athletic-motivated transfer are included in the rule. The rule only applies to transfer students who do NOT meet any of the stated exceptions for immediate eligibility and are ineligible for one semester under our basic transfer rule. They become ineligible for 180 scheduled school days if there is a finding that the transfer was more for athletics than any other compelling reason.
This effort has not been successful enough because it requires a school that loses a student to another school to promptly allege to the MHSAA office, with supporting documentation, that the transfer was more for athletic reasons than any other compelling reason. The receiving school then must respond to those allegations. Then the executive director makes the decision. The unfortunate result of applying this rule is that it usually causes hard feelings between the schools, and hard feelings toward the executive director by the school decided against. In 17 years, schools have invoked this rule only 45 times.
Our more recent effort to address the most egregious athletic transfers resulted from requests from the coaches associations for wrestling and basketball, which were watching too many students change schools for athletic reasons, usually related to an out-of-season coaching relationship. The new rule – the “Athletic-RELATED Transfer Rule” – is Regulation I, Section 9(F). The difference between Section 9(E) and the newer Section 9(F) is that in 9(F) one school does not have to make and document allegations before staff can act. If MHSAA staff discover or are informed of any of the circumstances listed in 9(F), we can act. Again, the rule only applies to those transfer students whose circumstances do NOT meet one of the automatic exceptions. It applies only to students who are ineligible for a semester under the basic transfer rule. If there is a finding that one of the athletic related “links” exists (usually an out-of-season coaching relationship), then this transfer student who would be ineligible for one semester is made ineligible for 180 scheduled school days.
So far, it appears that 9(F) may be a better deterrent than 9(E). It has been referenced when students are rumored to be transferring, and it has stopped many of those transfers before they occur. We expect 9(F) to be an even better deterrent in 2015-16 because the rule has been broadened to apply to administrators and parents (not just coaches) and to address directing and coordinating athletic activities (not just coaching).
We have said that if this latest effort does not succeed in slowing athletic transfers, then the next step is 180 days of ineligibility – at least in any sport the student played in high school previously – for all transfer students who do not qualify for an exception that permits immediate play. I fear that would catch far too many students who should not be withheld so long from competition and could lead to a period like the early 1980s when the MHSAA, at the request of the state principals association, adopted the core of the transfer rule we have today and which resulted in a period of busiest litigation for the MHSAA when, at one time, the association had more than a dozen cases in court simultaneously on transfer matters. We’ve got to make the current rules work – with tweaks, perhaps; but not with radical revision.
UP Schools Big & Small Find Multi-Sport Success
January 10, 2020
By Dennis Grall
For the Second Half
ESCANABA – It should not come as a surprise that the Class A school with the highest percentage of multi-sport athletes has an athletic director who lived that life.
Alex Tiseo, athletic director at Marquette High School, received 15 varsity letters while he was a student at the school, including as a three-sport participant for two years in the fall alone. Tiseo played soccer for four years while running cross country for three years and playing football for two. He also played basketball and ran track.
He is not taking any credit for the excess of multi-sport athletes at his alma mater. "It is the foundation of the thing, the culture of the coaches," Tiseo said of all the school's coaches supporting and encouraging all-around athletic participation.
"It is the benefit and mentality of getting away from (athletic) specialization," Tiseo said, noting an athlete may be "a leader in one sport and just a role player" in another.
He also pointed out athletes are not penalized when they have to miss practices or events because of their heavy extracurricular participation.
According to the most recent multi-sport participation survey conducted by the Michigan High School Athletic Association, Marquette had the highest percentage of multi-sport athletes among all Class A schools in 2018-19 with a whopping 85.9 percent. Grand Rapids Northview, at 83.1 percent, was the only other large school above 80 percent.
Four Class B schools and six Class C schools topped the 80-percent mark while 14 Class D schools surpassed 80 percent, including three topping 90 percent, led by Gaylord St. Mary (93.2).
Marquette, unlike many larger schools, does allow students to participate in more than one sport in the same season. Many small schools, simply because of the lower enrollment, also allow students to compete in more than one sport during the same season.
"It is near and dear to my heart," Tiseo said of seeing multi-sport participation. Students must pick a priority sport if practices or games would conflict on the same date. "For me, it was cross country," Tiseo said, noting his soccer and football coaches knew he was getting plenty of running in that primary sport. In football, he was a place-kicker, which made it easier if he had to miss a practice.
He would often kick with his dad, he said, agreeing that a primary position player may have found it harder to miss a practice or game.
He also pointed out that in fall sports, "one-third of the season comes before school starts" and fall sports ended in mid to late October, reducing the number of potential conflicts.
