Two provisos:

1. Take the idea of catholic and public away for a second.
2. Yes, if a player transfers from one Section 1 school to another, he/she must sit for a year, unless…

Now, a player can transfer if:

A. The player’s moves (has a new home address) in a new district. (Ex: In the case of Ralph Watts, who transferred from Lakeland to Peekskill this offseason, he moved to Peekskill.)
B. The player returns to his or her home district. You only get one of these “free transfers.” (Ex: Taylor Palmer, a Mount Vernon resident, leaves Ursuline and returns to Mount Vernon High School.)
C. The player makes the move based on some academic, financial or religious hardship. (Ex: Though I haven’t talked to her or her family, this would be the reason Alaina Walker can transfer from North Rockland to Albertus.)

Now, to transfer your case must be presented to Section 1. A panel reviews each case and either approves or disapproves it. In situation “C” that I outlined above, the case must prove that the player and his or her family can gain an academic, financial or religious advantage by switching schools. Maybe the new school offers better honors courses. Maybe it offers better remedial courses. Maybe it offers a catholic education. Or maybe the player couldn’t afford his or her former school.

If you’d like to read about this in greater depth, I have posted a story I wrote for The Journal News on August 21, 2006.

Changing schools has to be by rules
High school transfers must sit a year unless moves meet criteria

Josh Thomson
The Journal News

After splitting three years between two schools, Jamal Lightbourne needed a final destination. No more rules that say he can’t play ball. No more problems, period.

The 6-foot-3 senior had spent his first year-plus of high school at Iona
Prep, then nearly two years at Stepinac, where he played varsity basketball last season after sitting out as a sophomore. Now, Lightbourne has transferred to Hamilton for his last year.

For Lightbourne, who lives in Elmsford, this transfer should be smooth. He’s
headed back to his home school district, where his parents own a home and pay taxes. If that sounds oversimplified, it is.

But in the world of high school transfers, student-athletes need to keep
their reasons as straightforward as possible. If not, they often can’t play for a year – which, as the Lightbournes can tell you, feels like an eternity.

“I lost sleep over it,” Les Lightbourne said when asked about his son’s
first transfer. “That’s the difficulty about making a move. Basketball’s been a big part of Jamal’s life since he was a little boy.”

Jamal Lightbourne, of course, is happy he won’t have to sit out this year.
But the rules aren’t in place to punish the innocent. The CHSAA sits transfers to prevent teams from recruiting players off the rosters of the opposition.

Greg Ransom, director of Section 1 athletics, said public schools abide by
their rules to serve the same purpose. Guarding against illegal transfers is the only way to prevent a free-for-all for the cream of the crop.

Such freedom would turn fielding varsity teams into something akin to the
college-recruitment process.

“What you’re really trying to do is prevent athlete shopping,” Ransom said.

The New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA), which establishes the transfer rules for all 11 sections in the state, has qualifications for each potential transfer. If the transfer can’t meet them, it takes extenuating circumstances for the student-athlete to gain approval.

No approval means no sports for one school year – unless the student-athlet
chooses to play a different sport at his or her new school. For example, a football player can play soccer and wrestling immediately upon transferring, but not football.

According to Ransom, the most popular reasons to petition for transfers are
the obvious: Either a student-athlete has moved from one district to another
or is returning to the home district, as is the case with Lightbourne.

Three other reasons are considered hardship cases: to gain an academic
advantage; to enroll elsewhere based on religious grounds; or because of financial reasons.

If the family of a student-athlete wants to submit a request to transfer, or
believes it faces a hardship, the new school puts the petition up to a Section 1 committee, which decides whether or not to approve the transfer. If it’s not approved, the school can file an appeal with the NYSPHSAA.

There are a few additional hardship cases that are far less common – and far more difficult to prove.

“There have been documented cases where a student has been harassed mentally or physically somewhere,” Ransom said. “But there has to be a lot of
corroboration that this is not a story. There have to be facts.”

In the past, transfer rules didn’t allow a student-athlete to transfer from
one public school back to his or her home district without sitting out for a year, but the NYSPHSAA changed that last year. For instance, if someone paid tuition to attend a public school outside his or her district, that person can now transfer back home without any sanction.

Doug Lugbauer, whose son, Myckie, was a two-time Journal News all-star at
Mahopac, didn’t have that opportunity. He went to Kennedy as a freshman in 1978 because Mahopac had adopted a contingency budget, but couldn’t return to his home district without sitting out.

“If I had to sit out, it would’ve been so disappointing,” he said.

A similar budget situation faces student-athletes from Mahopac today as
practices for the fall season begin, but it will be difficult for them to transfer. According to Ransom, a school district adopting a contingency budget is not considered a hardship.

“If somebody from Mahopac would try to (transfer) now, the red flag would go up,” Ransom said.

Outside of something like a budget being voted down, Ransom has the most
hesitance about basketball transfers. In basketball, one great player can change a team’s outlook, unlike almost any other sport.

Briarcliff has added a potential difference maker in 6-foot-6 center Brendan
Holland, a senior transfer from Kennedy. However, because the move was made for an appropriate reason, Holland’s case was approved.

Briarcliff athletic director Chris Drosopoulos said he went through two steps in Holland’s case. He contacted Ransom, then filled out three forms. On one of the forms, the athletic director must declare that his school didn’t recruit the transfer.

For Drosopoulos, who coaches the varsity boys basketball team as well,
Section 1’s policy is a sound one.

“We don’t have many transfers coming into this place,” Drosopoulos said.
“But if you just follow the exact protocol, you’ll have no problems.”