Pete Mitchell

Now that multiple pages have been generated discussing the Jenna Martin transfer (and for the record, I am NOT complaining about her transfer, I sincerely hope she plays at Highlands in 2016-17), the explanation for how she will be eligible delves into, I believe, uncharted territory. To quickly recap, for those of you that don't want to read the whole thread, Ms. Martin is transferring from Notre Dame to Highlands for her senior season, having played varsity basketball for Notre Dame last season. Now, ordinarily, as we all know, she would not be eligible to play this year under KHSAA bylaw 6 governing transfers UNLESS she fits the criteria of one of the exceptions listed. Highlands insider RCC9 has stated that she will be a tuition paying student at Highlands, and thus does not live in the Ft. Thomas district, but she is going to be eligible as a result of a "bona fide" move. Let that sink in for a moment. She is "moving", although not to Ft. Thomas, but the fact that she is "moving" makes her eligible to play at Highlands (or, using that rationale, anywhere in Kentucky) regardless of where she moves to. I would be interested in hearing if this theory to become immediately eligible has ever been attempted or challenged before. I have read KHSAA BYLAW 6 hundreds of times, and I always assumed the "bona fide move" exception was intended to allow kids who were moving to a new school district to become eligible to play IN THAT NEW DISTRICT without penalty or having to sit out, but it doesn't say that and Highlands is asserting that it is a loophole that allows her to play immediately. Even if she is moving from one Grant County address to another Grant County address, as long as it is a "bona fide" move, she would be eligible to play at Highlands without having to sit out. Again, for the record, I personally do not mind that she's transferring to Highlands and I am not and will not lodge a formal complaint. I am, however, interested in the interpretation of the rule. What would the KHSAA say or, if this has been previously argued, what was the KHSAA finding?

Here is the bylaw: BYLAWS OF THE KENTUCKY HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION BYLAW 6. TRANSFER RULE- CITIZENS OF THE U.S. OR U.S. TERRITORIES Sec. 1) DOMESTIC STUDENT TRANSFER a) Any student who has been enrolled in grades nine (9) through twelve (12) and has participated in any varsity contest in any sport at any school while maintaining permanent residence in the United States or a United States territory following enrollment in grade nine (9) and who then transfers schools shall be ineligible for interscholastic athletics at any level in any sport for one year from the date of enrollment in the new school. b) The Ruling Officer and Commissioner have discretion (but are not required) to waive the period of ineligibility set forth above if one or more of the following exceptions in Section 2 has been met. Determinations of whether a student shall be granted a waiver pursuant to this rule shall be based on the circumstances existing as of the date of enrollment at the new school.

If RCC9 is correct, and she is a tuition paying student and there has been no change of address, I guess I do wonder how she is eligible under bylaw 6. She still has to fit an exception, right? I just assumed there was a change of address that made her "in district". Am I missing something?

In exposure tournaments 13u is just completed 8th grade .... 4 years of eligibility remaining (so some girls that are almost 16 can play 13u in a lot of tournaments)

She plays up with a 15u Kentucky Premier team although she is truly 8th grade age (just turned 14 in December). Previously played with Shining Stars and Kentucky Royals.

If she moved into the district she is not a tuition student, she is a resident of the district entitled to attend the public school.

If someone wanted to challenge this transfer, there are multiple bases to do so. The KHSAA bylaws allow that an exception MAY be granted (i.e. allow transfer of a varsity player in grades 9-12 to play without sitting out a year) but SHALL NOT be granted IF the transferring student plays for an AAU team and transfers to a school where the AAU coach is employed (Query: how was she ever eligible to play at Notre Dame to begin with?) OR if the change in schools is motivated "in whole or part to participate in athletics at the new school". Applied here, if Jenna Martin's transfer to Highlands is even PARTLY motivated by a desire to play basketball at Highlands, the exclusion shall be denied, and she is ineligible. I believe the situation will be resolved because no one is going to lodge a complaint because she is transferring TO Highlands, and she will play her senior year at Highlands. Good luck to her and the Bluebirds. If its a good fit, and the Martins and the existing team at Highlands benefit from it, I say good for them. Highlands is a top notch school system, and if she thinks it is best for her there, then so be it as far as I am concerned. The only other comment I will make is that this is NOT the same as the Holy Cross situation, in that we are talking about different bylaws and allegations. No one has ever, to my knowledge, alleged that ANY of the players at Holy Cross were ineligible under bylaw 6. I think I am correct in stating that the only varsity player in grades 9-12 that transferred in to Holy Cross was Deja Turner, and she sat out her junior year. Here are the relevant portions of the KHSAA bylaw: Sec. 2) DISCRETIONARY EXCEPTIONS FOR WAIVER a) BONA FIDE CHANGE IN RESIDENCE- The period of ineligibility may be waived if there has been a bona fi de change in residence by the parents and student that precedes a student’s change of schools. For purposes of this bylaw, a bona fi de change of residence means the uninterrupted moving of the permanent residence of the entire family unit of the student as composed when the student was eligible at the sending school (including one or both parents if at that residence) from one school district or defined school attendance area into another school district or defined school attendance area prior to a change in enrollment of the student. To be considered bona fi de, the change must remain uninterrupted for the entire period during which the student would have been ineligible if the exception was not applied. A student who becomes emancipated does not have a bona fi de change of residence by virtue of his or her emancipation and change of residence for purposes of satisfying this exception. Determinations of whether a student shall be granted a waiver pursuant to this exception shall be based on the circumstances existing as of the date of enrollment at the new school. Sec. 3) SPECIFIC RESTRICTIONS RESULTING IN DENIAL OF WAIVER Satisfying of one of the exceptions (Section 2, a through i) shall not be considered valid and a waiver of the period of ineligibility shall not be granted: d) If a student participates on nonschool (i.e. AAU, American Legion, club settings, summer program, etc.) team that is affi liated with or coached by a coach associated in that same sport at a member school and the student then transfers to the member school where a coach is employed (paid or volunteer at any level); e) If the change in schools is motivated in whole or part by a desire to participate in athletics at the new school;

