Open transfer rules begin for Florida HS athletes

When Gov. Rick Scott signed an education bill (HB 7029) into law in April 2016, it altered school choice for public schools in Florida.

Specifically, as it relates to high school athletics.

The bill allows student-athletes to play sports at any school, regardless of where they’re zoned.

As the 2017-18 school year inches closer, that bill goes into effect.

How it changes the dynamic of high school sports within Manatee County is anyone’s guess.

“You just don’t know,” Palmetto High head football coach Dave Marino said.

There are a number of questions concerning the open season for transferring.

Can a multi-sport student-athlete decide to play football at tradition-rich Manatee High School or recent power Braden River in the fall, transfer to boys basketball stalwart Lakewood Ranch in the winter and conclude the spring season by playing baseball at Sarasota or Venice?

Or can a student-athlete play volleyball for Manatee or Venice in the fall, switch to Southeast for girls basketball and transfer to a different school for track or back to their original school for graduation, if they’re a senior.

It’s all possible. As is a student traveling to Pinellas, Hillsborough or Charlotte counties for high school sports.

“I’ve been in South Florida for 10 years,” Southeast head football coach Rashad West said. “That’s just getting up here. I’m accustomed to that. ... You had some guys down there that had several high schools on their transcript. There’s absolutely some truth to that.”

Practically every team sport that’s contested on the high school level also has a club or travel ball structure that has teams competing throughout the year. Athletes often drive substantial distances to be a part of specific teams. Now student-athletes may choose to travel to attend high school.

There are some restrictions within the new policy.

The new school can’t be at capacity. Parents or students have to provide their transportation to and from the school. Students seeking to transfer can’t be facing expulsion or be under suspension. Athletes that played a sport at one school can’t participate in the same sport at another school during the same school year, unless they’re a child of an active military personnel member that moved for work; foster care placement moved them; their parents died or divorced; a change in custody necessitated the move; or authorized for good cause in district or charter school policy,” according to the Miami Herald.

“Transportation is the main issue here with kids trying to get from school to school,” West said. “Kids may have a desire to go somewhere else, but it always comes down to you need a ride. You need a way there.”

Within Manatee County, Braden River, Lakewood Ranch and Palmetto high schools were at capacity for the 2016-17 school year, so those schools can’t receive transfers, according to HB 7029.

“We were open for school choice three years ago,” Braden River head football coach Curt Bradley said. “That was the last time we were open. We’re at capacity, so we’re not open for school choice. I guess you could say the rule is not going to affect schools in Manatee County that are capacity.”

There’s also the question of how coaching styles might change to keep players from leaving. However, some high school football coaches aren’t changing their approach.

“Anybody that’s going to leave, if we’re going to coach you hard here, hopefully they’re going to coach you just as hard where you’re going,” West said. “If they’re not, then it’s not the place for you to go anyway. So we’re still going to be just as hard and coach our kids up as much as we can to the best of our ability.”

Manatee High head football coach Yusuf Shakir echoed West’s sentiments.

“If we’re working and being productive,” Shakir said, “and we’re working hard and developing our young men as people, and we’re giving them opportunities and they are earning opportunities to go to college, then everything will take care of itself.”

Open enrollment wasn’t always the case in Florida. Then transfer rules, through a hardship waiver, were created, making the Sunshine State different than states that Bradley had been in before, like Missouri and New York.

“Wherever your house is, that’s where you go to school,” Bradley said. “There’s no open enrollment. There’s (not) anything like that.”

In Florida, not anymore.

This story was originally published June 30, 2017 at 6:48 PM with the headline "Open transfer rules begin for Florida HS athletes."