"I also wouldn't schedule you if you had a player that was on my team or lived in my zone. There is nothing worse than playing against a player that should, for all intent purposes, be playing on your team and helping your team get better."
I understand, and agree to a point. But as a current parent see another side to it. Maybe your program (both academic and sports) is great, run great, offers every opportunity and chance that any program should, and has infinite roster spots (at least relative to the players available). Maybe you work to build a relationship with each athlete that is respectful and deserving of loyalty in both directions. But that is not true for every program out there. And what has any program, academic or sports, done to be the sole arbitrer of a student's HS sports experience besides share a ZIP code?
If school choice is real, and it really is about education first, then students should not be punished in the secondary aspect of sports for pursuing better education. Current HS student of mine plays two sports at a 5A school. Lack of true academic guidance at this school hurts this student. Counselor just goes through graduation checklist once a year, doesn't actively monitor progress or what student wants to do. Student was recently struggling badly in a class for better part of a full quarter, but to my surprise when we go in to select next years classes she is recommended for AP/Honors in this subject. In other words, Teacher/counselor both completely unaware of the struggles. Student has good attitude and tries hard. No issues with any teachers, and even this one class was recommended for higher level based on something. But this same pattern of lack of engagement I also saw with our first kid who, literally all A's and took every AP/Honors they could take, asked a teacher for a reference for a college application and the teacher said "I don't have the time for that.". I asked counselor for help, counselor said "Your student just has to keep bugging the teachers for what they need". While the lack of support didn't really matter with the first kid, I actually went to a lunch and learn at Gray's looking for an alternative for the second. (FWIW -- Was impressed with the mechanisms for support in place there.) Should my student athlete sit out a year of HS athletics, an experience they will never get back, if she applies to and transfers to Gray's? The rules say yes.
Yes, some will and do really transfer just because of sports, but is that really a bigger problem to the "home" school than kids transferring for academics? One of the HS sports programs my current student is in has been an extremely positive experience for this student athlete. The other sport, where the student is actually more naturally gifted and has more interest (follows pros, etc), has not been. I won't go into details or blame, because why should you blame the coach, the athlete (or me) based only on my word/post? Bottom line, neither the team nor the athlete are going to benefit fully if this athlete continues to stay with this program. It happens at all levels of all sports, some programs and athletes don't "fit" together. Sometimes for bad reasons, sometimes "just because". I don't want the athlete to give up this other sport, but expect that is the writing on the wall at our current school. And unlike soccer, this other sport does not have a club or rec system for the athlete to turn to. So, let's just say there are some good faith reasons an athlete might want to change schools for sports. The current status quo is that sports are important enough that you can't just change schools outside your district and play without sitting a year, but it isn't important enough that a student can change schools to get away from a bad situation, or in some cases to even have a chance to play.
(FWIW -- In the end we didn't apply to Gray's even though I believe the academic support and opportunities there would be better. We are engaged parents and hope to overcome the issues we see at our "home" school and, among other considerations, want to avoid taking the opportunity for the HS team experience from our student athlete for a year. I struggle with whether we have made the best choice, and to be honest, do not feel we would have made the same choice if not for the steep punishment imposed on the student athlete for transferring. And that, to me, says that maybe the wrong thing is being protected.
There are already too many instances in our state throughout all sports of families trying to find any imaginable loophole to transfer to a preferred school and athletics being a primary reason for the state to allow any situation to be acceptable and not get the 1 year ban. While I understand your situation (we are currently dealing with something similar academically with one of our children, but sports isn't involved), I know that it would be a nightmare because many people will try to take advantage and say that they're transferring to X school for academic reasons.
Ultimately the HSL is restricted on what they can do to make the playing field as fair as possible given the distinct advantages some of the schools have in regard to zoning, recruiting, half day schedules for athletics, etc. But if these 1a/2a schools decide that it's not fair to play these schools that have a distinct advantage and there are no repercussions except a 1-0 forfeit loss on your record, I will not be surprised if more schools opt to do that to try and send a message to the league.
