It’s the first basketball game of the new season and there are a few players on the court you know well.
They were sophomores or juniors last year and a few of them grew up in your neighborhood. But there is one player on the team you only vaguely recognize.
You look on the roster and see he’s a senior. It takes you a minute to realize that last year he was playing for another team across town. Now he wears your school’s colors.
Suddenly, you feel better about your school’s chances of winning a league championship or maybe that elusive state title.
Student athletes transfer between high schools frequently, and though it’s against the rules to switch schools solely for athletic reasons, it’s an open secret that it happens.
A statistical analysis of 10 high school basketball teams from the Mid-Valley that placed at the state tournament the past five years – both boys and girls from Class 6A through Class 2A – shows those that had transfer players performed better than those that didn’t.
The Statesman Journal analysis also found:
*One team had four transfers, and it had a winning percentage of .862.
*Two teams had three transfers for a combined .813 winning percentage.
*Two teams had two transfers for a combined.913 winning percentage.
*Teams that had one transfer had a .775 winning percentage.
*Teams that had no transfers had a .705 winning percentage.
So many high school athletes transfer between schools each year that it’s hard for the average fan to keep track. And no organization in Oregon officially tracks or analyzes transfers.
The basic tenet of the Oregon School Athletics Association rules is that high school students are supposed to play for the school in the district in which their parents live.
“Play where you live. That’s the fundamental, break it down, get through all the language, you play where you live with your parents. That’s the theory,” OSAA Executive Director Peter Weber said.
“But there’s also nine pages of exceptions.”
There is no doubt that successful teams stay successful year after year when they have high-profile players transfer into their programs, and it changes the competitive balance of high school sports.
“Maybe the lure of winning is the same for coaches as it is for kids,” Dayton boys basketball coach Ron Hop said. “ ‘Hey, I’m not going to stick around here if we’re not going to win, I’ll go somewhere else.’ Maybe kids are thinking the same thing.”
The landscape for transfers differs greatly from state to state. But the rules about transferring between high schools and playing sports in Oregon are more relaxed than those in many states. Penalties can be levied if there are any improprieties.
In California, first-time transfers who have not changed residence have to sit out a month at the new school. In Arizona, in-state transfers have to sit out 50 percent of the season at their new school, and in Ohio they have to sit out half a season to a full school year.
In Oregon, transfers can play immediately, once their paperwork goes through.
“To me, the bottom line is that we want our students to be engaged in healthy, wholesome activities as much as possible so they can experience life lessons … we want to lower the barriers to them so they have access to as many things as possible,” said Blanchet president Tony Guevara, who is on the OSAA Executive Board.
“We have to be careful that we don’t over-legislate, we don’t try to second-guess people’s motivations and assume circumstances that may not exist,” Guevara said. “So I would always err on the side of increased access, not decreased access.
“And yes, will people abuse that from time to time? Certainly. And it happens in all areas of our lives and our society, but there’re so many more kids that benefit.”
The transfer process
In eligibility terms, students get a free pass when transferring between schools before entering high school. They are immediately eligible to play all OSAA sports at the school where they enroll as a freshman, whether or not they live in the district.
When they transfer between high schools after enrolling as a freshman and want to play a sport at the new school, the school to which the student is transferring must fill out an eligible student transfer certificate from the OSAA.
Those are reviewed by the district athletic committee, which is made up of three principals or other administrators, from three schools in the district.
The committee decides to grant or deny the request.
“There’s (300) to 500 per year that go through that system, and to be honest, about 90 percent of them get granted by our district committees,” Weber said.
The ones that are denied can be appealed to the OSAA Eligibility Appeals Board.
From that 30-person group of administrators, school board members and lay citizens from throughout Oregon, five are selected to hear each appeal.
In the 2015-16 school year, 15 of the 17 appeals brought before the appeals board were overturned, and the athlete was declared eligible to play for the new school.
“Oftentimes they have new information introduced that was not part of the first decision,” said Guevara, who formerly sat on the appeals committee. “From time to time, that can be compelling enough that a different decision was made.”
If the student’s transfer is denied at both of those levels, they have to sit out a year of sports after they transfer.
