Recruiting hurts kids most of all

Jenny Smith is a real woman who asked me not to use her real name. Even though she graduated from high school several years ago, she's worried she'll never get a coaching job in Utah if she tells her story using her real name.

Her fear is based in how the Utah High School Activities Association tries to investigate and enforce the state's transfer rules for student athletes. They hear rumors, maybe even get reports from a principal or athletic director. But they can do little to enforce rules specifying no student athlete change schools for sports with the help of coaches while athletes are too scared of repercussions to talk.

In my last column I commended the Louisiana High School Athletic Association for taking action in a case where they deemed recruiting and undue influence occurred. I hesitate to go into too much detail about the LHSAA case because my point wasn't that their findings were correct, it was when they found a problem, they took immediate and significant action. In doing so, I believe, they have a better chance to prevent the behaviors they found.

I don't want to debate the merits of Louisiana's case, but the merits of enforcing rules currently in place.

In Utah, transfers requests — most of which are not for athletic reasons — have steadily climbed to about 700 applications per year. That includes just two percent of all high school athletes, which doesn't make it a statistically significant number.

But for Jenny Smith, the statistics are irrelevant.

In her case, she was sure she'd earn a college scholarship in her sport. So in seventh grade, she and her parents began discussing where she should play. They went to a few summer camps at high schools near her home, and at those camps, they talked with coaches about her opportunities.

Her mother said the home school coach was indifferent, while another coach was complimentary and told Jenny she would start every game for him. So they decided to go to that school, despite lifelong roots in the other community.

The coach didn't keep his promises, however, and in the middle of her sophomore year, another player transferred to the school and that girl played Jenny's position. When Jenny talked to her teammates about it, one pointed out Jenny had taken her position when she transferred.

What makes her regret the decision most, she said, is her friends at her home school believe they could have been serious state title contenders had she been in their lineup.

Whether it can ever be proven, whether it's statistically significant and whether the rules are ever enforceable, improper transfers and recruiting hurt the most vulnerable people in this debate — the students.

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E-mail: adonaldson@desnews.com