- April 25, 2024
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The end of the school year doesn't only usher in the long-cherished few moments of summer vacation for the area's high school students. With the end of the year also brings in an honored — or not-so-honored — tradition: high school athletes deciding to transfer to play sports at another school.
It happens every year. It's almost akin to a holiday for the schools on the receiving end. And even across a variety of sports, almost no schools are immune to it.
Entering the 2017 season, the Spruce Creek football team lost defensive back Damien Irven on the transfer market. Irven took his talents to Flagler Palm Coast, where he stood out as a play-maker in a dynamic Bulldogs secondary. Two years ago, the Hawks added Buccaneers transfer running back Jacquez Lord. The Hawks also lost basketball player Rodney Rhoden, who made his way to Mainland following then-head coach Joe Giddens' decision to accept the head coaching position with the Buccaneers. And just last week, I did a story on Atlantic point guard Shakawanza Brown and her decision to transfer to the Sharks after three years at New Smyrna Beach.
I think it's safe to say that some schools like transfers and some schools absolutely hate them.
I love them.
Yes, it may hurt to see one of your favorite or most-needed players leave your team for another, but as long as transferring is what's best for the athlete in question, I'm completely on board.
A lot can happen in a calendar school year: Coaches can get fired, new coaches can get hired, players and friends graduate, and programs can either succeed or fail.
Students shouldn't feel obligated to go through any of that.
Of course, allowing students to transfer wherever and whenever they like does open the door for possible negatives, like recruiting, something that's already banned by the FHSAA, but you get four short years in high school. Even though it doesn't seem like it, those years will fly by you, and before you've realized it, you're already standing on the stage for graduation. Students, especially teenagers — kids who are still trying to figure out who they are and where they fit into society — need to have their own best interests at heart. Not the interests of the team or school they play for.
"I think parents should have the right to take their kids wherever they want to play," Atlantic girls basketball coach George Butts said. "If they want to do what's best for their child, then I don't have a problem with it. I would do the same with mine. I wouldn't hesitate."
