Question: If you were a high school coach, would you challenge transfers? Breaking, Jake Payton ineligible

Breaking News: San Dimas’ Jake Payton declared ineligible for his senior year at Upland. Athletic motivation strikes again. Who wins? Nobody.

Before we were interrupted by another ineligible player ruling, here’s the question: paytonIn recent days Diamond Bar’s Antonio “Noodles” Hull, who transferred from West Covina to Diamond Bar, was denied eligibility at Diamond Bar until Nov. 16, which would be the second round of the CIF playoffs after West Covina challenged his transfer to Diamond Bar based on “athletic motivation,” which CIF agreed with, and was later held up on appeal. The same could happen to San Dimas’ all-everything standout Jake Payton, who bolted to Inland super power Upland. Just recently, San Dimas coach Bill Zernickow acknowledged the school will challenge Payton’s transfer based on athletic motivation as well. A decision from CIF could come in the next couple weeks.

The comment boards on Aram’s In the Huddle Blog over both transfers has been heated and passionate with discussion. There are some that say, including myself, that if a player wants to leave let them leave, regardless of circumstance. But there are others that say, rules are rules, and if you have evidence of athletic motivation, it’s your duty to present it to CIF and what will be, will be.

VBULLDOGSI get both arguments, and speaking to sources from West Covina and San Dimas in recent months, these decisions weren’t made simply because school’s have an ax to grind, there were a series of events and things that went on that ultimately led to these decisions.

And though I get it and do not fault West Covina and San Dimas for what they’re doing, I wouldn’t of gone down that road. It’s always been my opinion that if a student is enrolled in school and making grades, let them play, regardless of how they got there. At the end of the day, I’ve always thought it was about the student and parents best interest that matters most. I also believe that 99.9 percent of all athletic transfers are in some part, athletically motivated, and the majority of those transfer requests are approved, while those in Hull’s case are left to wonder, what’s the difference between that case and mine?

What I’ve learned from all this is there is no right or wrong answer, just your opinion. And as long as this silly rule that can’t be enforced fairly across the board is still in place, the debate will go on forever.

Only question left is, what would you do?

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