Texas Teams...

[Horsefly]

1 hour ago, pied said:

 

Yeah, not sure the "king" but it certainly happen more than many say it does.

 

It happens less than many make it out to be. Running tally is on the other site, we have about 3-4 transfers across the entire state of high end players. Miami area has that many in one week. 

[pied]

32 minutes ago, Horsefly said:

It happens less than many make it out to be. Running tally is on the other site, we have about 3-4 transfers across the entire state of high end players. Miami area has that many in one week. 

Wouldn't disagree, but would offer that it happens more than many make it out to be as well.

Running list from the Texas site:

• Arkez Gomez from New Caney to The Woodlands
• Quanell X Farrakhan Jr transfers from Grand Oaks to The Woodlands
• 2023 CB Torik Aigbedion is at Katy. Previously was at Pearland
• Legend Cabello from Midland Lee to Lake Travis
• Lancaster picked up Kewan Lacy and Gerald Lacy from Nolan Catholic
• Frisco Liberty QB Keldric Luster has enrolled at McKinney HS
• Wyndell Mitchell of North Shore has transferred to C.E King
• David Hicks is leaving Allen and enrolling at Katy Paetow
• Tre Wisner from Waco Connally to DeSoto

This is about five weeks worth.  If you believe some of the posters, there will likely be more.

• Duncanville
  • Dville waits until after spring practice and only cruits to the true needs, aka QB,RB,LBs and linemen. Come June 1 the new cruits start filtering in, aka, Red Oak, Mojo no magic,Skyline and then the privates aka, WRs and DBs.
• Denton Guyer
  • Have a sophomore move in that looks pretty good
  • 7v7 season just ended so expect some movement soon
• Rockwall Heath
  • What gets me is if it's like Heath and you're getting 9 from the same school transferring in. Lol

[Horsefly]

15 minutes ago, pied said:

Wouldn't disagree, but would offer that it happens more than many make it out to be as well.

Running list from the Texas site:

• Arkez Gomez from New Caney to The Woodlands
• Quanell X Farrakhan Jr transfers from Grand Oaks to The Woodlands
• 2023 CB Torik Aigbedion is at Katy. Previously was at Pearland
• Legend Cabello from Midland Lee to Lake Travis
• Lancaster picked up Kewan Lacy and Gerald Lacy from Nolan Catholic
• Frisco Liberty QB Keldric Luster has enrolled at McKinney HS
• Wyndell Mitchell of North Shore has transferred to C.E King
• David Hicks is leaving Allen and enrolling at Katy Paetow
• Tre Wisner from Waco Connally to DeSoto

This is about five weeks worth.  If you believe some of the posters, there will likely be more.

• Duncanville
  • Dville waits until after spring practice and only cruits to the true needs, aka QB,RB,LBs and linemen. Come June 1 the new cruits start filtering in, aka, Red Oak, Mojo no magic,Skyline and then the privates aka, WRs and DBs.
• Denton Guyer
  • Have a sophomore move in that looks pretty good
  • 7v7 season just ended so expect some movement soon
• Rockwall Heath
  • What gets me is if it's like Heath and you're getting 9 from the same school transferring in. Lol

some of these kids are transfers to 5A with most not being high end transfers, which makes the pool even larger.   Arkez Gomez has no offers, Torik Aigbedion didn’t even make all district at pearland, Wendell Mitchell was a 0 star back up at North shore, legend cabello is another 0 star, 0 offer athlete. All of these transfers represent months worth of transfers since the winter semester started in Jan 

[pied]

and?  

One of the guys you mentioned just finished his soph year.  One of the guys you mentioned has an offer from Arkansas and Purdue.  You also didn't mention several 4*s and the 5*.

This certainly isn't the end of the transfers and certainly isn't as large as some areas in the country, BUT it isn't insignificant and involves some of the better and dominant programs in the state.

[Horsefly]

37 minutes ago, pied said:

and?  

One of the guys you mentioned just finished his soph year.  One of the guys you mentioned has an offer from Arkansas and Purdue.  You also didn't mention several 4*s and the 5*.

This certainly isn't the end of the transfers and certainly isn't as large as some areas in the country, BUT it isn't insignificant and involves some of the better and dominant programs in the state.

I already acknowledge the 4 and 5 star kids.  Out of this list, there are maybe 4-5 high end transfers like I said from the beginning. 

out of this list only 2 schools have been at least a state finalist the past 4 seasons: Katy, and paetow, and only paetow got a high end transfer

this is insignificant when you consider there are ~500 5A/6A schools and we’re only talking about maybe 3-4 high end transfers that include at least 3 *** kids .    

here are the big time transfers so far: hicks (paetow) , Farrakhan (woodz), Mitchell (parish E) and wisner (Desoto). 

[pied]

Interesting way of framing this.  You include ALL ~500 5A/6A schools, but limit the number schools that would qualify as getting an impact as those who made the state finals.

 

WELL DONE!

 

Do you use the same criteria for other areas as well?  

 

[Horsefly]

30 minutes ago, pied said:

Interesting way of framing this.  You include ALL ~500 5A/6A schools, but limit the number schools that would qualify as getting an impact as those who made the state finals.

 

WELL DONE!

 

Do you use the same criteria for other areas as well?  

 

You are the one that threw in 5A transfers, not me.  My thread over on 6A site was limited to 6A.  Regardless pied these are your high end transfers within the state.  

you do realize state analysts keep track of all this on Twitter.  The amount of transfers is not earth shattering. And yes, Desoto or woodz getting a transfer  or two is not a major deal. No one in their right mind would consider them elite programs. What would be the thought process if wisner went to Westlake, hicks to Katy, and Farrakhan to north shore?  The convo would be completely different and you know it.  

[pied]

1 minute ago, Horsefly said:

You are the one that threw in 5A transfers, not me.  My thread over on 6A site was limited to 6A.  Regardless pied these are your high end transfers within the state.  

you do realize state analysts keep track of all this on Twitter.  The amount of transfers is not earth shattering 

 

 

All I did was take the people that have transferred and listed them.  I didn't include/exclude because of their start rating/offer list/or school they are leaving or going to.  It just so happens that the list includes Katy/Lake Travis/Allen/DeSoto/Katy Paetow/TWHS.  

