toledoblade.com --

The majority of public school basketball coaches and athletic directors in the City League know that the ongoing transfers of players between schools are largely within the rules, but they don't approve of the practice, and suspect that some of the moves fall outside of those rules.

They made their feelings known in a survey conducted by The Blade.

And although most of the individuals polled for that survey declined to make specific allegations of wrongdoing on the part of rival coaches or administrators, former Libbey girls coach Sheronda Boyd is very specific with her opinion.

Leading up to her disciplinary hearing before Libbey's athletic council in December - one that culminated in her dismissal as coach for not bringing her team to a scheduled Nov. 28 game at Scott - Boyd chose not to speak at that time about two of her former players who had transferred to Scott.

Toledo Public Schools rules on transfers, new this year, are clear: Students can transfer from one school to another, regardless of what district they live in. However, if a student transfers and wants to play sports, that student's legal guardian(s) must move into the district in order for the student to be eligible to play immediately. If a move is not made, the student must sit out a year before playing sports.

A coach or representative of a school trying to lure or otherwise entice an athlete to transfer is prohibited.

Sophomore standout Mattie Mays and senior starter Sharonda Willis are now playing for Scott under first-year head coach Robert Gilchrist, a volunteer assistant last year at Libbey.
Boyd has broken her silence.

"I believe [Mays and Willis] were strongly persuaded by Robert Gilchrist to leave Libbey High School by whatever means he needed to make that happen," said Boyd, when asked if she felt that the players were recruited. "Those two players have made that program [Scott] happen this year. He didn't even have to build a program. If you build, you build from scratch. You don't take other people's players."

Last year Scott was 7-13; so far this season it is 12-5.

Gilchrist denies asking Mays or Willis to come to Scott, and the players also deny being influenced to transfer.

"My response is, how do you recruit a player from one school to another?" Gilchrist said. "I don't have a scholarship to offer. I don't buy them McDonald's every day. I have nothing to offer them other than my coaching. I don't have to ask a player to join me. My actions speak louder than words.

"If a player feels she has a better opportunity under my coaching than another coach, and they follow me, they are doing that on their own accord. Don't fault me. I'm just doing my job being a good coach and caring for the kids.

"When I found out Sharonda Willis was coming to Scott, I asked her why. She told me it was because she learned more from me in seven months than she had the last three years. These kids aren't dumb. They know if someone really cares about them. The only thing I told Mattie Mays was, don't let anyone use you just to win games."

Recruited ... by the mayor

Gilchrist said that advice was given after former Toledo mayor Carty Finkbeiner, a friend of the Mays family, attempted to have Mattie enroll at Central Catholic, a state-ranked power and winner of five straight City League championships.

Finkbeiner's actions were verified by Central coach Steve Pfahler, who said he had nothing to do with the attempted recruitment, and Libbey principal Howard Brown.

That transfer did not take place, but after Mays played the summer season with teammates from Libbey, she wound up at Scott.

"I came to Scott because I wanted to," Mays said Tuesday. "I wasn't planning on staying at Libbey all four years anyway.

"The only reason I went there last year was because it was my brother's last year."
Her brother is former Cowboy standout Jamaal Mays.

"The coach [Gilchrist] didn't know I was coming to Scott. It was just a coincidence. We moved into the Scott district. I think [Boyd] is just mad. But she's got to get over it and let me get on with my career."

Regarding Finkbeiner's efforts, Mays said she visited Central with the former mayor late last school year but decided she didn't want to go there.

Willis also stated Tuesday that she was not influenced by Gilchrist, and said she also moved into the Scott district.

"I was going to transfer before I even knew [Gilchrist] got the job," said Willis, who said she misses her former classmates but does not regret the transfer. "I moved in with my uncle, who has health problems."
Boyd said it was the exit of Willis, whom she had coached in volleyball and basketball for three years, that bothered her the most.

"I just believe," said Boyd, "if we're going to let kids transfer, we should have open recruiting. The Catholic schools can do it [see related story]. Let us all do it.

"But I don't think there should be any lateral movement unless something happens where a family has to move. I feel better about [out of district transfers] for kids coming in as freshmen. Or, if you actually move, that's OK."

What was that address?

As with several other boys and girls players who have transferred at other CL schools over the years, Mays' and Willis' changes of address have been met with skepticism by some league coaches, who requested anonymity.

One athletic director suspects that perhaps as many as 20 current transfer players at the seven TPS public high schools have used fraudulent documents to enroll as a transfer student in a new district. Another coach estimated that more than 40 percent of athletes who transfer use fraudulent means to establish their status at the new school.

Adrienne Noel, the director of pupil placement and child adjustment services for TPS, said that each school has an employee in charge of verifying documents for proof of residence for incoming transfer students.

Noel said that the legal guardian must supply a copy of a lease agreement and/or utility bills with the guardian's name on them as proof of residency. She also clarified that such residences have to meet the legal description of a home as defined by the Ohio Revised Code, where the family spends the majority of its meaningful time together, and that temporary arrangements made at homes or apartments do not fit this definition.

If the legitimacy of the new address is questioned by officials from the prior school or any other protesting party, however, City League commissioner of athletics Ed Scrutchins admitted that investigating these suspicions is difficult without TPS having available personnel designated to do so.

