Some unfamiliar faces could join St. Louis County high school sports teams by August now that the city's public school system has lost its accreditation.
Following its bylaws, the Missouri State High School Activities Association will waive its rule requiring transferring athletes to wait 365 days before competing.
And though MSHSAA officials promise to deter illegal recruiting by enforcing existing rules, some coaches and administrators worry the city's best athletes will transfer to county schools with better facilities and sports programs. That's assuming the schools actually accept city students.
"A lot of us are going to be in trouble," said Anthony Mitchell, a former Vashon football coach who now coaches Sumner wrestling. "We're going to lose some athletes."
Parents have approached Martin Jenkins, the Miller Career athletics director, and asked what will happen to the school's athletic programs. Jenkins knows his budget will not change this school year, but he can't assure them about the future. At Sumner, Mitchell said students have begun talking about transferring, though not necessarily for athletic reasons.
"Everything is up in the air right now," Jenkins said. "We just don't know what's going to happen."
Once the appointed transitional school board takes control — scheduled for June 15 if courts do not intervene — all city students will be eligible to transfer to county schools with St. Louis Public Schools paying tuition.
But suburban districts do not have to accept the students. Other school districts have lost accreditation without causing a competitive imbalance for athletics because few students, if any, have transferred.
In 2000, when Kansas City public schools lost accreditation, school districts in suburban Jackson County did not accept students, said Jim Morris, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. When Wellston lost accreditation in 2003, only about 100 of its students transferred, Morris said.
St. Louis County districts are now considering whether they will admit city students. Representatives from four county school districts — Mehlville, Maplewood, Webster Groves and Parkway — said their school boards have not decided whether to offer spaces to city students. A spokeswoman for Hazelwood said the district does not enroll nonresident students.
MSHSAA promises it will police the transfer process to ensure students do not leave their home schools just for athletic reasons, which would render them ineligible.
"We would encourage transfers at the beginning of the year for educational reasons," said Stacy Schroeder, an MSHSAA assistant executive director who deals with transfer rules.
MSHSAA only investigates eligibility when it receives a signed complaint from a member school, coach, parent or fan. MSHSAA accepts anonymous complaints but merely forwards them to the schools to consider.
Most years, MSHSAA processes between 1,600 to 1,800 transfer applications, and investigates 10 to 15 complaints for students accused of transferring for athletic reasons and about five complaints of coaches recruiting players, Schroeder said.
Schroeder said it is too early to worry about how many investigations her office could conduct next year. She said she did not remember receiving extra cases when Wellston lost accreditation.
There are already 1,228 city students attending school in St. Louis County through the voluntary desegregation agreement between the city and some county school districts,which is set to expire following the 2008-09 school year.
Since the region adopted its initial desegregation policy in 1983, some of the city's best athletes have attended suburban schools. Though this does not violate MSHSAA standards, it sometimes creates a perception of unfairness.
Some coaches worry the competitive balance could be further upset if city athletes can transfer to suburban schools without penalty.
"If kids move around because they want to go to another school for football, then that's going to be a nightmare," said McCluer North coach Jim Schottmueller, whose school does not participate in the desegregation program.
Schottmueller said it's not unusual to see 15 taxis lined up outside a football stadium to take the players home to the city. Likewise, Mitchell, the former Vashon coach, remembers watching the city's best athletes board buses whisking them off to suburban schools.
But considering many city athletes already compete in the suburbs, other coaches wonder how many stars are left to poach.
"A lot of the kids in the city are out there now," said DeAndre Campbell, the Roosevelt football coach. "They're going to get the kids they want to get anyway. We just make the best of what we have. I have no control over it."
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