 

I did not know that this was kept track of.  Who are these guys? (twitter handles).

[Horsefly]

15 minutes ago, pied said:

 

 

All I did was take the people that have transferred and listed them.  I didn't include/exclude because of their start rating/offer list/or school they are leaving or going to.  It just so happens that the list includes Katy/Lake Travis/Allen/DeSoto/Katy Paetow/TWHS.  

 

I did not know that this was kept track of.  Who are these guys? (twitter handles).

Then all you have is a list of players that moved, big damn deal! So now it’s major news for any kid to transfer regardless of the type of the player they were or how highly recruited they are? You can save the ink, we get lots of kids that happen to be football players move around 

greg powers, Mike roach report on the big transfers regardless of class. You can also get it from 247 and rivals twitter feeds in general (if they’re rated in there) 

[pied]

6 minutes ago, Horsefly said:

Then all you have is a list of players that moved, big damn deal! So now it’s major news for any kid to transfer regardless of the type of the player they were or how highly recruited they are? You can save the ink, we get lots of kids that happen to be football players move around 

 

I never said anything differently.  What I have said in the past, and don't mind saying again is that there is more movement of football players in the state of Texas than many posters on these boards like to discuss and/or admit.  There always seems to be qualifiers.  "His dad as hired as a coach"  "He's not really very good" etc. etc.  Sometimes coaches move.  Sometimes schools give preference to guys whose kids are 5* players.  Sometimes, life's circumstances dictate a move to a specific location.  Sometimes people don't really move and find a way to establish residency.  

I didn't start the thread on the other site.  I'd suggest if you asked most of the National posters, they would say there is no movement according to the Texas posters.  

 

[RedZone]

4 minutes ago, pied said:

 

I never said anything differently.  What I have said in the past, and don't mind saying again is that there is more movement of football players in the state of Texas than many posters on these boards like to discuss and/or admit.  There always seems to be qualifiers.  "His dad as hired as a coach"  "He's not really very good" etc. etc.  Sometimes coaches move.  Sometimes schools give preference to guys whose kids are 5* players.  Sometimes, life's circumstances dictate a move to a specific location.  Sometimes people don't really move and find a way to establish residency.  

I didn't start the thread on the other site.  I'd suggest if you asked most of the National posters, they would say there is no movement according to the Texas posters.  

 

Whatever it is you are upsetting fly. 🤬

[Horsefly]

14 minutes ago, pied said:

 

I never said anything differently.  What I have said in the past, and don't mind saying again is that there is more movement of football players in the state of Texas than many posters on these boards like to discuss and/or admit.  There always seems to be qualifiers.  "His dad as hired as a coach"  "He's not really very good" etc. etc.  Sometimes coaches move.  Sometimes schools give preference to guys whose kids are 5* players.  Sometimes, life's circumstances dictate a move to a specific location.  Sometimes people don't really move and find a way to establish residency.  

I didn't start the thread on the other site.  I'd suggest if you asked most of the National posters, they would say there is no movement according to the Texas posters.  

 

No one is denying we have transfers(that is silly) most though are insignificant.  

I’ve been on these National boards a long time, most Texans argue the magnitude of transfers in Texas is small compared to most major states. Hell, Fla doesn’t have a restriction on athletically motivated moves. 
 

[pied]

Article from the Dallas Morning News regarding transfers in the area  specifically around open enrollment  

 

The unregulated, All-Star-driven world of open enrollment loopholes in Texas high school football

Some say open enrollment creates amateur free agency. Others liken it to the “wild West.” Should (or could) the UIL curb the phenomenon?

The moment high school football players win a state championship is often the ultimate highlight since they first pulled on pads and stepped onto local fields for peewee games.

It also represents the culmination of what has become an increasingly competitive and fluid youth football landscape, fueled, in part, by certain school district rules that have helped circumvent the traditional definition of high school sports.

Open enrollment policies allow students to attend campuses without living in those schools’ boundaries.

They broaden the options and programs from which parents and students can choose, while also drawing more enrollment — and subsequently more state funding — for those school systems.

 

Open enrollment has a reputation for gridiron payoff, too.

The policies can serve as a potential loophole for the formation of All Star-laden football teams through an unregulated, high-pressure, win-driven approach to coax students as early as seventh grade to transfer into open enrollment team pipelines and annually reload rosters with elite talent.

In a survey of Dallas-area head football coaches, 37 of 40 respondents (92.5%) said they believe open enrollment policies affect competitive balance.

A look at this year’s University Interscholastic League Class 5A and 6A state semifinalists supports the assertion.

Six of the 16 schools — including Cedar Hill, Southlake Carroll and Austin Westlake playing for titles this weekend — have open enrollment or allow out-of-district transfers.

Interviews with more than two dozen local coaches, players, parents and administrators back the view, too.
 

Some called the process a version of amateur free agency. Others likened it to the “wild West.”

None had a concrete idea for how the UIL should, or could, curb the phenomenon few coaches openly denounce but many quietly malign.

“Coaches in the Metroplex are in a really hard situation,” said a local head coach whose ISD borders open enrollment districts, speaking anonymously to not jeopardize future job opportunities. “You’re not supposed to talk to kids that don’t live in your attendance zone. You’re not supposed to recruit. You’re not supposed to have people do it for you.

“But you’re also supposed to win, so you’re put in this terrible predicament where you’re like, ‘Am I going to run my program with integrity and do the best I can with the kids that walk through my building? Or am I going to dip my hand into relationships and talk to people when I shouldn’t and dishonor the UIL rules, but then also allow myself to win football games on Friday night?’”

The “residency” rule workaround

Sixteen of the 43 independent school districts in the Dallas area with Class 5A or 6A sports have tuition-free open enrollment policies, according to DMN research.

A few, such as Class 6A Division I state finalist Southlake Carroll, are finite. Carroll ISD’s policy extends just to students who live in the city limits of Southlake but outside the district’s boundaries.

