Transfer eligibility/ Is Memorial in trouble ??

There is an article in this morning's UL regarding the transfer of a player from Central to Memorial. Apparently the father stated in an article that the reason for the transfer was athletic...oh, and for social and academic reasons as well.

Of course, the NHIAA has expressed outrage and promised harsh penalties if this turns out to be the case. What goes unspoken in so many of these transfers is that athletics IS the primary reason. A few years ago a QB from Bedford ended up at Central instead of West. Stated reason: Academic programs. Reality: Central had the better team and presented the better opportunity for the young man to continue playing after HS.

More recently, the Parkinson transfer from Nashua North to Bishop Guertin drew a long list of outraged posts regarding the unfairness of making this young lady sit out a year. I'm not looking to reopen the debate on this one, but suffice to say that, in my opinion, sitting out a year was appropriate in this case....

Athletes have been moving around Manchester's schools for years - public and private. Athletes have been transferring into BG and Trinity for years, from near and far. I, for one, would love to know if statistics are available for the movement of athletes vs. non-athletes between NHIAA schools. This would go a long way in determining whether a problem exists.

One thing is certian - if a three year penalty is imposed on Central and/or Memorial, I suspect we'll see an increase in transfers out for academic reasons......

NH Ramfan, you beat me to the punch. I just read it in the UL.

Here's the link to the article:

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20120927/SPORTS21/709279910


So, the NHIAA came out from under their Ginormous rock and decided to saber rattle because the father said in an interview with the UL that his son would get more varsity playing time at Memorial instead of Central.

As Pink Floyd would yell to the NHIAA offices:

"Hello Hello Hello, is there anybody in there?"

So here is the tip for the day to all you parents and kids out there:

When you transfer from one school to another to try to enjoy what will probably be your last 2 to 3 years of competitive athletics, so you can be with a better ocach, find better playing time or get into a better program...... Remember you are doing it for academic or social reasons.

Mum's the word on athletics because Big Brother will come down on you..... From under their Ginormous rock !!!

Does anyone else find it ironic that the punishment could hurt present/future athletes at the schools and not the administrators?

Compare that to Merrimack where the coach and AD took the fall when the coach went against the bylaws primarily to make sure the athletes weren't penalized for his/their transgression.

good point j a F. how about they suspend the administrators without pay for a week or 2 if they allow something like this to happen and it's fully known that it was because of athletics.

Could someone briefly explain the transfer (or school choice) policy(ies) in Manchester? Can any student (including non-athletes) go to any public high school they choose, or is it geographically-based with some sort of approval policy to transfer out of your "home" high school? For example, what if a musically-gifted student wants to transfer because the other school has a "better" music program? Or, if a student/parent simply feels school A has better academics than school B (without regard to extra-curriculars), can they just enroll or transfer there? Thanks.

we should have Tulliver answer this question because we could get a more thorough answer

In reply to Seacoast Dad:

Manchester is comprised of 3 public high schools (West, Memorial, & Central). Everyone who lives on the west side of the river is supposed to go to West, everyone on the south end of city is supposed to go to Memorial, and the rest are supposed to go to Central. The "rules" are you go to the high school in your section of the city unless you have "extenuating circumstances," or one school offers something that is not offered at your school For many years, the city was not very strict about this rule, and people became very angry, so the city became strict (for a few years). It seems that the city has done a complete 180 again and has decided to ignore their own "rule." Supposedly, the city does not allow transfers to happen if athletics are the only reason, but all Manchester people know this is not true. I hope this brings some clarity to your question.

I think AMC did a fine job with the answer.

I will add that transfers for extenuating circumstances must be signed off by admin at both schools - or in some cases - it could go all the way to a SUPT.

I can visualize a river being an easy line of demarcation, but not familiar with "south end" of Manchester... Is there an east/west road that is the cutoff point? Hanover St seems too far north, but it at least extends across. Curious only - not that it matters.

Not sure of the particulars - but I believe it's accessible via the district website.
Their are probably streets where one side goes to one school - and the other another.

The cutoff for the south end is somewhere just south of Gill Stadium, it may even be Valley Street.

Transfer "situations" in Manchester. Like this is a new occurence???You can go back to the old days of Central football when Coach Shubert was there were many kids realized they had relatives in Manchester and could play for Central.
with social media, kids and parents need to keep ther lipstight and say nothing except it is for ''academic'' reasons.
The answer can be quite easy. Instead of waiting for the NHIAA to do nothing, just make the kid sit out the first half of any athletic season that a team he plays on. That would at least be a happy medium

Tulliver/ACMAN/rwvogeley are all correct with their statements. This first started with Schubert at
Central and then spread to Manchester Memorial,Central and Trinity in Basketball. I have lived in
Manchester all of my life and this goes on every year in Manchester High School Basketball for the
last 7-8 years. The only difference in this case is Corbin must have woken up from his COMA.

With Basketball alot of those parents were renters and not home owners so I assume they moved
to that school district...............but I wonder how many actually even bothered to move.

Lets be honest guys.................all of you people who run this web site and people who follow sports
in Manchester know this!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will say that in this case how is this Centrals problem????? He left Central and enrolled at Memorial
so I think the Memorial Coach and Administrators own this! Central should be off the hook,,,,He left!

Central's problem is the appearance of collusion. The "sending" principal/AD have to sign off on the transfer, having verified its legitimacy.

So true that Transfer-itis in Manchester started with the Schubert football years at Central. It was funny how many good football players wound up at Central, even though their main address wasn't in the Central district. The West football coach (Leonard) during this time told the Manchester athletic board he would resign if they approved a Bedford QB's transfer application to Central. The athletic board approved the transfer and the West coach made good on his word and resigned. The West coach had enough with Central pilfering football players from other districts.

