<p>My husband received an email from the assistant principal at the new school today. Seems there is a snag. The Asst. Principal is also the athletic director and he mentioned that there would be eligibility issues if Son wants to play football next year because we have not changed residence. (In other words, near as we can tell, once you go out of the district and play football elsewhere you can not return to the district and play football UNLESS you have moved out of the district and are now moving BACK into the district. He would lose one year of eligibility - what ever that means. We haven’t told Son this yet - husband has been playing telephone tag with the Asst. Principal all afternoon.</p>
<p>Carolyn, I believe that you can check the CIF rules online. We live in Orange County and I have been able to acess the rules online. Try going through the schools athletic website to see if they have a link. There are definite rules regarding changing schools and eligibility.</p>
<p>I think it is only an issue if your son played varsity at the previous school and will play varsity at the new school.
My D played Varsity at one and then did not play varsity at the new high school and did not have a problem.
I do know of a baseball player who had that problem. Also going from Catholic to public. They ended up moving for 1 year to a rental so son could play out his senior yr at the new school. A bit extreme.</p>
<p>Thanks socal and mom60. He only played FRESHMAN football last year, not even JV. I will look for the CIF rules. But if we’re moving anywhere, it’ll be closer to the new campus of the old school. :)</p>
<p>What!!! I hope the rules are in your son’s favor. He still lives where the school is and the other school is private. It’s not like you switched public schools. I really disliked the “rules” w/the public schools when son was attending.</p>
<p>Thanks for sending me to CIF SoCal. The rules are pretty clear - if you’re moving from one CIF school to another without changing residence you lose a year of eligibility to play. EVen if you only want to play JV at your new school and have only played freshman football (non-league) at your old school. And it doesn’t matter if the switch is from private to public or vice versa as long as both schools are in the CIF. :(</p>
<p>You can apply for a hardship exemption, except the rules regarding hardship exemption says about 15 times that the hardship must have been “unforeseeable and unanticipated.” Going to be hard to make the case that we didn’t KNOW about the current schools move when they’ve been building the new campus for the past three years. </p>
<p>Son says playing football won’t matter as much to him at the new school. All well and good, but just another thing he will have to give up if/when he makes the move.</p>
<p>Wow, CIF is much more stringent than UIL. (Texas) You can still play JV or Freshman, but you can’t play varsity if you transfer without moving residency to within the new district until you sit out. And if you transfer into TAPPS (private) then you can play without sitting out. One of the best runners at my D’s school has to run JV this year and can’t go to districts because she is sitting out her year. She’s got one of the best times in the state. I’m sorry your son is caught up in the transfer issue.</p>
<p>Same thing here in PA - PIAA rules apply so you don’t transfer to a school solely for athletic purposes. Here if your child goes to a certain school, the parents (or sometimes guardian) must live in the same school district.</p>
<p>We have all kinds of transfers between districts here, mostly teachers who want to bring their children with them. You can also apply to transfer. But yes, sit out a year of Varsity to avoid one school leaching out all of the top athletes.</p>
<p>Carolyn,
My guess is that the rules are in place to prevent or at least discourage “recruiting” at the HS level? Is there any appeals process? Obviously your son was not recruited. You could make a case for the change (distance, cost, etc.). I’m a firm believer in challenging rules when they don’t apply, although challenging typically involves lots of time and energy.</p>
<p>The fact that it doesn’t matter to your son speaks volumes that he REALLY must want this move!</p>
<p>Carolyn, We have similiar restrictions in Illinois. If it is ruled that your son is ineligible for a year, you should be able to appeal if you can show that the reason for switching schools was not sports related.</p>
<p>I would advise starting the process as soon as possible.</p>
<p>The Southern Section (encompassing most of SoCal outside of LA and SD) is pretty strict about transfers. Can you claim financial hardship due to price of gas of the commute?</p>
<p>Blue, that’s probably what we will try to claim. Or at least say that Mom is not a good driver so driving for four hours each day is going to cause serious mental health problems and potential accident risks. :)</p>
<p>Son says he doesn’t care about playing football for a year if he can go to the other school. Unfortunately, I just see this as one more thing of value he’ll be giving up. :(</p>
<p>Even if he cannot play, he may still be able to stay involved with the team. Maybe he can act as team manager, statistician, or sportswriter for school paper. This could open up alot of other possibilities and new interests. If he is still saying he wants to transfer to this school, he sounds serious. I’m sure things seem tense now, but I know it will work out. Good luck.</p>