Others, such as Class 6A Division II state finalist Cedar Hill and football juggernauts Duncanville and DeSoto, have limitations based on space and previous academic performance.

On the surface, open enrollment appears to clash with the “residency” rule in the UIL’s eligibility guidelines, which state an athlete must live with a parent or guardian inside a school’s district attendance zone. A caveat in the UIL’s constitution, however, has helped open enrollment align with athletics-based moves.

If athletes transfer into an open enrollment district without moving into the attendance zone, they cannot play varsity sports for a year.

Regardless of residence, they’ll have free range to play once they’d been “continuously enrolled in and regularly attending the school for at least the previous calendar year,” per UIL rules.

Cue the youth movement.

If a player transfers in or before ninth grade, a season of sub-varsity football isn’t a hindrance. Rather, it’s expected at most large UIL programs.

Youth teams and middle school games have become prime ground for generating potential moves.

Games during fall and spring Saturdays at facilities across the area can be all-day affairs. There’s pre- and post-game tailgating, online Facebook groups, and attendance from people who want to scout upcoming prospects.

When Tasha McWright watched Dallas Lions games years ago, she’d recognize high school coaches in the crowd, wowed by her pre-teen son, Kendrick Blackshire, now an Alabama linebacker signee who transferred from Mesquite Horn to Duncanville in 2019 and who was always the biggest and strongest on the field.

Steve Virgil, a former little league coach in Mesquite, learned the nuances of “surrogates,” such as a friend, another parent or a third-party coach, initiating introductions with high school coaches to avoid direct recruiting, a UIL violation.

Jaylin Nelson, a quarterback who transferred from DeSoto to Duncanville in 2015, remembers his prowess as a First Baptist Academy middle schooler garnered attention from the staff at an open enrollment UIL school. He took a tour of their facilities and said he received free tickets to a major playoff game, though he never enrolled.

“You don’t want to stay still and waste your high school career,” Nelson said. “It’s not like college. You can’t redshirt, so you have to make the best opportunity when you can.”

Not every player in an open enrollment program faces this situation.

There’s no UIL penalty for moving residences and submitting a Previous Athletic Participation Form (PAPF) that grants a clean release from the previous school. Open enrollment districts with multiple high schools, such as Garland ISD and Arlington ISD, show little correlation to on-field dominance.

Five of nine coaches from open enrollment schools who responded to The News’ survey said they didn’t believe their teams benefited from the policies.

“Some other people will probably disagree with me, but I don’t think it is,” DeSoto coach Claude Mathis said, noting the district’s collegiate magnet program as a primary open enrollment draw.

Recent history, however, shows some perennial state championship contenders offer open enrollment.

Galena Park North Shore and Duncanville, opponents in the 2018 and 2019 Class 6A Division I championships and state semifinalists this season, have open enrollment.

So does Cedar Hill, which will play in its fourth title game since 2012 on Saturday against Katy.

Eanes ISD, which includes Westlake, aiming for its second consecutive state championship Saturday versus Carroll, accepts transfers from non-district applicants.

At least one Class 6A football state championships participant in each season since 2012 has come from an open enrollment district.

“I don’t really know if there is an advantage to it or not,” Cedar Hill coach Carlos Lynn said. “I love a home-grown kid. I love a kid that’s been through our program, that’s been through that [football] boot camp for four years. Now, will I take somebody else? Yes.”

DMN open enrollment survey results

Based on responses for 40 head coaches of Dallas-area football teams:

Do you think open enrollment policies affect competitive balance in football?

Yes: 37

No: 3

If you coach in an open enrollment district, do you think your football program benefits?

Yes: 4

No: 5

If you coach in a closed enrollment district, have you had a player transfer into an open district?

Yes: 25

No: 7

Do you think programs in districts with open enrollment directly and/or indirectly recruit?

Yes: 38

No: 2

A good, but not ‘perfect,’ system

Open enrollment isn’t new.

For years, school districts in Texas have allowed transfers in some fashion.

Historically, most school systems have granted transfer requests from children of their employees, regardless of where they lived.

Some districts, such as Dallas ISD, have created a patchwork of enrollment policies geared toward speciality or charter campuses, allowing out-of-district students a spot in those schools if seats aren’t filled by in-district students.

Others allow intradistrict transfers, allowing students living in the district’s attendance boundaries to transfer to any district campus, provided there is space. In Garland, for example, all students in transition years — moving from elementary to middle school and middle to high school — are required to rank their choice of campus for the next school year.

As the school choice movement has exploded over the past three decades, so has the number of schools across the country that allow for out-of-district transfers. Since Minnesota passed a state law in 1988 requiring districts to permit them, 20 other states have adopted laws that, in some way, authorize out-of-district transfers. School choice proponents have touted this change, arguing that such policies provide low-income families options they normally couldn’t access.

Texas law permits — but doesn’t mandate — interdistrict transfers. And increasingly, said Kevin Brown — the executive director of the Texas Association of School Administrators — districts around the state have moved to allow them.

A combination of deep funding cuts from the 2008 recession and rising redistribution of funds away from property-rich districts left school systems looking for ways to shore up their budgets, Brown said.

Additionally, the dynamic growth of open enrollment charter operators — with more than 700 campuses opening statewide over the past decade, most in metro areas — exacerbated those funding woes, he said.

State funding for public schools is tied to enrollment. A significant dip in enrollment means a tighter budget, with layoffs and even school closures looming on the horizon if those numbers don’t rebound.

“The districts that were losing several millions a year were looking for ways to close that gap in funding, and one way to do that is to increase the number of students,” Brown said.

Alfred Ray, Duncanville’s superintendent from 2007 to 2015, gave another reason for his district’s policy shift in the late 2000s: an aging population.

Young families who came to the community over the previous two decades stayed in their homes after their children had graduated, said Ray, now a vice president at Stephens, a privately held financial services firm.

“They decided it was a great place to live, and now, those same homes weren’t producing as many students as they used to,” he said.

