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Fryer: Why does CIF-SS say ‘no’ to some transfers but ‘yes’ to most?

September 5, 2024

The CIF Southern Section will do all it can to get high school kids eligible to play.

Sometimes, the facts of a transfer situation just won’t allow that to happen.

It’s always bigger news when transfers happen in the bigger sports at ranked schools. So it became social media conversation when Arizona State-committed senior quarterback Michael “Butter” Tollefson was declared ineligible to play at Tustin after transferring from JSerra, and All-County offensive lineman Jacob Maiava (SMU commit) was declared ineligible to play at Crean Lutheran after transferring from Santa Margarita.

Tollefson and Maiava would be playing at their third high schools had they been eligible at Tustin and Santa Margarita, respectively.

Many conditions established in the CIF-SS constitution and by-laws will prohibit a transfer from becoming immediately eligible at his or her new school.

“Our intent is to find what the evidence is and what are the facts in any given case to determine if our rules have been violated or not,” said CIF-SS commissioner Mike West. “If we find that they’ve been violated then we’re obligated to enforce the by-laws.”

CIF Southern Section commissioner Mike West speaks at the annual press conference luncheon on Nov. 20, 2023, in Long Beach. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

They include following a coach who has moved from School A to School B or a private tutor who is coaching at School B, the school athlete transferred to. This is called in CIF parlance “pre-enrollment contact” which includes contact with any coaches, staff, faculty, administration or parents at School B.

If it’s found that a transfer was made under “undue influence,” which includes recruiting, that will make a student-athlete ineligible. With NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) endorsement income available to high school school athletes, and with the high-profile school programs perhaps providing more NIL opportunities than others, this could come into play. So far NIL opportunities have not been heavily prevalent in local high school athletics.

Athletes who left a school for disciplinary reasons are not going to be athletically eligible when they enroll at School B. Sometimes change-of-residence requirements are not met.

The preceding does not comprise the complete list of why student-athletes are denied eligibility. They are among the more common reasons.

By the way, verifying that a change of residence has been made, which has to include the student-athlete’s entire family, is made by the school and not by the CIF-SS office. An example is the transfer of quarterback Dash Beierly from Chaparral of Temecula to Mater Dei. The CIF-SS website states of his eligibility status: “CIF (d)efined ‘Valid Change of Residence’ certified by the receiving school in accordance with bylaw 206 and all other applicable eligibility rules; student is eligible in all sports at any level.”

Athletes who do not make the verified change of residence that grants immediate athletic varsity-level eligibility must observe a sit-out period that equals 50 percent of the total number of days of that season of sport. If the student-athlete transfers after the season has begun, his/her sit-out period still starts from the first day of the season of sport.

One of the better cross country and track distance runners in Orange County is junior Summer Wilson. When she transferred from JSerra to Irvine before this school year she did not make a change of residence. Wilson has to sit out 50 percent of the days of the cross country season and 50 percent of the days of the track and field season.

A transferred athlete who does not make the verified change of residence can play the entire season at the junior varsity level.

The sit-out period or option to play at the junior varsity level is not available to a student-athlete whose transfer violated one of the conditions set for athlete eligibility at the new school.

It’s happened that a transfer who played during the regular season is suddenly found during the playoffs to be ineligible. Then a school has to forfeit the games in which the transfer participated and is removed from the playoffs.

“We’re doing our best to protect the schools,” West said. “If we just give it a once-over and we say ‘OK, you’re good’ and then some information comes up in the second round of the playoffs, that’s something we don’t want happening.”

August was a busy month for the CIF-SS office in Los Alamitos to process transfer requests. There were 1,705 total transfer requests made last month in the Southern Section that has 562 member schools. That’s a bit of a decrease from the 1,741 requests made in August 2023.

Of those 1,705 transfer requisitions last month, the CIF-SS reports that five transfers were denied varsity eligibility at their new school: three because of discipline, two because of pre-enrollment contact/undue influence.

The CIF Southern Section office did what it had to do in those cases.

NOTES

Check with the schools before going to any high school event this week. The extreme heat is forcing changes to many schedules. …

Mater Dei did its own live-streaming of its football home game against Centennial of Corona two weeks ago. The CIF Southern Section told Mater Dei that it can’t do that because CIF-SS has an exclusivity arrangement with the NFHS Network for live streaming of CIF-SS events. There is some friction there that could worsen. …

Newport Harbor senior Keaton Robar, whose forte in track and field is the 800 meters, is giving cross country a try this season. She finished first in the Saddleback Cup, a 2-mile race, this past weekend at Trabuco Hills with a time of 10 minutes, 38.9 seconds. Trabuco Hills senior distance ace Holly Barker was second at 10:37.9 and Newport Harbor senior Marley McCullough third at 10:42.6. …

Trabuco Hills senior Dylan Jubak was first (9:08.4) in the boys 2-mile race at the Saddleback Cup. …

Saddleback football ended its 19-game losing streak last week with a 44-0 win over Morningside of Inglewood. The Roadrunners are 1-1. …

Cash O’Byrne of Tesoro, according to MaxPreps, the CIF-SS leader in passing yardage with 782 yards. Canyon’s Alex Lundsberg is second at 774. …

Dave Carlson this week stepped aside as Los Alamitos boys and girls water polo coach for family reasons. He has coached the Griffins in various stints since 1999, including two CIF-SS championships. Rob Grayelli is the interim coach. …

Liberty-Liberty-Liberty! Three Liberty schools are in Orange County to play football games Friday. Liberty of Winchester is at Crean Lutheran, Liberty of Bakersfield plays Santa Margarita at Trabuco Hills High, and Liberty of Henderson, Nev. is at Mission Viejo.

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