High School Sports Thread
- Thread starter qwerty
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Depends. Did they move their residence there? Dis the whole family move? If either are no, then it’s possible they may not be.
I'm old and apparently out of touch but I think there used to be a 90 day wait before they could play.
I changed HS in 89 and played immediately. If you open enroll, there is a 90 school day sit period.
You still have to sit 90 school days (a semester) before you can participate in varsity if you open enroll. If you move into the district you are immediately eligible.
The knock on private schools isn’t the old “they recruit” because publics can do the same thing with open enrollment.
When your enrollment is going to be only kids whose parents can afford tuition and give a crap enough to go through the process, you are at a massive advantage right off the bat. Then consider they don’t have to provide a lot of the special needs services public’s do.
There are a few hiccups on the move part. I’ve seen some odd stuff.
It is supposed to be if it’s the kids primary residence. I know of some kids that lived with a sibling in a new district, but I don’t know if that got them around the sitout period. But I also don’t know how much enforcement there is.
When did they change? It had to be in the last couple years because I have a relative that switched schools a couple years ago and it was a huge deal, because they told her she could play, then after she played several games they came back and said she was required to sit out a season, and they forced her new team to forfeit every game she played in. I believe that was 2 seasons ago.
You can transfer and go anywhere with open enrollment, you still have to sit for a certain amount of time before you participate in a sport, at least as of a couple years ago. Unless your previous school signs off on and allows you to participate immediately. (which is what was said with my relative, her previous coaches and school said she could, then when she did, the previous school, turned her in and told her because it wasnt in writing officially it was not valid, and the state forced her to sit out and the school to forfeit for her playing)
I think if you move into the district they are immediately eligible but if they open enroll and live outside of the district they have to wait 90 days. This is what Google AI says at least. I'm sure there are all kinds of loopholes to the rules at this point.
My oldest quit football he senior year to focus on swimming. He was going to be the back-up QB and decided the time and injury risk wasn't worth it for maybe 15 snaps the whole season. He was getting recruited by half a dozen D3 swim programs anyway so if he was going to continue with a sport after high school it was swim.
The other part of that is that the reality for most of these kids in 4A and 5A it's really hard to be a multi sport athlete and actually see the field once you're in high school. They don't really get an off season. You kind of have to make up your mind what you're going to be by the time you're a sophomore and stick with that if you want to see the field/court at a big school. My son was trying to be a 3 sport athlete for most of high school, ended up playing 2 his senior year. Football basically got winter sports season off, our football coach basically told them if they wanted to play he expected them to be running track in the spring. If you wanted to play baseball in the summer he would hassle those kids for missing summer workouts because it conflicted with baseball. For baseball if you didn't do fall ball and spring ball you were looked over. The swim coaches weren't asses about it but if you wanted to be competitive in dual meets you had better be swimming long course in the spring and summer. I'm sure ever other sport has similar things going on. I just don't know what the right answer is for those kids especially the ones that don't want to specialize in one sport.
Yeah there are plenty of kids in the metro area that are open enrolling to another school district just to get more playing time. I know of a few that either moved into a school district or open enrolled far enough in advance in order to be eligible to play. Some are trying to get a college scholarship and are not able to get a starting role at a big school like Valley or NW but find another school in the metro area that will give them a starting role and playing time they need to help with their recruiting efforts. Not sure what to think about that as for every kid that transfers in that's some other kid's lost opportunity too.
I know one kid whose parents split during the summer and he was living with dad and the dad registered him at the local school. A week later (before school started) everything was decided that he would live with his mom. So he attended school where the mom lived (the school he was attending before the divorce) and was declared as ineligible since it was an open enrollment even though he never attended.
Another where the kids mom moved in with her bf but couldn’t sell her house so it was rented. Mail and everything was deemed as his residence but since the mom owned the house in the old town, he was considered open enrolled. The superintendent of the old district had no issues and said the kid lived in the new town. State said ownership of the house caused the issue. This happened as a summer change and not mid year. These are just a couple instances I know of.
The state has some goofy ideas.
Maybe needs to get a "mailbox" like they did on FNL. Probably harder to pull this off this day in age but probably happened more than some realize in the past.
A mailing address is huge. My HS closed after my Jr year. I did not want to go to the clusterF that was the new consolidated school. So my folks rented a cheap apartment and had signed up for mail. Any questions and it was just said my parents marriage was sketchy so no questions asked. We were actually closer to the new school than old school also. Friends said the new school was a disaster for the top couple grades. They were treated as red headed step children for all awards and scholarships.
Days before I played the school that I was supposed to attend, a school board member called my new schools board chair and claimed I was ineligible. The chair told him that he was the postmaster and actually delivers mail to the along had seen all of us there at times. They went back and forth a bit and the old school member finally backed down.
I'm not 100% certain and there may be some differences, but I believe that enrolling in a private while in HS would follow the same general eligibility requirements as if you open enrolled. So I believe no varsity for a semester. I know some kids that played FB at a new school this year, but they started attending that school in January of 2025 to get through the 90 school day sitout requirement.