Ray saw the innovative approach that one of his mentors, former Grand Prairie ISD superintendent Susan Simpson Hull, had used with an aging elementary campus that was on the verge of closure. The school was transformed into an open enrollment “school of choice,” and its enrollment rebounded.

Within three or four years, over the late 2000s and early 2010s, a swath of neighboring districts in Tarrant and southern Dallas counties — Grand Prairie, Duncanville, DeSoto, Cedar Hill and Lancaster — moved to more permissive transfer policies.

Ray disagreed that charter schools were a driving factor for the change — saying that it has “become vogue” to put the blame on operators. He also dismissed that an open enrollment policy would be much of a bump for a district’s bottom line.

Duncanville’s enrollment — like Cedar Hill and DeSoto — has not grown in recent years, cresting in 2012-13 with 13,238 students.

With students transferring in and out of the district freely, “I think it all comes out in the wash,” Ray said.

What’s driving open enrollment, he added, is a concerted effort to match what parents and students want with campuses that can meet those demands.

Over the years, Ray said, he interviewed close to 4,000 parents on why they chose a particular campus, and “their reasons were as different as the parents were,” ranging from smaller class sizes and STEM offerings to neighborhood proximity and school leadership.

Jamey Harrison, the UIL’s deputy director, said that people — including coaches and athletic directors — can “apply a very myopic lens to a much larger education issue,” overlooking how academic rationales play into the broader school-choice and transfer landscape.

Too often, Harrison said, the lens is focused on specific sports, areas and schools — such as Class 4A boys basketball, where large urban districts such as Dallas and Houston have powerhouse programs that often dominate more rural, single-high school districts.

“It’s missing the broader issue that the parents’ right to choose where their kid goes to school is very much a part of Texas public education, and will continue to be — as my expectation,” he said.

While open enrollment policies have occasionally been a point of discussion at Legislative Council meetings, Harrison said there hasn’t been any movement to change the UIL’s existing two-pronged approach.

“We have a very good system that is working, but it is not a perfect system,” he said. “But yes, I do believe it is appropriately addressing the issue.”
 

The importance of exposure

Frequent movement in major metro areas, regardless of policy, has long been part of Texas high school football culture.

After all, Kyler Murray, arguably the greatest player in Texas high school history, moved from Lewisville to Allen, a closed enrollment district, before becoming a three-time state champion and going on to win a Heisman Trophy at the University of Oklahoma and becoming a top NFL draft pick.

The value and pursuit of a college scholarship has become more competitive, highly publicized on social media and especially important for players in families with lower incomes. The lure to play for teams with a championship pedigree, heralded coaches and a consistent NCAA pipeline is strong.

Programs of that quality with open enrollment have a simpler pathway for transfer athletes to pursue.

Kaidon Salter, who will start at quarterback for Cedar Hill on Saturday, played his freshman season at DeSoto and his sophomore year at Bishop Lynch. He said he received recruiting attention from “all D-FW schools in this area” before enrolling at Cedar Hill for his junior and senior seasons.

“I feel like that was the best spot for me,” Salter said. “It had a little bit to do with me living in Cedar Hill already and not wanting to deal with the UIL and the whole address thing.”

The flipside can leave schools without open enrollment, or with less football tradition, working to convince current players that they should stay.

Districts upgrade facilities and coaches attend sub-varsity games and let future players serve as ball boys. When Spencer Gilbert became head coach at Carter, which borders Duncanville and DeSoto ISDs, for example, he started visiting his middle school feeders regularly.

The approach to squashing a sports-focused transfer, whether to an open or closed enrollment school, is clear.

The UIL’s PAPF gives coaches of outgoing transfers the opportunity to assert whether conflict, recruiting, suspension or “athletic purposes” influenced the move and to trigger a district executive committee hearing to review eligibility.

But coaches sometimes hesitate to hamper a student’s future, even at their team’s expense. Some operate under an unspoken rule to not fight transfer departures so others do not object to their transfer arrivals.

Twenty-five of the 32 coaches The News surveyed from closed enrollment districts said they’d lost a player to open enrollment transfer, but just 12 said they’d noted an issue on the PAPF.

Criticism of the UIL’s process falls flat if coaches and administrators don’t flag discrepancies.

“The people who are most impacted ... are the ones who are making the initial decision,” Harrison said, “If they choose not to take the time to properly investigate, that’s a choice they’ve made.”

Decisions don’t just fall to leadership.

As a sophomore quarterback in 2012, Chason Virgil garnered frequent interest from open enrollment teams when West Mesquite’s coach left and his success as an eventual four-year varsity starter was apparent.

Virgil’s dad, Steve, was willing to drive Chason to school every day if a transfer could generate more recruiting exposure and playoff experience.

Virgil’s mom, Patrice, wasn’t. If his talent was genuine, she thought, a change was unnecessary.

Virgil, now an assistant coach at North Crowley, didn’t transfer. But he’s often wondered about his potential had he joined a powerhouse.

“Looking back on it, I probably should’ve made that move,” he said. “That school would’ve given me better opportunities to … leave a bigger legacy.”

Open enrollment in the Dallas area

Of the 43 school districts in the Dallas area with Class 6A and 5A schools, more than a dozen offer broad open-enrollment policies. Others, however, offer more selective policies. A look at Dallas-area districts and their forms of open enrollment.

 

Open enrollment in the Dallas area

Of the 43 school districts in the Dallas area with Class 6A and 5A schools, more than a dozen offer broad open-enrollment policies. Others, however, offer more selective policies. A look at Dallas-area districts and their forms of open enrollment.