Very skilled, high IQ, very athletic and hard worker. Good recognition by Brian Neal on this one ... Elite caliber point guard. When Maddie was 10 years old Coach Ken Shields told me her parents would not have to worry about paying for college. True story.

And NCC is $6,600-7,000 per year (I am certain that others on BGP know next year's tuition to the dollar; I am not one of them).

Good luck and congratulations again to the coach and seniors who have raised the bar for Highlands softball to an unprecedented level. And for what its worth, from another thread, IMO the player of the year and coach of the year should have both come from Highlands, and it damages the credibility of the awards that they didn't.

They will be very, very good .... and so will Cooper. If everyone is healthy for both teams, those will be the games to see in NKY this year....

And even then, it must be a "bona fide" move ( see Mike Mitchell Case for the ramifications from a non-bona fide) AND the KHSAA can STILL deny the waiver. As I have said many times, I think many of the KHSAA bylaws are silly because they are largely unenforceable at this point, given their prior decisions and constitutional protections of due process. I am very surprised at the parties involved in this transfer, though, given the gamut of circumstances. http://khsaa.org/handbook/bylaws/20132014/bylaw6.pdf

Lots (and lots) of Xavier interest. He is a special rare talent, but one thing that sets him apart is his demeanor IMO. In many games he gets ridden, grabbed, shoved, and a wide variety of other physical assaults that would constitute fouls against anyone else, and he NEVER reacts to it. He may go home and kick his dog, but I have never seen him react on the court.

Kid can definitely play. When the Royals did a decent job of containing him, Drew Wilson stepped up and carried the Force. The two of them, with Vince Rankin, make the Force a legit squad IMO. I imagine it was tough coming back to face the Travelers in the finals after the 98-96 OT game with the Royals.

Travelers win big in 9th grade final over NKY Force, 77-45.

Surprisingly good turnout for D1 for a change, 21 teams participating in 9th grade division.

9th grade final four was NKY Force, Ky ROYALS, Travelers and Louisville Rising Stars. NKY Force defeated Royals 98-96 in overtime and Travelers defeated Louisville Rising Stars 69-61. Finals being played right now.

I think I would even go so far as to say they are the best right now .... Not familiar enough with CovCath frosh, so I could be wrong. But if I was a varsity coach looking at my pipeline, I think I would take the group at Highlands because they are so young. Cramer and Schwalbach are both still just 14 and have a lot of maturity ahead of them .... I think their progress curves are a little steeper than other kids who are already 16. Baioni has to be be happy with what he has coming up.

I will respectfully disagree on a couple of counts. First of all, Beechwood is perennially one of the best four or five teams in Northern Kentucky, and I don't see the "small school playing a small schedule" with them in baseball, although I would say that is generally true in football and basketball. Secondly, I have seen Trusty catch a number of times, including a couple of weeks ago when he went 4-4 and threw out every base runner that stole on him in a JV game. He looked a level above JV that day.

Tyler has good basketball skills, and great leadership skills. Before he got hurt mid season, Holy Cross was the best team in northern Kentucky, with Tyler as the emotional leader. He is a good kid to have in your program and he works hard. Definitely a good decision by Huggins IMO.

Well suited for CF.... Very, very fast, covers a lot of ground. Strong arm and hits for power. Multitool kid.

Blaine Walters, cooper. Big lefty (6'3") throws hard. Also has dh'ed with varsity.

Is Bailey a young sophomore or a frosh? Great win for him either way, this thread and their record notwithstanding, HHS is a decent team.

Names and stats? Good frosh in this one ... Castleman, Trusty, who else playing JV at Beechwood? Schwalbach, Cramer from HHS. Who pitched?

Nope, both are 14. Summer birthdays, and they were always eligible to play down in Little League and knothole.