Transfers, transfers everywhere in high school

Did you know a high school athlete can play different sports at different schools in the same semester?

I didn't know until a co-worker covering a track meet reported that senior Lexus Hobbs was participating in track and field for Fayetteville. This is the same Lexus Hobbs who played basketball all season for Rogers Heritage.

During spring break, Hobbs apparently moved with his mother, or maybe an uncle, into an apartment in Fayetteville and was magically transformed from a War Eagle to a Purple Bulldog.

But hold on.

Hobbs participated in one meet and finished third in the triple jump before Heritage, quite naturally, objected. Hobbs is a standout athlete, and he'd been asked before to run track for the War Eagles.

The situation remains murky, and Hobbs is now being withheld from participating with Fayetteville until his eligibility is fully determined by school administrators and the Arkansas Activities Association.

No one is accusing Fayetteville of recruiting Hobbs, especially with his senior season almost over, but the Bulldogs are probably guilty of jumping the gun a bit. But who knows? Maybe the AAA will rule Hobbs eligible.

Such a move is not as rare as you might think. Clayton Alexander played quarterback at Gravette in 2011 then moved to Berryville, where he joined the basketball team and hit a 3-pointer to beat his former school 53-52 in the 4A-North Regional Tournament at Ozark.

If you're a Gravette fan, that one may still sting.

We live in a highly mobile society with plenty of options, and high school students transfer for a variety of reasons. Most of them are legitimate. But student-athletes are transferring at a higher rate than ever, and not everyone, even the coaches, is happy about it.

"We're creating a system that we're never teaching a kid how to fight through (tough times)," Michigan State men's basketball coach Tom Izzo said in a radio interview recently. "There's a lot of kids who should transfer for the right reasons. But three-fourths of the kids are transferring because they didn't get enough shots, didn't get enough ball, didn't do this or that. We're helping create a society of, when the going gets tough, you bolt and leave."

Izzo was talking about college players, of course, but he could've easily been talking about players not yet out of high school. Everyone in our sports department hears rumors of coaches pursuing players from other schools, but I think most of the moves are driven by parents or the players themselves.

Two summers ago, I returned from vacation to learn the Har-Ber boys basketball team had three new starters, all transfers. Ask any athletic director and he or she will tell you with a straight face that students are only allowed to transfer for academic and not athletic reasons.

Yeah, right. And I attack a pizza buffet for the salad.

But a former coach and administrator I did talk to admitted to recruiting, just not in the way you expect.

"Yes, I recruit," he said. "I recruit kids every day. I recruit to keep them."

And so it goes, not just in Arkansas, but across the country.

The buzz in Texas right now is about Shawn Robinson, the top quarterback in the state. Robinson will play for his third high school team this fall when he transfers to DeSoto, a powerhouse in Texas football. Robinson's parents are both coaches, and DeSoto just happened to have an opening for a girls basketball coach.

Who to call? The coach whose son may be the best quarterback in the nation, of course.

The revolving door among college athletes hit Texas A&M hard in the winter when starting quarterback Kyle Allen transferred to Houston and backup Kyler Murray transferred to Oklahoma. Trevor Knight, a former starter at OU, then transferred to Texas A&M.

If you're confused, the rate for high school transfers can be even more puzzling because players don't have to sit out a year. A kid who falls behinds on the depth chart during spring football, for example, could transfer to a smaller school and play. That could be done by his parent or guardian signing a six-month lease at an apartment or duplex.

Transfers have become so common in high school, maybe a player's hometown should be listed on the roster with his height, weight, position and class.

That way, we can all follow along.

The rise of club sports and AAU basketball, especially, has greatly diminished an athlete's high school experience and tested his loyalty. Instead of commitment to team, school and community, the emphasis increasingly seems to be on me, myself and I.

And that's sad.

Sports on 04/24/2016

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