High-profile transfers
When student athletes who are well known throughout the state transfer schools – such as those who have previously been all-state – people shrug it off because it’s become part of the landscape of high school sports.
“I think people do feel like there’s a lot of movement going on,” said Weber, in his first year as executive director of the OSAA. “There’s a lot of high-profile movement going on, moving different schools. In a lot of cases they fit within the rules, but are those the things we want to encourage and allow?”
Historically the OSAA, or any other group in Oregon, hasn’t tracked the number of transfers.
At times in the past two seasons, South Salem’s boys basketball team has had three or four players on the court at the same time that previously played at another high school.
Their transfers were vetted through the practices of the Salem-Keizer School District and the OSAA.
The Saxons placed fourth and third at the state tournament.
However, this fall all-state post Khalid Thomas transferred from South Salem to West Linn, which has won the past four state championships, for his senior year.
“I think it’s bad for high school athletics when kids are transferring to build these super teams,” McNary principal Erik Jespersen said. “While we don’t necessarily lose a lot of kids from McNary, if we happen to be facing a league opponent that’s getting some talent from McKay, some talent from North (Salem), some talent from West (Salem) or whatever, then it becomes more challenging to beat them, right? I think it really hurts the parity.”
College recruiting implications
A reason often mentioned in the transfer of athletes is they want to go to a new school to raise their profile and better their chances of being recruited by colleges.
But when a high school student has transferred – especially two or more times during four years of high school – it brings up a red flag to many college coaches.
“I like to know why (students transfer),” Oregon State women’s basketball coach Scott Rueck said. “Certainly things happen and you might change schools for a number of reasons. I like to know the core of why.
“What inspired the change? What’s the reason? A lot of times it’s because of great reasons.”
The biggest benefit of transferring to a perennial state power is that higher-profile teams play in higher-profile games – including those at the state tournament.
But that assumes college coaches aren’t thorough in their identification and evaluation of players.
When the Class 3A boys basketball teams from Dayton and Horizon Christian were in the state tournament in 2010, there were five Division I coaches – and two Portland Trail Blazers players – on hand to watch.
“If you’re that good, they’re going to find you,” said Dayton’s Hop, who coached the school to state championships in 2012 and 2015. “Me and Dante (Rosario, an NFL tight end) had that discussion a long time ago. Jon Hildebrant and I had that discussion. If you’re good enough they’ll find you. You don’t need to transfer somewhere else.”
In Hop’s time at Dayton, two players – Hildebrandt (South Salem) and Jacob Gonzales (West Salem) – transferred away from the school, both to Salem-Keizer schools. Both transferred back to Dayton.
When Ryan Allen – now the punter for the NFL’s New England Patriots – transferred to West Salem from South Salem for his senior year of high school, he was far from a blue chip prospect. He had played only basketball his first two years at South Salem, and started playing football his junior year.
Allen said he grew weary of bomb threats at South Salem as well as being locked down in his final class of the day. West Salem represented a better environment for him on and off the field.
“It was just a better place for me,” Allen said. “I wasn’t a three-sport athlete. It wasn’t just like we did it because of sports.
“Our football coaches at the time, Shawn Stanley and Damien Ramirez, were great. I took part in some tackling drills, but they let me focus on the kicking aspect of it. It gave me room to grow and learn. It gave me an opportunity to walk on to Oregon State.”
In-district transfers
Larger school districts such as Salem-Keizer, Eugene, Portland, Beaverton and Hillsboro allow in-district transfers. Students may transfer between schools in the district, provided the principals of the previous school and receiving school sign off on it.
Salem-Keizer allows in-district transfers for 36 reasons. Athletics is not among them.
In the district, there are currently 1,601 students who have completed in-district transfers at the high school level.
That number includes those who transferred before coming to high school, something that is not governed by the OSAA.
“Sometimes it may appear that it’s athletically motivated,” Sprague principal Craig Swanson said. “It appears that way when it’s a good athlete. Sitting in this office and looking at all of the transfers coming in and out, we gain some, we lose some. Most of them are not athletically motivated.”
