High school sports are often referred to as education-based athletics.
In other words, the primary purpose of high school sports is to support and enrich the educational experience of students.
And in a world where some families often chase college scholarships, that fact can get overshadowed at times.
In fact, to some, that notion of “enriching the educational experience” feels Pollyannish, and that reality is something wildly different.
But according to the National Federation of High Schools, only 2 percent of high school students are awarded some form of college athletic scholarship.
Yet a larger percentage — maybe 10 percent — are actively pursuing to become one of the 2 percent.
And decisions made by some of that 10 percent are having a dramatic impact on the remaining 90 percent, for whom that primary purpose of high school sports is very much a reality.
There was a time when high school sports were about neighborhood, about community. They were about playing with kids you grew up with since elementary school.
I had a high school coach who liked to say: “You don’t get to choose your teammates. But you get to choose what kind of teammate you will be.”
That was one of the greatest lessons high school sports taught me.
But now the culture of club and travel teams — a culture in which families have greater control of the teams their kid play for, the coaches who coach them and the players who play with them — has leaked into high school sports.
And that lesson is getting lost on some.
Now that college sports have a more open and free transfer policy, there has been pressure from some to adopt similar rules at the high school level.
But adopting such policies could have dramatic consequences, Camas football coach Adam Mathieson said.
“I don’t think we want to be like Florida where you can have a kid play football at one school, basketball at another and baseball at third school,” Mathieson said.
(EDITORS NOTE: This portion was amended to clarify rule proposal from original version)
After spending a year studying the issue, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association has presented a proposed amendment that would allow offer a pathway to eligibility for transfer situations that would have previously caused the student to be ineligible for varsity competition.
Students will get a free choice of school without penalty during a “window of transfer” between the eighth- and ninth-grade years. The “WIAA defined window of transfer” is basically during the summer months.
After establishing eligibility in the ninth grade of high school, the first transfer a student makes in the window of transfer to another school would result in the student being ineligible for first 40 percent of their first season at the new school in any sport the student participated in during the previous school year.
Any subsequent transfer would result in the loss of eligibility of a full year of varsity participation.
It’s important to note this does not apply to transfers that occur when the student’s full family relocates into the boundary of the new school. Students changing schools under that scenario will be immediately eligible to play, as they have in the past.
The proposal is being sent to the WIAA’s Representative Assembly, which will vote on the proposal as well as 15 others, from April 9-18.
If passed, it is difficult to see what the long-term impact of this proposal would be. Some fear it opens the door to more competitive imbalance and the creation of high school super teams.
To be clear, current rules around transfers and eligibility have some built-in soft spots. The flexibility is there to create a pathway to keep as many high school students eligible for sports as possible.
The rules are made with the 90 percent in mind. But they can be exploited by some of the 10 percent to specifically improve a student’s athletic experience.
There is no perfect solution, because everyone has a different idea of what the perfect solution is.
The experiences are going to be different for students who live in rural areas compared to those who live in more populated areas.
The opportunities are going to be different for students who reside in a school district with one high school compared to those in a district with multiple high schools.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to an issue that has so many sizes.
But one thing more folks agree on is that status quo isn’t working.
“I think we need to do something,” Mathieson said. “See what works, see what doesn’t work and then make changes.”
