The High School Transfer Portal: The reason behind players changing schools

[MisterGalliaGuy2016]

If a public school kid transfers to another public school & so happen to take a kids spot, that is a teachable moment for parents. Life isn't easy in many ways.

Again, it’s weird that you want to tell people what their priorities and choices have to be. Why should they have to go to a private school when there are public schools? It really isn’t anyone else’s business why a kid transfers, but you know it isn’t always about the next level or recognition? Personal happiness is enough of a reason for anyone to go where they want; sometimes that’s about playing time, sometimes it’s about having a great mentor, learning from the best (or better), or just experiencing a winning culture/mentality that will be far more valuable in non-athletic aspects of life. But yeah, it totally makes sense that you should tell someone to either stay where you are forever or pay for something that’s free to everyone else.

Not being a fan of it or disliking it doesn’t translate to I’m trying to negate a persons experience or happiness or meddle in their business. And yeah I think it’s sucks for the kid who can’t make that jump. The kid waiting for their turn. I like the hometown small football. Its what I grew up with. It used to be about the home team. It seems like now it’s about the individual

If a public school kid transfers to another public school & takes a kids spot thats a teachable moment.

Lesson #1. Life is hard and nobody is entitled to anything. Even a spot on ya school team just cause you been around longer.

Keep teaching that entitlement and that kid is gonna fall apart the 1st time a romantic relationship ends. Lol

You are entitled to NOTHING. Not even your geographical stint in one location entitles you.

Teach them to be go getters. Competitors.

That's all well and good but when your physical limitations are on full display against a new transfer who's a 6'4" 325 all state lineman whereas you've been putting in the work since 3rd or 4th grade and your frame maxed out at 6' 240 (like the average lineman in High School) your spot is going to get taken by someone who came from out of the program. I realize it's the best man for the job. Totally get that. But when the best man for the job comes from out of the district to get exposure, it's going to piss a lot of people off.

This happened before the start of my Senior year of HS. We had a guy who wanted to transfer to Point Pleasant because our team was horrible and he blabbed about it to WOUB (if memory serves. May have been WSAZ) And because he said it was specifically for football reasons, it almost got Point Pleasant in a lot of hot water. He was a pretty solid player and he absolutely would've taken some kid's spot on the Point Pleasant starting lineup, but that would've made a mommy or daddy mad enough to report it. I'm also intentionally avoiding naming names because the guy in question is still a good friend of mine and I'm in no way trying to rag on him.

[frankie]

Do you not see the hypocrisy in this though? You want to teach them to be competitors and go getters? So you join another team that's already talented, so you can coat tail and bathe in that glory? What does that teach?

I love the feel of home small town football. The sense of pride and community is important to me.

How about the lessons that life isn't always gonna be easy. Things might get difficult with your hometown team. But I would rather my kids learn not to be selfish. Not to bail on your friends and team mates because you think you are above them. Problems? Stay and fix them. Not tuck tail and run.

If you are so talented, you will make a difference on your team and get noticed. If you don't, then maybe you aren't as good as you think. Or the parents think. So don't give me that crap that said other school will get you recognition. Shoot the one kid that is going to a Big 10 school to play running back, doesn't even get that many carries at his school now.

These transfers show exactly how soft society as a whole has become. Everyone wants to take the easy way out. Everyone wants to blame everyone else. No personal accountability for anything. Parents get in the kids heads, tell them they are better than what they are. And no im not a grouchy old man. I'm pretty young relatively. Just alive long enough to have witnessed this sad transition we are currently in.

What you just said makes absolutely no sense either. “The one kid going to the big 10 to play running back, doesn’t even get that many carries at his school now”. That to me is why kids are coming. It’s not the personal exposure it’s the culture of the program and the development and connections that’s getting these kids in schools. Stats don’t get kids recruited. The Qb from Western Brown will tell you that. He lead the Country in passing yards last year and doesn’t have an offer to play. I’ve also heard people on here say well they have recruiting guys close to their program helping. Those “recruiting” guys represent a lot of kids in this area and I don’t see it helping those kids land offers like it happens at Ironton. The moral of the story is if your dream is to play college sports in 21st century it 100% matters where you play. The kid you were referring to is also the leading ball carrier on a team with other D1 kids. Ironton has weapons everywhere and they parity in their athletes is very close.

Yeah that's why those coaches are so great, to give those kids national exposure. Gimme a break dude. They gettin those kids to win baby! Look at their roster this year, 4 to 5 newbies that start! HaHa! He's using those recruiting gurus to lure them in. And probably is against the rules, who knows.

Ironton fans still trying to make it sound PG! LOL It's full tilt down there in tiger land, texting, showing up at basketball games, payin for apartments, all those water cooler stories that are in current circulation, true or not, but they are out there. I think one guy on here was admitting to Ironton being dominant with these transfers because otherwise posters look silly with all their exposure talk, yada yada. As if Ironton is the only school that has D1 talent. And you mention the Western Brown QB, he's the best prospect in Ohio compared to this area, hands down. He will end up somewhere.

You post this same crap over and over. If you know so much about Ironton recruiting. turn them in big mouth.

[THEEE_GAME]

Not being a fan of it or disliking it doesn’t translate to I’m trying to negate a persons experience or happiness or meddle in their business. And yeah I think it’s sucks for the kid who can’t make that jump. The kid waiting for their turn. I like the hometown small football. Its what I grew up with. It used to be about the home team. It seems like now it’s about the individual

If a public school kid transfers to another public school & takes a kids spot thats a teachable moment.

