More than 6,000 Georgia students who transferred high schools in 2011-12 sought to play varsity sports at their new schools, according to documents released by the Georgia High School Association under Open Records laws.
Only 4,603 of those transfers were approved by the GHSA, the rest being declared ineligible for at least one season.
Below, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and GHSF Daily reports the number of eligible transfers at every football-playing school in the state. The totals include all athletes, not just football players.
The volume of transfers seeking to play varsity sports ā an average of about 14 transfer students per GHSA member ā demonstrates the challenge the GHSA faces when criticized over not doing more to curb the trend.
āI realize the rich get richer [with transfers],ā said Gary Phillips, the GHSAās assistant executive director, who oversees eligibility requests.
āBut itās a free country. If you can buy and sell a house for the betterment of your children, why should we interfere with that?ā
Some interesting findings in the data:
*About 25 percent of transfers fail to gain varsity eligibility in their first seasons. Phillips said most of those are because the student has not moved into the new school zone, as required by GHSA rules. The GHSA does not grant automatic transfers for No Child Left Behind or magnet schools. Students going from public to private schools, or vice versa, also must change school zones to be eligible the first year. The estimated 6,000 transfers are just those who request immediate eligibility. Many transfers donāt apply until their second years because they know they arenāt eligible.
*There are 15 football-playing schools that had no transfer students playing sports in 2011-12. All except Pacelli in Columbus are rural Georgia public schools. They include Wilcox County, which was at the forefront of the movement to have public and private schools in Class A play for separate state championships.
*The four private schools that won all-sports trophies ā Marist (AAAA), Woodward Academy (AAA), Westminster (AA) and Wesleyan (A) ā had only 18 eligible transfers in 2011-12, an average of 4.5 per school.
*Aside from Riverside Military Academy, a boarding school with 66 eligible transfers, the schools with the most transfers were South Gwinnett (59), Duluth (46) and Brookwood (45) from Gwinnett County. Buford, a city school in Gwinnett often in the middle of the transfer debate, had 13.
*The numbers donāt predict sports success. For example, of the schools with the most transfers in each of the 16 regions in AAAAAA and AAAAA, three were region champions and three were runners-up in 2011, but eight finished in the bottom half of the standings.
AJC reports:
Only 4,603 of those transfers were approved by the GHSA, the rest being declared ineligible for at least one season.
Below, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and GHSF Daily reports the number of eligible transfers at every football-playing school in the state. The totals include all athletes, not just football players.
The volume of transfers seeking to play varsity sports ā an average of about 14 transfer students per GHSA member ā demonstrates the challenge the GHSA faces when criticized over not doing more to curb the trend.
āI realize the rich get richer [with transfers],ā said Gary Phillips, the GHSAās assistant executive director, who oversees eligibility requests.
āBut itās a free country. If you can buy and sell a house for the betterment of your children, why should we interfere with that?ā
Some interesting findings in the data:
*About 25 percent of transfers fail to gain varsity eligibility in their first seasons. Phillips said most of those are because the student has not moved into the new school zone, as required by GHSA rules. The GHSA does not grant automatic transfers for No Child Left Behind or magnet schools. Students going from public to private schools, or vice versa, also must change school zones to be eligible the first year. The estimated 6,000 transfers are just those who request immediate eligibility. Many transfers donāt apply until their second years because they know they arenāt eligible.
*There are 15 football-playing schools that had no transfer students playing sports in 2011-12. All except Pacelli in Columbus are rural Georgia public schools. They include Wilcox County, which was at the forefront of the movement to have public and private schools in Class A play for separate state championships.
*The four private schools that won all-sports trophies ā Marist (AAAA), Woodward Academy (AAA), Westminster (AA) and Wesleyan (A) ā had only 18 eligible transfers in 2011-12, an average of 4.5 per school.
*Aside from Riverside Military Academy, a boarding school with 66 eligible transfers, the schools with the most transfers were South Gwinnett (59), Duluth (46) and Brookwood (45) from Gwinnett County. Buford, a city school in Gwinnett often in the middle of the transfer debate, had 13.
*The numbers donāt predict sports success. For example, of the schools with the most transfers in each of the 16 regions in AAAAAA and AAAAA, three were region champions and three were runners-up in 2011, but eight finished in the bottom half of the standings.
AJC reports:
