March 5, 2020
West has certainly benefited from transfer athletes in the past, and with growing knowledge of the process more student-athletes could be coming to play for the Trojans in the years to come.
“Nowadays people live in this information age where people know more. They know the policy and they know about individual schools and individual coaches,” West High athletic director Craig Huegel said. “We can’t do anything about the policy whether we like it or dislike it, but we try to provide the most positive experience possible for [our athletes].”
As more information about coaches and programs become available, parents seeking to find the best path to athletic success will inevitably begin scrambling for transfer requests to put their child in the best position possible.
While transferring for athletic purposes is nearly always permitted, and oftentimes warranted, Degner still feels the integrity of high school athletics would be better kept if students remained at their home schools unless absolutely necessary.
“Anytime you have a policy, there’s a spirit behind the policy. We don’t want the primary driver to change campuses to be around athletics,” Degner said. “We have full-slated athletic programs at every building, we have all kinds of extracurricular activities that we feel like if you’re changing campuses there should be a more compelling reason than just an athletic program.”
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