What's amazing is that all of a sudden NHIAA just woke up and said there's a problem in Manchester. Hello? David Madol couldn't go to prep school. He didn't want to go back to Trinity. He lived in Central's district. He enrolls at Memorial for his senior year. Central signs off reluctantly. Hello? I could be mistaken, but last I knew, Jo Carl Bureau lived in the Northeast part of Manchester. I don't believe the word West is in the word Northeast. Hello? A Concord basketball player transferred to Central. Hello? Steven Gomez, the lightning quick guard, played basketball at West for a couple of years. He then transferred to Central and played summer league, but things didn't work out for him at Central last year. Last I knew he was trying to transfer to Memorial. Hello? Come on down to the Queen City NHIAA and Mr Corbin. Just put Central, Memorial and West on athletic suspension for the next 1, 2 or 3 years. There aren't any rules, boundaries or districts any more. It's just a full blown case of Transfer-itis and every Queen City school is doing it.

Hello?

Not that they are, but what if they were "tuiitioning in"? Although some think that it cannot happen at a public high school, one only need to look to Nashua South. The starting QB and his parents don't live in Nashua, but they've paid to go to South. I'd be hard pressed to believe the reason was for South's academics. Not that the academics aren't good there, but lets face it - dad is the football coach.

A few years ago a basketball player's parents moved from the Raymond school district to the Exeter school district after playing summer AAU with a bunch of kids from Exeter. The parents saw Exeter being a better opportunity for their son to get looks from colleges. That's rare, but it happens. Last year there were 3 basketball players at Pembroke Academy which drew raised eyebrows due to their switch from Concord & Bedford. I forget the details, but those players seem to have wanted to play for the coach at Pembroke. It's not that they were superstars, but they had played AAU together for the coach's father. It was the Concord parents of other players that raised the concern...

Personally transferring and going to a different school for a better athletic chance is really no big deal to me. What I'd find objectionable is going one place and then when you didn't get the athletic opportunity you wanted deciding to go somewhere else the next year... and the following year... Unfortunately the "coaching carousel" can make this difficult, but that's the "chance" you took when you decided to play the transfer game...

In the long run getting into college via athletics or academics - if another school provides you a better opportunity, then really what is the big deal about transferring? I would say the Manchester schools have bigger issues to deal with regarding educating the majority of students. It's not like the schools get $ when they win a championship. Sure the Central Football example is frustrating for the other coaches, but that's something that should be worked out within the MSD offices.

FYI - Pembroke Academy's policies for transfers/ students coming from other towns is totally different and separate from the Concord or Manchester school districts. Don't ask me to spell it out or explain it, but Pembroke is different.

Here's 2 more articles in today's UL with regards to this situation. The first is a "goof" made by the Memorial administration concerning the situation and the second article is from Marc Thaler.


http://www.unionleader.com/article/20120928/SPORTS21/709289893


http://www.unionleader.com/article/20120928/SPORTS21/709289887

Thanks for the clarification and background information. Does anyone know if the player in question ("sophomore lineman") was a starter? I'm not interested in knowing the player's name. If the kid isn't some stud, this doesn't really seem to be the appropriate time for Mr. Corbin to start thumping his chest, especially given the above examples.

I understand what you are getting at but I believe that Trevor Knight the qb at South does live in amherst, but his father is the coach. So it is no big deal that he goes to South. The same was also the situation when Cormac played for his father at Memorial a couple of years ago. If anything a kid should be able toplay for his fther if at all possible.
My problem is when a kid beats North in baseball one year when he is at West and beats them the following year when he is at Central.

If you really want to get into politics hers one. Nashua has block scheduling on four classes a day.Some of the classes are at South, most noticeable nursing and engineering.They take two class sessions a day there. Could they then play for South??? They share equal time at both schools????

Seacoast Dad, My guess is this is not a impact player as this kid wanted more playing time and
he was not going to get that this year at Central. Central so far has been very overated or at least
not playing up to their potential. I beleive its the Manchester Media............90% Central grads that always
put them up on a pedestal over the other Manchester Schools. Marc Thalyer not being one of them
but all his superiors are Central grads and I think he may cave a little to that bias.

Corbin was not at the NHIAA when Schubert started it in Football. The issue though I have with Corbin
is that this has been going on heavily for the last 4 years in basketball and he has done nothing. Now
he wants to turn this into a USC/PEN STATE situation. "Sanctions on both schools for 2-3 years on
all sports". Are you kidding me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How would you feel if you had a son or daughter playing hockey,baseball,soccer etc.............at Memorial
or Central.

I don`t think Corbin knows how to do his job.

What about the Merrimack baseball situation this past spring................he let the school do the investigation themselves
and then report back to him.
When is the last time he visited a school to speak to a coach or AD to find out why maybe a certain sport is struggling.
This guy doesn`t work! The word is he was a lousy AD and now he is in charge in Concord.

rwvogeley:
Right - I know the player and situation, but was trying to leave names out of it, because they aren't important. It's the situation though and I could certainly see how someone in the current situation could point at any number of previous situations especially ones where family is involved and ask the question - how is that any different from my situation "if" you take away the family connection. I'm sending my child to a school out of his district and one of the reasons is for athletics. Like I also stated - I personally don't care as long as it's not like you point out a different school each year to chase some unattainable dream...

redfoxfan:
I believe Corbin was the (first) principal at North before his current stint...

You are correct in tht Corbin was here at Nashua before his current tenure at NHIAA.
One quick question for Corbin,,the shot clock has been in high school basketball for ten years in Mass and other states. When will we see it here in NH???
Rest my case.