Transfers and high school sports

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

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[CS.]

It's out of control.  Especially in Dallas. 

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

Forgot to add this also. 

🫡 to Coach Parr. 

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Edited July 22 by Mr. Buddy Garrity

[pine curtain]

21 hours ago, CS. said:

It's out of control.  Especially in Dallas. 

Blame it on the select sports culture........

If I don't like it one place we will just go somewhere else and parents have encouraged it.

Kids play for the name on the back instead of the name on the front now. 

[Cougar14.2]

On 7/22/2026 at 11:24 AM, pine curtain said:

Blame it on the select sports culture........

If I don't like it one place we will just go somewhere else and parents have encouraged it.

Kids play for the name on the back instead of the name on the front now. 

If you and your family haven't grown up/lived in a community your whole life, are you actually beholden to the name on the front of the jersey though? When I was young my family lived in Trinity Gardens in NE Houston in what is now North Forest's attendance zone. Imagine being a life long resident of that community in today's time and having North Shore, CE King and Summer Creek who are all open enrollment football powerhouses 10 mins away.  If your kid was any good you'd basically be doing them a disservice by keeping them there simply for "loyalty" purposes. It 100% matters where you play today 

[1989NDN]

Should the UIL require open enrollment schools to play sports in the highest classification?  The private schools who elect to play in the UIL are required to play in the highest classification.  Houston's Strake Jesuit comes to mind.  SJ's enrollment fluctuates between 1,200 and 1,400, but the SJ sports teams must play in 6A.  Should the open enrollment schools be treated the same way?  Both systems, private education and open enrollment public schools, can cherry pick athletes.

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

Glad someone said it. I wasn't. 🍿

[89Falcon]

9 minutes ago, 1989NDN said:

Should the UIL require open enrollment schools to play sports in the highest classification?  The private schools who elect to play in the UIL are required to play in the highest classification.  Houston's Strake Jesuit comes to mind.  SJ's enrollment fluctuates between 1,200 and 1,400, but the SJ sports teams must play in 6A.  Should the open enrollment schools be treated the same way?  Both systems, private education and open enrollment public schools, can cherry pick athletes.

Just because they have open enrollment does not mean a player can play the first year he arrives. Still has to follow UIL transfer guidelines the same as if it were closed enrollment. 

[Cougar14.2]

22 minutes ago, 1989NDN said:

Should the UIL require open enrollment schools to play sports in the highest classification?  The private schools who elect to play in the UIL are required to play in the highest classification.  Houston's Strake Jesuit comes to mind.  SJ's enrollment fluctuates between 1,200 and 1,400, but the SJ sports teams must play in 6A.  Should the open enrollment schools be treated the same way?  Both systems, private education and open enrollment public schools, can cherry pick athletes.

Strake Jesuit has just shy of 3,000 kids so they would be 6A regardless but other states have already moved to this model or some type of hybrid. Louisiana moved to a "select" division similar to the Catholic League in California and Florida added an "open" division for their best teams regardless of class. You're probably referencing SOC and I agree, there's really no way they should be playing in 5A-D2 with PNG. SOC's actual attendance zone is very small but Molina, Kimball and Carter are all in the same neighborhood and supplement their roster before you even get to the actual "transfers". The South Dallas County coaching staffs also do a great job at identifying youth talent and "steering" them to programs so that PAPF's never even become an issue. 

It's going to be the same for Desoto dropping down to 5A-D1 this year  

[1989NDN]

Strake Jesuit does not have 3,000 kids.  My son goes to school there.  They have 1,400 - 1,500 young men in grades 9-12.  I'm not just referencing SOC.  The DFW suburb schools recruit or "steer kids" just like SOC.  I have an in-law that coaches in the DFW; no, she's not a football coach; she's volleyball/golf.  I'm not sure what the answers are for a level playing field.  We are a mobile society.  Families move for all kinds of reasons.  Blended families have kids in different schools for different reasons (e.g., private, public, and possibly in different public school zones).  It's a complicated issue.  Some families seek out special education resources to help those children in need.  Not everyone moves for athletic reasons.  A lot do, but not all.  I've always thought it was strange that Aledo has an OL with 6'6" 280 lbs. kids every year.  Highland Park, too.  SLC, SOC, Desoto, and the list goes on.  It's not just SOC.