School	Open Enrollment policy
Allen ISD	No
Arlington ISD	Yes
Birdville ISD	Yes
Carroll ISD	Only within city limits.
Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD	Yes
Cedar Hill ISD	Yes
Coppell ISD	Only within city limits.
Corsicana ISD	No
Crowley ISD	Yes
Dallas ISD	Magnet/charter programs allow for flexibility in enrollment.
Denton ISD	No
DeSoto ISD	Yes
Duncanville ISD	Yes
Ennis ISD	No
Forney ISD	No
Frisco ISD	No
Garland ISD	Choice of school within district.
Grand Prairie ISD	Yes
Grapevine-Colleyville ISD	Only within city limits.
Highland Park ISD	No
Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD	Only for "School of Choice" academic programs.
Irving ISD	Yes
Keller ISD	No
Lake Dallas ISD	Yes
Lancaster ISD	Yes
Little Elm ISD	No
Lewisville ISD	No
Lovejoy ISD	Tuition-based for out-of-district.
Mansfield ISD	No
McKinney ISD	No
Mesquite ISD	No
Midlothian ISD	No
Northwest ISD	No
Plano ISD	No
Princeton ISD	No
Prosper ISD	No
Red Oak ISD	No
Richardson ISD	No
Rockwall ISD	No
Royce City ISD	No
Terrell ISD	Tuition-based for out-of-district.
Waxahachie ISD	Waxahachie Global High School is open enrollment, but doesn't offer sports.
Wylie ISD	No

Football success in open enrollment

Since 2010, 13 schools in the Dallas area have appeared in title games in the UIL’s two biggest classifications. Six of them offer open enrollment.

North Texas state finalists with a form of open enrollment

2020: Southlake Carroll, Cedar Hill

2019: Duncanville

2018: Duncanville

2016: DeSoto*

2014: Cedar Hill*

2013: Cedar Hill*

2012: Cedar Hill, Lancaster

2010: Euless Trinity

*Won title

Note: Southlake Carroll’s current form of open enrollment began in 2013, two years after its most recent title.

 

https://www.dallasnews.com/high-school-sports/football/2021/01/14/the-unregulated-all-star-driven-world-of-open-enrollment-loopholes-in-texas-high-school-football/

[Horsefly]

13 minutes ago, pied said:

Article from the Dallas Morning News regarding transfers in the area  specifically around open enrollment  

 

The unregulated, All-Star-driven world of open enrollment loopholes in Texas high school football

Some say open enrollment creates amateur free agency. Others liken it to the “wild West.” Should (or could) the UIL curb the phenomenon?

The moment high school football players win a state championship is often the ultimate highlight since they first pulled on pads and stepped onto local fields for peewee games.

It also represents the culmination of what has become an increasingly competitive and fluid youth football landscape, fueled, in part, by certain school district rules that have helped circumvent the traditional definition of high school sports.

Open enrollment policies allow students to attend campuses without living in those schools’ boundaries.

They broaden the options and programs from which parents and students can choose, while also drawing more enrollment — and subsequently more state funding — for those school systems.

 

Open enrollment has a reputation for gridiron payoff, too.

The policies can serve as a potential loophole for the formation of All Star-laden football teams through an unregulated, high-pressure, win-driven approach to coax students as early as seventh grade to transfer into open enrollment team pipelines and annually reload rosters with elite talent.

In a survey of Dallas-area head football coaches, 37 of 40 respondents (92.5%) said they believe open enrollment policies affect competitive balance.

A look at this year’s University Interscholastic League Class 5A and 6A state semifinalists supports the assertion.

Six of the 16 schools — including Cedar Hill, Southlake Carroll and Austin Westlake playing for titles this weekend — have open enrollment or allow out-of-district transfers.

Interviews with more than two dozen local coaches, players, parents and administrators back the view, too.
 

Some called the process a version of amateur free agency. Others likened it to the “wild West.”

None had a concrete idea for how the UIL should, or could, curb the phenomenon few coaches openly denounce but many quietly malign.

“Coaches in the Metroplex are in a really hard situation,” said a local head coach whose ISD borders open enrollment districts, speaking anonymously to not jeopardize future job opportunities. “You’re not supposed to talk to kids that don’t live in your attendance zone. You’re not supposed to recruit. You’re not supposed to have people do it for you.

“But you’re also supposed to win, so you’re put in this terrible predicament where you’re like, ‘Am I going to run my program with integrity and do the best I can with the kids that walk through my building? Or am I going to dip my hand into relationships and talk to people when I shouldn’t and dishonor the UIL rules, but then also allow myself to win football games on Friday night?’”

The “residency” rule workaround

Sixteen of the 43 independent school districts in the Dallas area with Class 5A or 6A sports have tuition-free open enrollment policies, according to DMN research.

A few, such as Class 6A Division I state finalist Southlake Carroll, are finite. Carroll ISD’s policy extends just to students who live in the city limits of Southlake but outside the district’s boundaries.

Others, such as Class 6A Division II state finalist Cedar Hill and football juggernauts Duncanville and DeSoto, have limitations based on space and previous academic performance.

On the surface, open enrollment appears to clash with the “residency” rule in the UIL’s eligibility guidelines, which state an athlete must live with a parent or guardian inside a school’s district attendance zone. A caveat in the UIL’s constitution, however, has helped open enrollment align with athletics-based moves.

If athletes transfer into an open enrollment district without moving into the attendance zone, they cannot play varsity sports for a year.

Regardless of residence, they’ll have free range to play once they’d been “continuously enrolled in and regularly attending the school for at least the previous calendar year,” per UIL rules.

Cue the youth movement.

If a player transfers in or before ninth grade, a season of sub-varsity football isn’t a hindrance. Rather, it’s expected at most large UIL programs.

Youth teams and middle school games have become prime ground for generating potential moves.

Games during fall and spring Saturdays at facilities across the area can be all-day affairs. There’s pre- and post-game tailgating, online Facebook groups, and attendance from people who want to scout upcoming prospects.

When Tasha McWright watched Dallas Lions games years ago, she’d recognize high school coaches in the crowd, wowed by her pre-teen son, Kendrick Blackshire, now an Alabama linebacker signee who transferred from Mesquite Horn to Duncanville in 2019 and who was always the biggest and strongest on the field.

Steve Virgil, a former little league coach in Mesquite, learned the nuances of “surrogates,” such as a friend, another parent or a third-party coach, initiating introductions with high school coaches to avoid direct recruiting, a UIL violation.

Jaylin Nelson, a quarterback who transferred from DeSoto to Duncanville in 2015, remembers his prowess as a First Baptist Academy middle schooler garnered attention from the staff at an open enrollment UIL school. He took a tour of their facilities and said he received free tickets to a major playoff game, though he never enrolled.

