Under the statewide athletic association's revised transfer rules, altered as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, student-athletes transferring before next month will be eligible to compete immediately without a bonafide address change.
Prior to adopting what the NJSIAA is calling a "free transfer," student-athletes unable to establish a change of residence were required to sit the first 30 days of a sports season.
All student-athletes attending non-public schools or public school districts in a town where they don’t live would still be required to pay tuition, a price some may be willing to pay to compete this fall.
The NJSIAA decision to alter the transfer rule amid the pandemic was made long before school districts across the state started canceling the fall sports season.
Leonia Public Schools on Thursday became the sixth New Jersey school district to cancel fall sports. Two other school districts won’t allow their football teams to play this season.
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Dan Higgins, the head football coach at Piscataway, a perennial state power that has developed NFL players, said his district’s decision last week to cancel fall sports, coupled with the NJSIAA's free transfer rule, could lead to a “mass exodus” within his program.
“One of my biggest difficulties is understanding how we are not all in this together, making decisions unilaterally as a state when it comes to sports competition,” Higgins said. “With us exiting early, it’s created a free for all for all of our players.
“It seems like we are being taken advantage of because we decided early in the process that we are not going to play. The whole state (should be) either playing, not playing or playing at a different time. We should not be having to protect our kids from moving out of district to play elsewhere.”
NJSIAA Chief Operating Officer Colleen Maguire said the NJSIAA created the transfer rule waiver for myriad reasons, ranging from financial to family-living circ*mstances and health factors amid the pandemic.
“There could be circ*mstances as to why the transfer took place, based on a change in the family living situation, a need to go live with another family member,” Maguire said. “There’s a lot to it. We didn’t want any student to have to suffer from potentially sitting their season.
“With that said,” Maguire continued, “we also can’t carve out this rule specific to types of transfers.”
Maguire said the NJSIAA’s rule preventing student-athletes from transferring for athletic advantage remains unchanged, meaning a player’s sending district still has the ability to indicate in the NJSIAA's Home Campus Portal if it believes the student-athlete is leaving for athletic advantage.
“It’s up to the school to contact us and check that box, as we always say,” Maguire said. “We have to trust our schools to manage this situation and wait for them to notify us and then we proceed from there like we would under normal circ*mstances.”
Maguire was referring to the NJSIAA’s appeals process, which would allow a member school to contest the transfer of a student-athlete to another school through the association’s Eligibility Appeals Committee.
Greater Middlesex Conference Executive Director Frank Noppenberger, who has been involved with scholastic sports for more than four decades as a coach and administrator, said he believes few, if any athletics directors, would challenge a transfer’s eligibility amid the pandemic.
“The world of high school athletics is not what it’s been in the past,” Noppenberger said. “With that being said, if the kids are transferring so they can play a year of their sport, I can understand why they would do that. It’s important to them.”
Noppenberger said the NJSIAA’s decision to emphasize competition and deemphasize championships, none of which will be traditionally contested at the sectional or state level this fall, enables student-athletes to transfer for the purity of sport.
“Since it’s not going to be the same type of format with championships, and we are making adjustments for these kids, it would be very difficult for an AD to say a kid is leaving for athletic advantage,” Noppenberger said.
After Piscataway last week joined fellow GMC member Carteret in canceling the fall season, Higgins said he believed multiple student-athletes from the high school are contemplating a transfer.
“I definitely have a problem with what’s going on right now as far as the transfer rule,” Higgins said. “It’s impacting us at Piscataway directly because of the circ*mstances of some schools at the moment playing and others not playing.
“We have asked our families for patience before leaving to go to other schools to play because of the changing climate at this time. However, if things remain the same, we are going to see a mass exodus of players that will be able to leave the district and play for whoever, wherever they can.”
Student-athletes whose parents reside in different towns due to separation or divorce would be free to establish legal residency in a public school district and attend a new high school without having to pay tuition.
With student-athletes having until Sept. 1 to make a move without penalty, they and their families are running out of time.
Under NJSIAA rules, anystudent-athlete who transfers after Sept. 1 must sit 30 days, or one half of the maximum number of games being played in a season, whichever is less.
Transfering to play a sport is a calculated risk, as changes in health data and other factors surrounding the coronavirus pandemic could force the NJSIAA or any school district to cancel or postpone the fall season at any time.
Any student-athlete who uses a free transfer before the start of this academic year would be subjcet to the NJSIAA's traditional transfer rules upon returning to his or her original district.
“I don’t begrudge anybody the opportunity to participate in a sport they love and want to play,” Higgins said. “However, under these current circ*mstances, it seems to not be a really level playing field for everyone involved here because we are going to be adversely affected by something that’s out of our control.
"It could impact our program beyond just this season because underclassmen want to play, too. Underclassmen will transfer out, as well. Juniors and seniors are looking to get film for college, and I can’t blame them.”
JoeBellamy, whose son, Rocco, is a rising senior football player at Piscataway,speculated in an online petition to reinstate fall sports that “many students may leave Piscataway High School as a result” of the district’s decision.
“I know many students, parents, and coaches are disappointed in this decision and would rather wait for a collective decision made by the (GMC) or NJSIAA," Bellamy wrote in his petition.
"It should be a parent and student's decision as to whether or not they want to put themselves in a position to participate in their sport or activity.”
Email: gtufaro@gannett.com