Lesson #1. Life is hard and nobody is entitled to anything. Even a spot on ya school team just cause you been around longer.

Keep teaching that entitlement and that kid is gonna fall apart the 1st time a romantic relationship ends. Lol

You are entitled to NOTHING. Not even your geographical stint in one location entitles you.

Teach them to be go getters. Competitors.

That's all well and good but when your physical limitations are on full display against a new transfer who's a 6'4" 325 all state lineman whereas you've been putting in the work since 3rd or 4th grade and your frame maxed out at 6' 240 (like the average lineman in High School) your spot is going to get taken by someone who came from out of the program. I realize it's the best man for the job. Totally get that. But when the best man for the job comes from out of the district to get exposure, it's going to piss a lot of people off.

This happened before the start of my Senior year of HS. We had a guy who wanted to transfer to Point Pleasant because our team was horrible and he blabbed about it to WOUB (if memory serves. May have been WSAZ) And because he said it was specifically for football reasons, it almost got Point Pleasant in a lot of hot water. He was a pretty solid player and he absolutely would've taken some kid's spot on the Point Pleasant starting lineup, but that would've made a mommy or daddy mad enough to report it. I'm also intentionally avoiding naming names because the guy in question is still a good friend of mine and I'm in no way trying to rag on him.

The people it pisses off are the worst kind of people.

[enigmaax]

A couple general thoughts that somewhat flow with each other, although they conflict, in no particular order...

When I think about the concept of opportunity and transferring, what comes to mind is a personal neologism: "sports-conscious." I define sports-conscious as a loose belief held by parties (schools, coaches and players) that it is important to create-and-sustain an image that programs care about their athletics being strongly competitive in both the interscholastic competition realm as well as the market of students. Underpinning that mission is capital: either material capital (money, facilities) or human capital (volunteerism, commitment by multiple actors at the table.) I think to an extent, all schools want to be sports-conscious and successful in the pursuit of maintaining competitiveness -- they know they stand to lose kids if their programs are lackluster. The problem is, through no fault of their own, a lot of schools in SEOPS territory do not have much material capital (lack of tax base, lack of private actors to donate) and human capital can be feast-or-famine given a declining population that is only getting older and frankly less-resourced to expend a significant amount of energy toward the cause. As someone who lives a just a hair above the "Lancaster-Dixon line", I see a ton of sports-consciousness within the Ohio Capital Conference as well as the Mid-State League -- just a direct byproduct of having a) lots of money circulating, b) high population -> bigger schools, c) a greatly competitive landscape of the education market (e.g. I live a 20-minute drive from multiple large public high schools, medium-sized publics, small publics; medium-sized private schools and small private schools,) Hell, you have leagues literally structuring and changing-over all the time because the mission of "being the best / playing the best" isn't incompatible with driving-time nor expenditures. d) Tying all of that together, all of the actors (as a product of the unconstitutional funding of our school systems) up here have really competitive educational offerings.

I get the ideal on "play for the hometown", but if you're a parent with a younger child in JH and an older kid who plays/played for the high school where the HS program has been dysfunctional/unstable for a minute what is the incentive to stay? At the risk of "putting down" schools (not the intent, just merely observing and stating an obvious), what is the upside in sticking with a program like Wellston or River Valley? The coaches' office is a revolving door. If you're a parent who cultivates their kid into learning a specific skillset for a position (e.g. working on route-running as a wide receiver), do you really feel comfortable in a situation where (due to a thread-barren roster and/or a dramatic change in offensive scheme/philosophy) your kid is made into a QB, RB or guard because there's no one else on the roster who could play the role in the coach's eyes? A position your kid doesn't know the ins-and-outs of, or frankly isn't prepared physically to play?

To an earlier comment/point made on this thread when it comes to "escaping", a kid has dreams? How can their dreams be met? Networking is a pretty good pathway. Kids primarily achieve networking through one of three ways: a) college, b) trades/para-professions (although this is a hard ladder to network with) or c) sports. Those three aren't equally-accessible networks that provide equal amounts of opportunity. Sports can provide a pathway to college (not that I necessarily endorse it unconditionally for every kid, but I see where it helps and the role it plays.) Hey, if you're a strong student and a determined enough athlete, you can go D2 route and do a 4+1 (or a 3+2) program like PT/occupational therapy or sports medicine with significant amounts of it paid for by the school. Kids just need direction, and sports is an imperfect means that bridges some of the opportunity-gap.

This was a great read with interesting perspectives.

[fielddaddy]

So what I am getting in all these post is.
1 kids should stay at hometown schools for loyalty.
2 Should the kids transfer to another program they are selfish and are wrong to want to win at a winning program and the kids spot they take should be felt sorry for because they will be encouraged to work harder and strive to better on a team where winning will be more enjoyable than losing.
If a program has several transfers they should be blowing every team of the score board from the very first game no learning curve should be allowed or understood with a new line and players on the team and or coaches.
If a kid transfers it is between them their parents and that school a player takes the spot of another at that school I would hope that it gives them a fire to work harder to battle for playing time.
I did sports growing up and I wanted to win even if I had to compete for my spot on a team if I got beat out I worked harder but in the end I wanted to win if I started or not at least I know I did my best to help the team win.
You put me on a team as a second string player that goes 10-0 or 8-2 and has a chance to win state or make me a starter on a team that goes 3-7 and no playoff hopes.
I will be a second string player with a championship not everyone may think that but it is what it is.
Doesn't mean I give up trying to start just means I have to work harder to start and in the end I end up winning anyway.