“You don’t want to stay still and waste your high school career,” Nelson said. “It’s not like college. You can’t redshirt, so you have to make the best opportunity when you can.”

Not every player in an open enrollment program faces this situation.

There’s no UIL penalty for moving residences and submitting a Previous Athletic Participation Form (PAPF) that grants a clean release from the previous school. Open enrollment districts with multiple high schools, such as Garland ISD and Arlington ISD, show little correlation to on-field dominance.

Five of nine coaches from open enrollment schools who responded to The News’ survey said they didn’t believe their teams benefited from the policies.

“Some other people will probably disagree with me, but I don’t think it is,” DeSoto coach Claude Mathis said, noting the district’s collegiate magnet program as a primary open enrollment draw.

Recent history, however, shows some perennial state championship contenders offer open enrollment.

Galena Park North Shore and Duncanville, opponents in the 2018 and 2019 Class 6A Division I championships and state semifinalists this season, have open enrollment.

So does Cedar Hill, which will play in its fourth title game since 2012 on Saturday against Katy.

Eanes ISD, which includes Westlake, aiming for its second consecutive state championship Saturday versus Carroll, accepts transfers from non-district applicants.

At least one Class 6A football state championships participant in each season since 2012 has come from an open enrollment district.

“I don’t really know if there is an advantage to it or not,” Cedar Hill coach Carlos Lynn said. “I love a home-grown kid. I love a kid that’s been through our program, that’s been through that [football] boot camp for four years. Now, will I take somebody else? Yes.”

DMN open enrollment survey results

Based on responses for 40 head coaches of Dallas-area football teams:

Do you think open enrollment policies affect competitive balance in football?

Yes: 37

No: 3

If you coach in an open enrollment district, do you think your football program benefits?

Yes: 4

No: 5

If you coach in a closed enrollment district, have you had a player transfer into an open district?

Yes: 25

No: 7

Do you think programs in districts with open enrollment directly and/or indirectly recruit?

Yes: 38

No: 2

A good, but not ‘perfect,’ system

Open enrollment isn’t new.

For years, school districts in Texas have allowed transfers in some fashion.

Historically, most school systems have granted transfer requests from children of their employees, regardless of where they lived.

Some districts, such as Dallas ISD, have created a patchwork of enrollment policies geared toward speciality or charter campuses, allowing out-of-district students a spot in those schools if seats aren’t filled by in-district students.

Others allow intradistrict transfers, allowing students living in the district’s attendance boundaries to transfer to any district campus, provided there is space. In Garland, for example, all students in transition years — moving from elementary to middle school and middle to high school — are required to rank their choice of campus for the next school year.

As the school choice movement has exploded over the past three decades, so has the number of schools across the country that allow for out-of-district transfers. Since Minnesota passed a state law in 1988 requiring districts to permit them, 20 other states have adopted laws that, in some way, authorize out-of-district transfers. School choice proponents have touted this change, arguing that such policies provide low-income families options they normally couldn’t access.

Texas law permits — but doesn’t mandate — interdistrict transfers. And increasingly, said Kevin Brown — the executive director of the Texas Association of School Administrators — districts around the state have moved to allow them.

A combination of deep funding cuts from the 2008 recession and rising redistribution of funds away from property-rich districts left school systems looking for ways to shore up their budgets, Brown said.

Additionally, the dynamic growth of open enrollment charter operators — with more than 700 campuses opening statewide over the past decade, most in metro areas — exacerbated those funding woes, he said.

State funding for public schools is tied to enrollment. A significant dip in enrollment means a tighter budget, with layoffs and even school closures looming on the horizon if those numbers don’t rebound.

“The districts that were losing several millions a year were looking for ways to close that gap in funding, and one way to do that is to increase the number of students,” Brown said.

Alfred Ray, Duncanville’s superintendent from 2007 to 2015, gave another reason for his district’s policy shift in the late 2000s: an aging population.

Young families who came to the community over the previous two decades stayed in their homes after their children had graduated, said Ray, now a vice president at Stephens, a privately held financial services firm.

“They decided it was a great place to live, and now, those same homes weren’t producing as many students as they used to,” he said.

Ray saw the innovative approach that one of his mentors, former Grand Prairie ISD superintendent Susan Simpson Hull, had used with an aging elementary campus that was on the verge of closure. The school was transformed into an open enrollment “school of choice,” and its enrollment rebounded.

Within three or four years, over the late 2000s and early 2010s, a swath of neighboring districts in Tarrant and southern Dallas counties — Grand Prairie, Duncanville, DeSoto, Cedar Hill and Lancaster — moved to more permissive transfer policies.

Ray disagreed that charter schools were a driving factor for the change — saying that it has “become vogue” to put the blame on operators. He also dismissed that an open enrollment policy would be much of a bump for a district’s bottom line.

Duncanville’s enrollment — like Cedar Hill and DeSoto — has not grown in recent years, cresting in 2012-13 with 13,238 students.

With students transferring in and out of the district freely, “I think it all comes out in the wash,” Ray said.

What’s driving open enrollment, he added, is a concerted effort to match what parents and students want with campuses that can meet those demands.

Over the years, Ray said, he interviewed close to 4,000 parents on why they chose a particular campus, and “their reasons were as different as the parents were,” ranging from smaller class sizes and STEM offerings to neighborhood proximity and school leadership.

Jamey Harrison, the UIL’s deputy director, said that people — including coaches and athletic directors — can “apply a very myopic lens to a much larger education issue,” overlooking how academic rationales play into the broader school-choice and transfer landscape.

Too often, Harrison said, the lens is focused on specific sports, areas and schools — such as Class 4A boys basketball, where large urban districts such as Dallas and Houston have powerhouse programs that often dominate more rural, single-high school districts.

“It’s missing the broader issue that the parents’ right to choose where their kid goes to school is very much a part of Texas public education, and will continue to be — as my expectation,” he said.

While open enrollment policies have occasionally been a point of discussion at Legislative Council meetings, Harrison said there hasn’t been any movement to change the UIL’s existing two-pronged approach.