Routine checking would be a cumbersome task. Bob Rachor, TPS director of research, said that 984 (nearly 10 percent) of the 9,761 students registered at the CL's seven public high schools are enrolled at schools outside their district of residence, including 135 students with special needs. Rachor said no records are kept tracking the number of transfers in a year.

Administrators, coaches say:

Here is what a few administrators and basketball coaches had to say about the subject:

Mark Malinowski, Bowsher boys: "I'm disappointed with the state of high school athletics in regard to loyalty to a school. We've gotten away from having pride in the school you belong to. Something needs to be done to restore that loyalty."

Dave Erdman, Bowsher AD: "I have no problem if a kid comes in [from out of district] as a freshman, but transfers in mid-career are hard for me to swallow. I want kids to stick to it through thick and thin. But as soon as they start to struggle, kids look to jump ship."

Joe Suboticki, Waite boys: "[The rules] should be changed by the administration to make transfers sit out, unless they actually move, not just show some fake address or water bill. On the administration's behalf, it's very difficult to check that. But something needs to be done."

Manny May, Waite girls: "It all depends on what the student transfers for. If it enhances the academic situation and helps them get to college, don't stand in their way. But there's got to be more than just sports in the equation, because none of that [success in sports] is going to help you after your four years of high school. Winning a few games or a championship isn't going to get you a job. If it gets you to college, that's another story."

Bob Brown, Start boys: "Sometimes, you try to develop your program by playing younger players. You take a beating with them while they're developing, then they jump ship and come back and beat you. That makes it tough."

TPS superintendent Eugene Sanders was contacted last week by The Blade to comment on the transfer situation. His support staff was advised of the specific issues in question, but Sanders has yet to respond.

The TPS transfer rule, Scrutchins said, coincided with the change in Ohio High School Athletic Association guidelines concerning transfers.

Open enrollment opened the door

If there is a distinct origin for out-of-district transfers in Toledo high schools, it probably came when TPS leadership chose an open-enrollment strategy over forced busing to meet federal desegregation laws in the 1970s.

In the more recent past, students could transfer during their high school years from one TPS school to another if they improved the racial balance at the new school, or if they wished to take a specific class that was offered at the new school and not at the old, provided the out-of-district school was not full. Such moves came with automatic eligibility for athletes, provided they met academic requirements.

Students can still transfer for these reasons, but must now wait a year to play sports if they do.

There is one exception to the new rule that bypasses the one-year wait, and that is for students entering high school from eighth grade. These students have a one-time choice of any TPS high school, but capacity limits dictate that enrollment be guaranteed only to incoming freshmen whose legal guardians reside within the district.

Current City League girls standouts Kamesha Hairston and Jazlyn Davis of Bowsher each fit this description. They reside in the Scott district, according to coach Karen Lake, but chose Bowsher coming out of eighth grade.

The Scott boys team started the season with five players who did not begin their high school years as Bulldogs. Senior 6-10 center Derrick Ford chose Start as an incoming freshman before switching back to his home district at Scott early in his junior year. Senior guard Jason Lawson did the same, beginning at Bowsher before coming back to Scott.

Sophomore guard Vershawn Chears left Rogers after last year, and bypassed the one-year wait because his father, Verdis Chears, a former Scott player and current Bulldog assistant coach, resides in the Scott district, according to Scott head coach Earl Morris. Senior forward Jamell Baldwin, whose former Waite team lost to Scott by a point in last season's City championship game, enrolled in Scott's broadcasting program last year while at Waite.

Rogers also lost last year's City League scoring champion in standout guard Dominic Harrison, who transferred to Central. Catholic and other private schools in Ohio have no defined boundaries restricting enrollment, but out-of-state student-athletes are not eligible to participate in OHSAA sanctioned events.

What if they'd stayed?

From the What if? category, Rogers athletic director Randy Bartz, who says he supports students' rights to transfer if the move is also beneficial "academically and socially" to the individual, still wonders how good this year's Rams might be if they had the services of some talented players from within the district.

Besides not having Harrison and Chears, two juniors who start for 15-2 Central, 6-6 Chris Commons and 6-5 Norman Mars, are products of Rogers' neighbor and feeder school, McTigue Junior High.

One of Libbey's top boys players is guard Darrell Jenkins, who spent his first two years as an out-of-district enrollee at Bowsher, where he played briefly for the Rebels varsity.

If he and Lawson were still at Bowsher along with league scoring leader Mike Menchaca (24.7 points per game), coach Mark Malinowski would arguably have the City league's best backcourt.

And whatever Scott has gained, or regained, this year in terms of athletic transfers, the Bulldogs have lost as much or more in past years in basketball and other sports.

The 2000 CL championship football team from Rogers included three key players who had transferred from Scott for their senior year - running back Martuan Sample, receiver-defensive back Steve Lewis and lineman Larry Patterson.

"Just make the kids go to the school in their district and make them stay," coach Morris said. "That'll cut out the transfers right there.

"But right now you can't really make them stay because you don't really have a district. You can go anywhere you want.

"I've lost a lot of kids, but I'm not going to complain about it. If a kid wants to leave, fine. I think you penalize him by making him stay."

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