High-flying player grounded after transfer to Copper Hills

The nephew of homegrown NFL player Reno Mahe was forced to sit out his senior year of football after a contentious battle about the 17-year-old's request to transfer from the West Jordan Jaguars to the Copper Hills Grizzlies.

John Mahe is practicing with the Copper Hills team but is prohibited from playing in the games by Utah High School Athletic Association rules. He and his family say the boy's senior year of football was stolen by a disgruntled West Jordan coach.

West Jordan coach Mike Morgan says rules are rules — if you switch schools because of athletics, you have to sit out a year.

"I just wanted to play football," says John Mahe from his home near the foot of the Oquirrh Mountains. "We didn't move here because of football, but I really wanted to play my senior year."

With the state's open enrollment policy for high schools, any student can transfer schools. Controversy can arise when a young person changes schools and tries to play sports at the new venue.

The process for transferring eligibility is straightforward: the student must be enrolled at the new school for a transfer to be considered. The UHSAA evaluates the application. If it has nothing to do with athletics, eligibility is usually approved, says UHSSA director Evan Excell. "Our system is pretty good about giving kids a chance," he says.

The transfer rules do not apply to any activities except athletics. So, a person can participate in speech, music or drama activities — all UHSAA sanctioned — without applying to transfer eligibility.

But if anyone objects to the transfer — as happened in John Mahe's case — a full panel is convened to consider the request. If the panel decides the student's transfer was not due to athletics — as the Mahe family alleges — the student can play sports. If the panel decides the student athlete did move for athletics, he has to sit out a year.

Mahe's was one of six football transfers considered by UHSAA since May, according to Excell.

And there are two very different sides to the story about why Mahe transferred into the Copper Hills boundaries.

Mahe says his parents bought a house two blocks from the school and that the family moved for financial reasons. "We decided I can walk to school and walk back home," his application states.

Meleane Mahe, affirmed finances, not football, were at the root of the reason for her son's new address. "We didn't know it was going to go this bad for him," she said.

John's father, Tevita Mahe, says he knows student athletes sometimes use fake addresses to get eligibility in another school's boundaries. "That's not what happened," he says, frustrated. "I bought this house."

West Jordan has done relatively well this season, while Copper Hills has a losing record. "If I'm thinking about athletics, why wouldn't I take him to Skyline or Brighton?" Tevita Mahe asks.

West Jordan's coach Morgan confirms he denied Mahe's transfer for athletic purposes. UHSAA rules are rules, he says. "They need to uphold those rules and guidelines."

This transfer case centered on a conversation that took place midway through Mahe's junior year between the young man and Morgan, West Jordan athletic director Dan Cowan and coach Scott Briggs.

Mahe had told West Jordan officials he was leaving for Copper Hills, and according to UHSAA documents, the three asked him why he was leaving. Morgan, Cowan and Briggs testified that Mahe told them, "I want to play football at Copper Hills, not West Jordan."

Mahe denies saying this.