This is one of the biggest problems with youth and high school sports currently. Everybody wants to play for the winner or do what is best for their student athlete,, it sounds good but it will not end well. When you take one, two or even three very strong players and they transfer or move to play for the better teams (and this happens with more than one school) then it creates a huge talent divide between the have and have nots both locally and on the state level.
It happens locally in football with Fort Hill, In WV it has happened with Martinsburg, Bridgeport, Fairmont Senior, Wheeling Central and Herbert Hoover. I am not faulting the teams or schools but if everybody played in the areas they are supposed to we would have more competitive local games. It is no secret that kids transfer, move or drive illegally to these schools so they can be a part of a winning program.
I think it would be a far stretch for any team that wins a state championship these days to say that they did it with kids who played all of their sport from elementary through high school in their district.
I know it happens in other sports too. Sometimes it is the intent of the parent and also sometimes it is a fan base or coaches that lure players away from their home schools. In all honestly if a coach is doing that then the other coaches in that area have every right not to schedule them.
In time as the talent gap widens the kids left at the lower level schools will lose interest and teams will no longer be able to field teams in certain sports. I follow WV high school football and you can see more non-competitive games every year and more so now that they have made it easier to transfer by allowing it.
FYI, it happens at Alco.
You are trying to cling to old values. I am guilty of the same much too often. Yea, I was one of those red & white dudes not happy about Dunbar pulling kids from all over Baltimore in the name of magnet education tactics as early back as the 1990s. Can't think that way anymore. The world evolved. I can't look Reggie Bush in the eye and tell him he doesn't deserve his Heisman back for taking money decades ago. Felt the same about Pete Rose. There are gambling ads on World Series broadcasts now. I had to grow/adapt mentally. Doesn't mean I like it though.
Now you can throw in paying players to go to other high schools. NIL for teenagers exists in most every state. Just call it what it is -- pay for play. Every dollar spent has attachments for teenagers. Even worse for private schools. There were kids that played for BW basketball that attended 3 different schools in 3 years, coming from places far far away, yet most of Cumberland embraced the concept. I know public schools are different, but are they really? Yea, not as extreme but the transfer portal is alive and well everywhere. So it depends on the lessons society wishes to teach young men and women. Monkey see, monkey do. Kids don't distinguish whether "ME" is public or private.
Even more so for parents who think their kids will get a scholarship if they play here or there to drive their own bus. I don't name names, but there are two dads I know right now that round the clock shop their kid to multiple schools every week to see where the grass might be greener for their boy getting more carries or passes. And if they don't get those carries or passes the threat to go elsewhere is on the table openly.
This is not the world we grew up in. Not even 10 years ago. The less fortunate in this system are going to complain while easily doing the same when possible. Half the FH team could transfer to Alco next season. Does anyone believe Alco coaches would not take them? Everyone is in the same fish bowl now. I know personally local coaches in this county who call kids to see if they are interested in transferring in many sports. It might be worse for girls sports now. Heck, I watch Dapper Dan daddy coaches load up with ringers over the phone.
On the lines of where kids play football in elementary/middle schools... How many kids play for WV teams whose parents all went to Alco or FH but bought a home in WV for tax purposes? Not sure why it's so surprising they end up back in Cumberland schools for high school where their families have lifetime loyalties. I watched all the Robinette brothers play pee wee ball in WV only to move to Virginia Ave in South Cumberland while driving their sons to Alco daily so they could play pigskin. I applaud them for it, they are diehard Allegany parents. How many kids live in Bel Air and play girls/boys sports at Alco and Mtn Ridge? There is no more district restriction. I could go through an entire list of names the past 20 years of kids who lived on the other side of town but played sports out of district. It's not really new, just more widespread.
My advice to any coach: you can either embrace the transfer portal and win games or fight it and lose games. I said the same thing about social media 15 years ago. I embraced the power of social media. It's why I post here and many places. I also made sure my income sources had no control over what I embrace on social media that contradicts their own greedy benefits.
Literally, there are people in high places that have condemned me for being on social media only to have them ask me from time to time to put something on social media to get their side of the story out. It's powerful. Denial isn't just a river in Westernport, LOL.
There is a reason you skim through business ads at every digital media location you dwell. In case some folks were not paying attention, people of all ages stare at cell phones all day. I spent an entire day (as in 10 straight hours) of texting and talking on my cell when this FH eligibility forfeit situation broke. Now who am I to tell teenagers they are starring at their phone too much? It's like reading quotes from Coach Hansel joking that players transfer to FH because the girls are more pretty. I like Coach Hansel, but that does not stop me from saying his reason for poking at the subject is because FH gets them more than he does. Not because they do it and he doesn't. Like me texting my grand kids to tell them they use their cell phones too much.