“We have a very good system that is working, but it is not a perfect system,” he said. “But yes, I do believe it is appropriately addressing the issue.”
 

The importance of exposure

Frequent movement in major metro areas, regardless of policy, has long been part of Texas high school football culture.

After all, Kyler Murray, arguably the greatest player in Texas high school history, moved from Lewisville to Allen, a closed enrollment district, before becoming a three-time state champion and going on to win a Heisman Trophy at the University of Oklahoma and becoming a top NFL draft pick.

The value and pursuit of a college scholarship has become more competitive, highly publicized on social media and especially important for players in families with lower incomes. The lure to play for teams with a championship pedigree, heralded coaches and a consistent NCAA pipeline is strong.

Programs of that quality with open enrollment have a simpler pathway for transfer athletes to pursue.

Kaidon Salter, who will start at quarterback for Cedar Hill on Saturday, played his freshman season at DeSoto and his sophomore year at Bishop Lynch. He said he received recruiting attention from “all D-FW schools in this area” before enrolling at Cedar Hill for his junior and senior seasons.

“I feel like that was the best spot for me,” Salter said. “It had a little bit to do with me living in Cedar Hill already and not wanting to deal with the UIL and the whole address thing.”

The flipside can leave schools without open enrollment, or with less football tradition, working to convince current players that they should stay.

Districts upgrade facilities and coaches attend sub-varsity games and let future players serve as ball boys. When Spencer Gilbert became head coach at Carter, which borders Duncanville and DeSoto ISDs, for example, he started visiting his middle school feeders regularly.

The approach to squashing a sports-focused transfer, whether to an open or closed enrollment school, is clear.

The UIL’s PAPF gives coaches of outgoing transfers the opportunity to assert whether conflict, recruiting, suspension or “athletic purposes” influenced the move and to trigger a district executive committee hearing to review eligibility.

But coaches sometimes hesitate to hamper a student’s future, even at their team’s expense. Some operate under an unspoken rule to not fight transfer departures so others do not object to their transfer arrivals.

Twenty-five of the 32 coaches The News surveyed from closed enrollment districts said they’d lost a player to open enrollment transfer, but just 12 said they’d noted an issue on the PAPF.

Criticism of the UIL’s process falls flat if coaches and administrators don’t flag discrepancies.

“The people who are most impacted ... are the ones who are making the initial decision,” Harrison said, “If they choose not to take the time to properly investigate, that’s a choice they’ve made.”

Decisions don’t just fall to leadership.

As a sophomore quarterback in 2012, Chason Virgil garnered frequent interest from open enrollment teams when West Mesquite’s coach left and his success as an eventual four-year varsity starter was apparent.

Virgil’s dad, Steve, was willing to drive Chason to school every day if a transfer could generate more recruiting exposure and playoff experience.

Virgil’s mom, Patrice, wasn’t. If his talent was genuine, she thought, a change was unnecessary.

Virgil, now an assistant coach at North Crowley, didn’t transfer. But he’s often wondered about his potential had he joined a powerhouse.

“Looking back on it, I probably should’ve made that move,” he said. “That school would’ve given me better opportunities to … leave a bigger legacy.”

Open enrollment in the Dallas area

Of the 43 school districts in the Dallas area with Class 6A and 5A schools, more than a dozen offer broad open-enrollment policies. Others, however, offer more selective policies. A look at Dallas-area districts and their forms of open enrollment.

 

Open enrollment in the Dallas area

Of the 43 school districts in the Dallas area with Class 6A and 5A schools, more than a dozen offer broad open-enrollment policies. Others, however, offer more selective policies. A look at Dallas-area districts and their forms of open enrollment.

School	Open Enrollment policy
Allen ISD	No
Arlington ISD	Yes
Birdville ISD	Yes
Carroll ISD	Only within city limits.
Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD	Yes
Cedar Hill ISD	Yes
Coppell ISD	Only within city limits.
Corsicana ISD	No
Crowley ISD	Yes
Dallas ISD	Magnet/charter programs allow for flexibility in enrollment.
Denton ISD	No
DeSoto ISD	Yes
Duncanville ISD	Yes
Ennis ISD	No
Forney ISD	No
Frisco ISD	No
Garland ISD	Choice of school within district.
Grand Prairie ISD	Yes
Grapevine-Colleyville ISD	Only within city limits.
Highland Park ISD	No
Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD	Only for "School of Choice" academic programs.
Irving ISD	Yes
Keller ISD	No
Lake Dallas ISD	Yes
Lancaster ISD	Yes
Little Elm ISD	No
Lewisville ISD	No
Lovejoy ISD	Tuition-based for out-of-district.
Mansfield ISD	No
McKinney ISD	No
Mesquite ISD	No
Midlothian ISD	No
Northwest ISD	No
Plano ISD	No
Princeton ISD	No
Prosper ISD	No
Red Oak ISD	No
Richardson ISD	No
Rockwall ISD	No
Royce City ISD	No
Terrell ISD	Tuition-based for out-of-district.
Waxahachie ISD	Waxahachie Global High School is open enrollment, but doesn't offer sports.
Wylie ISD	No

Football success in open enrollment

Since 2010, 13 schools in the Dallas area have appeared in title games in the UIL’s two biggest classifications. Six of them offer open enrollment.

North Texas state finalists with a form of open enrollment

2020: Southlake Carroll, Cedar Hill

2019: Duncanville

2018: Duncanville

2016: DeSoto*

2014: Cedar Hill*

2013: Cedar Hill*

2012: Cedar Hill, Lancaster

2010: Euless Trinity

*Won title

Note: Southlake Carroll’s current form of open enrollment began in 2013, two years after its most recent title.

 

https://www.dallasnews.com/high-school-sports/football/2021/01/14/the-unregulated-all-star-driven-world-of-open-enrollment-loopholes-in-texas-high-school-football/

All of that to only point out open enrollment is not the same as transfer of varsity level, star rated players.  OE is beneficial if you can pin point that non varsity kid (middle school) that is primed to be a star at the varsity level…when they get there. 