Tiseo said multi-sport athletes work closely with their coaches to arrange practice schedules: "If coaches have difficulty with the kids in putting the schedule together, there is a caveat there where I can help." To date he has not needed to assist.
Students and coaches alike "reinforce the importance of academics," Tiseo said. "Multi-sport athletes are definitely among our highest academic achievers."
Athletes realize, he said, the importance of staying academically eligible so they can compete in their athletic endeavors.
Tiseo also has noticed student-athletes in general maintain better attitudes, which permeates the hallways and classrooms and benefits the general student body.
Success in athletics can generally bolster improved spirit and attitude in school. He said there is a general attitude of wanting to participate in something "when you see your peers having fun." The long Upper Peninsula winters also help encourage students to participate in athletics to help the time speed along. "It also correlates with the success of the teams," he said.
Two other Upper Peninsula schools have also found outstanding multi-sport participation, with Class B Gladstone at 86.7 percent and Class D Watersmeet with 90.3 percent during 2018-19.
First-year Gladstone athletic director Dave Lindbeck said "I strongly promote for kids to go to the next level. When I hire a new coach, I ask them how they feel about (multi-sport participation)."
Like Tiseo, Lindbeck also encourages athletes to get involved in programs for lifting weights and nutritional growth. Tiseo said proper conditioning and nutrition "help lessen the risk of injury" and playing multiple sports allows students to use different sets of muscles in those various activities. "You don't see over-use injuries" he said.
Lindbeck said "a good strength and conditioning program involves everything, including in-season and off-season workouts and help them maintain strength. We're not asking kids to bulk up. There is a lot of strength and flexibility (training), working (various) muscle groups, strengthen(ing) ligaments."
Lindbeck said the Braves' coaches are encouraged to attend games in the wide selection of activities, which shows students they care.
He also said it is easy to see how students grow in athletics and socially as they raise their participation levels. "You see how they communicate, you see it in the hallways," he said.
He also noted it has a big impact on their classroom work. "Those who don't participate don't do as well," he said, noting B-C students tend to improve their grade-point averages as they increase their involvement. "Kids seldom have issues with their grades.
"It is so crucial to be involved with sports," Lindbeck added. "The ones who do it really value it. We use it as a carrot, a motivator. It also keeps the structure and holds each other accountable."
Watersmeet has only 44 students this school year – up from 36 last year – but the Nimrods definitely are a school and community-oriented program.
Pizza parties, camping trips and cook-outs are among projects to encourage students to participate in sports, and fund-raisers are used to buy warm-ups for players in grades 6-12. "We dress them up so they look special," said long-time administrator-coach George Peterson.
"We work hard to get them to enjoy all the sports."
The board of education uses the Nimrod Fund to help students "dress up and be a part of it," said Peterson, who indicated much of that financial opportunity comes from the memorable 2003-04 season when ESPN coined the "Nimrod Nation" program.
That spring the boys basketball team appeared on The Tonight Show, and the Sundance Channel did a series on the school/town in 2006.
Peterson said the school realized $500,000 in gross revenue as a result of that national exposure and still averages $10-13,000 a year in profits. "I still pinch myself. I still can't believe it happened," Peterson said of that exposure and financial benefit.
Watersmeet has girls volleyball and offers cross country country, basketball, track and golf for boys and girls. "They are proud to be out there," said Peterson. "They have to conduct themselves in a respectful manner.”
The MHSAA study revealed nearly 43 percent of state prep athletes participated in two or more sports in 2018-19. It also indicated "early and intense sport specialization has become one of the most serious issues related to health and safety at all levels of youth sports, with overuse injuries and burnout among athletes tied to chronic injuries and health-related problems later in life."
The survey found 45.1 percent of boys and 40.4 percent of girls participated in more than one sport.
Denny Grall retired in 2012 after 39 years at the Escanaba Daily Press and four at the Green Bay Press-Gazette, plus 15 months for WLST radio in Escanaba; he served as the Daily Press sports editor from 1970-80 and again from 1984-2012 and currently is in a second stint as the interim in that position. Grall was inducted into the Upper Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame in 2002 and serves as its executive secretary. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for the Upper Peninsula.
PHOTOS: (Top) Marquette's Maria Millado (40) works to get a pass past a Traverse City West defender last season; Millado also runs track for the Redettes. (Middle) Gladstone's Luke Van Brocklin crosses the finish line to finish second in the 400 meters at last spring's Upper Peninsula Division 1 Track & Field Finals; he played football this fall. (Photos by Cara Kamps.)