DIAA cracks down on high school athletes transferring with new rules passed Thursday

The Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association board of directors has unanimously approved new rules to discourage students from routinely switching schools for athletic purposes.

During its monthly meeting Thursday at the Smyrna School District office, the board did ask the DIAA rules and regulations committee that crafted the regulations for some revisions it still must make.

But the board did accept new regulations that aim to, they read, “deter students from transferring schools for athletic advantage, to help discourage recruitment, and to reduce the opportunity for undue influence to be exerted by persons who seek to benefit from a student's athletic talent.”

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There was a sense of urgency expressed by board members Thursday to make a decision after the state-government DIAA task force chair, Sen. Nicole Poore, expressed frustration during Monday's meeting of the process taking so long.

"This today takes a substantial step in making the transfer rule fair to everyone," DIAA executive director Dave Baylor said.

New rules months in the making

The DIAA’s rules and regulations committee spent months trying to devise new regulations with the most suitable language. Discussion at the January board meeting revealed widespread disagreement on details. The board then set up a workshop for further discussion after which a plan was nailed down.

The DIAA must approve the new rules for a second time at its April meeting after a legal review and the state board of education then has to give final approval before they are adopted.

"The way we kind of approached this was to level the playing field," said Dave Collins, the Hodgson football coach and athletic director who is on the rules and regulations committee.

"Everybody gets their one free transfer, period, up until day one of junior year. Anyone that transfers after that, regardless of if you're going public to private, private to private, charter to wherever, it's a 30-day period of ineligibility."

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Present DIAA rules enacted in 2008 state athletes who transfer after 10th grade must sit out an entire school year. But those have been regularly circumvented through time-consuming eligibility waivers sought before and approved by the DIAA.

"Everybody should now understand what the rule is and what the consequence of transferring is," Baylor said. ". . . You're going to eliminate a lot of waivers now."

New rules hope to 'discourage' transfers

The new rules are patterned after similar wording in New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association regulations, but also reflect what's written in many other states, Collins said.

They add that a student switching schools “strictly for athletic reasons undermine the stability of sports programs, elevate athletics over academics, lead to disparities in competitiveness, and erode the level playing field that the DIAA seeks to foster. This rule is designed to discourage transfers for athletic reasons, multiple transfers, and transfers after a sports season has begun, by imposing defined periods of ineligibility for those who transfer after the one allowable period.”

The numerous education options available to high school students in Delaware, particularly New Castle County, have long led to frequent movement. The vast array of choice, charter, private, parochial, military, religious and vocational-technical schools have, in particular, pulled students from traditional upstate high schools which they would attend based on their residence.

In the new rules, a student who has played on high school sports teams during his or her first two years of eligibility may transfer one time without penalty before the start of the third year.

However, if a student transfers a second time or after their third year of eligibility, he or she will not be able to play for 30 days or half the competitive schedule beginning with the first day of games, meets or matches at the new school. That includes each sport in which they participated before and will again, meaning a 3-sport athlete would have three periods of ineligibility.

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New situation for those who switch schools

Had those rules already been in place last fall, for example, Smyrna quarterback Jacob Tiberi, who came from Salesianum, Salesianum running back B.J. Alleyne, a DMA transfer, and Middletown defensive back Akendre and wideout Aviyon Matthews, brothers who transferred from Seaford, likely would have sat 30 days. All were seniors.

Also, as a sign of the frequent movement that exists, the teams that played in a recent DIAA Boys Basketball Tournament semifinal, Dover and Middletown, had a combined nine players who had been at different schools the year before, according to the Daily State News.

A second subsequent transfer would include another 30-day sit out, plus postseason ineligibility.

A stiffer penalty – one year of ineligibility – would be applied to public, vo-tech and charter school students in grades 10, 11 or 12 who attend one of those schools outside their residential feeder pattern and transfer to another that is also outside their feeder pattern.

The rules apply to all athletes, not just those on the varsity. Students who have not participated in interscholastic athletics the previous school year will not be subject to any penalties should they switch schools.

A student may also not participate in the same sport for two different schools in the same year. A student who didn't play a certain sport at one school may play that sport at a new school after a transfer without any limitations.

There are exceptions to the rules allowing immediate eligibility at any time for students who had been homeless; transferred due to court action; were at a school that had been deemed unsafe for them; had been subject to “harassment, intimidation and bullying” defined by state law; or had the sport in which they played dropped by the original school.

Two issues spark debate

After considerable discussion Thursday, language will be returned to the new rules allowing students who switch schools after changing residency to be eligible without penalties.

"We feel this covers military re-assignment [which was already included]," Collins said. "It covers moving in from out-of-state. It would cover that bona-fide "I'm at Newark. My dad got transferred to a new job in Seaford.' Good to go.

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"What this would prevent is "I moved from 301 East Avenue to 302 East Avenue and now I get to transfer because the current regulation says, hey, change of address, I get one free transfer.' "

Concern was expressed about the term "athletic advantage" being employed as a judgment in the new rules by The Rev. J. Christian Beretta, the principal at Salesianum School who is a board member.

"If we consider athletics to be a school educational program," he said, "and someone in a school has dissatisfaction with the philosophy, policies, methods and actions of a coach or administrator, and they to have the option to transfer, I don't think that I would disagree with that."

Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com and our DE Game Day newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: DIAA approves new rules to limit Delaware athletes' transfers