[pied]

5 minutes ago, Horsefly said:

All of that to only point out open enrollment is not the same as transfer of varsity level, star rated players.  OE is beneficial if you can pin point that non varsity kid (middle school) that is primed to be a star at the varsity level…when they get there. 

From the article:

 

Kaidon Salter, who will start at quarterback for Cedar Hill on Saturday, played his freshman season at DeSoto and his sophomore year at Bishop Lynch. He said he received recruiting attention from “all D-FW schools in this area” before enrolling at Cedar Hill for his junior and senior seasons.

“I feel like that was the best spot for me,” Salter said. “It had a little bit to do with me living in Cedar Hill already and not wanting to deal with the UIL and the whole address thing.”

[pied]

Also from the article:

 

Do you think programs in districts with open enrollment directly and/or indirectly recruit?

Yes: 38

No: 2

[pied]

Also from the article. 
 

Jaylin Nelson, a quarterback who transferred from DeSoto to Duncanville in 2015, remembers his prowess as a First Baptist Academy middle schooler garnered attention from the staff at an open enrollment UIL school. He took a tour of their facilities and said he received free tickets to a major playoff game, though he never enrolled.

“You don’t want to stay still and waste your high school career,” Nelson said. “It’s not like college. You can’t redshirt, so you have to make the best opportunity when you can.”

[pied]

I know you’re familiar with this article from ‘18:

 

Fourteen schools have an area top-100 recruit in the Class of 2019 who transferred during high school. Allen led that list with four.

Undefeated Duncanville, Allen's opponent Saturday at AT&T Stadium, has risen to No. 11 in the USA Todaynational rankings with help from Under Armour All-American Marquez Beason and his cousin, Zeriah Beason. Both are four-star recruits who transferred from Bishop Dunne before this season.

[Horsefly]

1 minute ago, pied said:

Also from the article. 
 

 

Jaylin Nelson, a quarterback who transferred from DeSoto to Duncanville in 2015, remembers his prowess as a First Baptist Academy middle schooler garnered attention from the staff at an open enrollment UIL school. He took a tour of their facilities and said he received free tickets to a major playoff game, though he never enrolled.

“You don’t want to stay still and waste your high school career,” Nelson said. “It’s not like college. You can’t redshirt, so you have to make the best opportunity when you can.”

You do know Nelson had to sit out of varsity for a year before he was declared eligible at Duncanville. 

[pied]

Same article:

 

"A lot of people complain about it and say we buy our championships. But we work hard, and we do it for the community," said second-team all-state running back Brock Sturges, who ran for 2,167 yards as a senior last season after transferring to Allen from Katy Seven Lakes before his junior year.

Last year was the fourth straight season that Allen's top two rushers were move-ins. Two players who transferred in are among the area's top 20 recruits in the Class of 2019: quarterback Grant Tisdale and Oklahoma State defensive line pledge Jayden Jernigan, a transfer from Parish Episcopal.

[pied]

How many seasons did Kyler sit?
 

Normal to have seven straight years of a transfer QB?

 

 

This is the seventh straight season that Allen's starting quarterback is a player who transferred into the system. Murray, who transferred from Lewisville, was followed by Seth Green (from Woodbury East Ridge in Minnesota), Mitchell Jonke (from Lovejoy) and Tisdale.

"When Kyler moved in, the grades beneath him just kind of cleared out," said Ian Davis, who as a senior was the backup to Tisdale last season. "I was the only quarterback in my class at Allen."

"Grant Tisdale, he came in playing quarterback. There is a little bit, I don't want to say animosity, but you're competing with the guy. You're like, 'OK, he moved in and wants to take my spot and this is where I'm from, this is mine.' But if he's better than you and he puts the work in, you can't complain."

[Horsefly]

7 minutes ago, pied said:

I know you’re familiar with this article from ‘18:

 

Fourteen schools have an area top-100 recruit in the Class of 2019 who transferred during high school. Allen led that list with four.

Undefeated Duncanville, Allen's opponent Saturday at AT&T Stadium, has risen to No. 11 in the USA Todaynational rankings with help from Under Armour All-American Marquez Beason and his cousin, Zeriah Beason. Both are four-star recruits who transferred from Bishop Dunne before this season.

That’s still insignificant when you factor that the HS window is 4 years. 9-12th grade for a student that transferred during their high school years. 
 

allens 4 covered a 4 year span, 2 of them,m: Theo wease and grant tisdale transferred as freshmen.   

[pied]

Another DMN article. How long did James sit out after JQJ left?

 

Duncanville has added a high-profile transfer at its biggest position of need — quarterback.

Three-star recruit Grayson James said in a direct message on Twitter that he is now attending Duncanville. James (6-1, 200) is rated the 33rd-best pro-style quarterback in the nation in the Class of 2021 by 247Sports, and he threw for 4,121 yards and 44 touchdowns last year while completing 62% of his passes to lead Plano John Paul II to a state runner-up finish in TAPPS Division I.

Duncanville lost All-American quarterback Ja’Quinden Jackson to graduation after a 15-1 season, and the four-star recruit signed with Texas after leading Duncanville to back-to-back state runner-up finishes in Class 6A Division I. Chris Parson started for Duncanville as a freshman in last year’s 31-17 loss to Galena Park North Shore in the state title game after Jackson suffered a torn ACL in the state semifinals, but Parson transferred to Red Oak in the offseason.

 

[pied]

Is a 4* significant? Not sure I’m familiar with the rankings  

 

John Paul II also lost four-star wide receiver Jerand Bradley, a Texas Tech pledge who transferred to DeSoto for his senior year. The first-team all-state selection had 96 receptions for 1,522 yards and 21 touchdowns last season for a 10-4 private school team that was the TAPPS Division I state runner-up.

[pied]

Why do I keep seeing Duncanville. Is  a 3* significant?  Seemed to help Duncanville. 
 

 

Medlock transferred to Duncanville from Odessa Permian before last season. He ran for 1,114 yards and 22 touchdowns as Duncanville finished 10-2 and reached the Class 6A Division I state semifinals.