Nearly one-third of those in-district transfer students have transferred to alternative schools such as Early College, Roberts and Teen Parents, which don’t offer sports.
Of the high schools that offer sports, South Salem has the most transfers with 345 and North Salem is second with 254 in-district transfers.
South Salem is the only school in the district that offers the International Baccalaureate program. There are currently 173 students in the district that have transferred to the school for that reason.
When fans see starters from multiple schools transfer to the same school, and especially when that one school has success, it causes concern.
“Obviously you can’t change how people feel about something or what their perception may be, but everybody owns their own thoughts and feelings about when someone transfers,” said Larry Ramirez, the director of high school education for Salem-Keizer.
“Are there going to be people who are savvy to that? I’m sure there are or have been in the past and probably will continue to be.”
Implications outside sports
The social roadblocks to keep high school students from transferring are not the same as they were a short time ago.
Anna Marchbanks, who would go on to a career as a star basketball player at Oregon State, got in the first fight of her life after she transferred to McKay from North Salem to start her sophomore year – because of her mother’s legal problems.
“At first I was angry because I felt like I wasn’t going to have the same path, I wasn’t going to have the same friends,” said Marchbanks, now the head girls basketball coach at North Salem. “Would they like me? Would they like my attitude?
“The most important thing to me: how am I going to get better if me and the girls don’t get along?”
Large numbers of athletes play sports at the club level with players from many different schools before they get to high school, and their social circles are greater than their parents were when they grew up.
Coaches have concerns about the influence of club coaches over high school athletes, and at which high school they end up playing.
But when the club coaches don’t coach at the high school level, the OSAA has no authority over what they do.
“You can point the finger at AAU coaches, and that’s the first place most of us high school coaches want to give our angst to, and there’s plenty of that to go around, but I think everybody — the parents and the kids — they’ve got to clue in,” said Hop, who graduated from Dayton and played basketball in college at Idaho State.
When transfers are concerning
No matter what rules are in place, there are always going to be people who try to get around them. The responsibility lies with the administrators to ferret out those cases.
If an ineligible student gets past the checks and balances, but eventually is found ineligible, games can be forfeited and fines can be levied by the OSAA.
“We did one a couple years ago where someone did a drive by and the address that they were given was Lancaster Mall,” Weber said. “Ultimately it’s up to the athletic director of the school the kid’s trying to play for to determine whether they’re eligible or not, per these rules. We get calls, they’re saying they’ve moved. Well, do you want to put them out on the field or out on the court and risk forfeiting a bunch of games?”
When students transfer between three or more high schools and play sports during their four years of high school, the issue moves to a new level.
“You take the athletic part out of it, it still concerns me,” Guevara said. “It concerns me that a student is that transient and is moving that much, and what about their learning? What about the continuity of their experience? What about their social supports? What are the things going on in that person’s life that has caused them to move so many times?
“There’s a whole big educational issue and human development issue that concerns me apart from whatever athletics that happens to be part of their situation.”
Transferring can work out for the best
There are many cases where athletes transferring works out for the best.
Nikia Evans transferred from Sprague to South Salem after her sophomore year, wanting a greater academic challenge.
She got it at South Salem, has gone on to a play college soccer at Portland State and has been a two-time all-academic Big Sky selection.
But no matter the outcome, there will always be critics.
“At the end of the day I look at kids when they’re walking off the field, win or lose do they look like they’re enjoying that experience?” Swanson said. “And the bottom line is we have sports because it’s an extension of the classroom.
“I’m not concerned about the transferring because I know that if they’re involved in our athletics or our activities, they’re going to be better prepared to graduate from high school and be prepared for that next step in life.”
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler
Transfers currently playing on Salem-Keizer high school varsity basketball teams
Boys
McKay 0
McNary 2: Easton Neitzel (West Salem), Brian Gragg (Valley Christian, Montana)
North Salem 0
South Salem 2: Gavin Baughman (North Salem), Harrison Broadus (Dallas)
Sprague 0
West Salem 0
Girls
McKay
McNary 0
South Salem 0
Sprague 1: Sarah Teubner (Cascade)
West Salem 1: Sarah Zwicker (Dallas)