OHSAA wants to alter student transfer eligibility

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, July 25, 2000

The Associated Press

DAYTON – Students who transfer to other schools only for better athletic opportunities, and foreign students who are placed in Ohio schools strictly to gain college athletic scholarships may soon find that more difficult.

Tuesday, July 25, 2000

Email newsletter signup

DAYTON – Students who transfer to other schools only for better athletic opportunities, and foreign students who are placed in Ohio schools strictly to gain college athletic scholarships may soon find that more difficult.

The Ohio High School Athletic Association is considering bylaw revisions that would address both of those trends, the Dayton Daily News reported Sunday.

One proposed rule change would make students ineligible for a year if they transfer from one school district to another after they have started their freshman year.

The second proposed rule change would make students from foreign countries and provinces ineligible for high school athletics, unless their parents have become legal U.S. residents or they are in a foreign exchange program listed by the Council on Standards for International Educational Travel.

A student in an approved exchange program would be ineligible in tournaments.

The eight-member OHSAA Board of Control passed the package of proposed rule changes last week. The entire package will be explained to school administrators in September.

The OHSAA’s 783 member schools are to vote on the package in the first two weeks in October. If a majority approves the changes, they would take effect Aug. 1, 2001.

”We took a survey of our schools and found over 1,200 students transferred school districts last year,” said Brookville High School principal Dale Creamer, vice president of the OHSAA board.

”I think I could safely say 95 percent of those transfers were for athletic reasons, to play for a better team or have a better chance at a college scholarship,” he said.

Parents, coaches and administrators around the state have expressed concern to the OHSAA about the problem, saying it has caused turmoil in their districts, Creamer said.

Some exceptions to the transer rule would be allowed if a student’s parents or legal guardian have to change residence, or if a school closes. Another exception is if superintendents of both school districts enter into a written agreement that a transfer would protect a student’s physical and mental well-being.

Currently, foreign students are eligible for high school athletics in Ohio if their parents set up legal guardianship with a family in the state. If the proposed rule is approved, those guardianships would be void for eligibility purposes.

Creamer said the OHSAA has not received any indication of major resistance to the proposed rule changes from member schools.