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

Families not moving to the hood. I know. But yall go ahead with the talk. ☕

[Cougar14.2]

16 minutes ago, 1989NDN said:

Strake Jesuit does not have 3,000 kids.  My son goes to school there.  They have 1,400 - 1,500 young men in grades 9-12.  I'm not just referencing SOC.  The DFW suburb schools recruit or "steer kids" just like SOC.  I have an in-law that coaches in the DFW; no, she's not a football coach; she's volleyball/golf.  I'm not sure what the answers are for a level playing field.  We are a mobile society.  Families move for all kinds of reasons.  Blended families have kids in different schools for different reasons (e.g., private, public, and possibly in different public school zones).  It's a complicated issue.  Some families seek out special education resources to help those children in need.  Not everyone moves for athletic reasons.  A lot do, but not all.  I've always thought it was strange that Aledo has an OL with 6'6" 280 lbs. kids every year.  Highland Park, too.  SLC, SOC, Desoto, and the list goes on.  It's not just SOC.

Per the UIL 2026-2028 rank order reclassification Strake Jesuit has an enrollment of 2,974 kids. Maybe they're using a different formula than what you're saying but that's what the UIL is going by, probably doubling the enrollment to account for schools with girls. I know the Plano schools have senior highs and only about 2,400 kids on campus but are listed at enrollments close to 5k

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[Setx fan]

Recruiting is not conducive to an even playing field in UIL play. Especially for smaller schools. A team like SOC might not be necessarily "recruiting" but that's still not really an even playing field because they're not a true 5AD2 in my opinion. They have 5AD2 enrollment numbers but they have millions of kids they can chose from or attract while still keeping their enrollment numbers low. Theres probably not a perfect answer for those situations but the UIL should continue to work on keeping the playing field even as possible and not let the whole system get completely polluted with this madness. 

[tvc184]

1 hour ago, 1989NDN said:

Strake Jesuit does not have 3,000 kids.  My son goes to school there.  They have 1,400 - 1,500 young men in grades 9-12….

They had just as well be 6-A though. PNG with about 1,600 students and possibly larger than Strake Jesuit. PNG probably has about 800 male students though as opposed to a school with an enrollment of 1,500 that has 1,500 males.

A 3,000 enrollment public school would probably have the same 1,500 male students. 

[AggiesAreWe]

1 hour ago, 1989NDN said:

Strake Jesuit does not have 3,000 kids.  My son goes to school there.  They have 1,400 - 1,500 young men in grades 9-12.  I'm not just referencing SOC.  The DFW suburb schools recruit or "steer kids" just like SOC.  I have an in-law that coaches in the DFW; no, she's not a football coach; she's volleyball/golf.  I'm not sure what the answers are for a level playing field.  We are a mobile society.  Families move for all kinds of reasons.  Blended families have kids in different schools for different reasons (e.g., private, public, and possibly in different public school zones).  It's a complicated issue.  Some families seek out special education resources to help those children in need.  Not everyone moves for athletic reasons.  A lot do, but not all.  I've always thought it was strange that Aledo has an OL with 6'6" 280 lbs. kids every year.  Highland Park, too.  SLC, SOC, Desoto, and the list goes on.  It's not just SOC.

Houston Strake Jesuit turned in 2974 enrollment for this past realignment.

DCTF has them at 2974 and finishing 4th in 21-6A.

UIL uses total enrollment of 9-12, not just the male pop.

But, SJ had to agree to play 6A in order to participate in UIL. It's just now they have 6A numbers.

[Vini vidi]

3 hours ago, Cougar14.2 said:

If you and your family haven't grown up/lived in a community your whole life, are you actually beholden to the name on the front of the jersey though? When I was young my family lived in Trinity Gardens in NE Houston in what is now North Forest's attendance zone. Imagine being a life long resident of that community in today's time and having North Shore, CE King and Summer Creek who are all open enrollment football powerhouses 10 mins away.  If your kid was any good you'd basically be doing them a disservice by keeping them there simply for "loyalty" purposes. It 100% matters where you play today 

Then move them as a freshman. Not a big deal and don’t blame you. The issue that folks have is when dudes have spent their entire hs career at a single school are going to play college ball and transfer out as a senior to a name school. 

[1989NDN]

SJ is an all-boys school with 1,400+ boys in grades 9-12. They are required by the UIL to multiply their student population by two to satisfy the presumption of an equal number of female students that would be present in a public school setting.  Aggies Are We is right...notwithstanding the enrollment numbers, the UIL requires and SJ had to agree to play in the highest classification.

For open enrollment schools, do you use the same rule...notwithstanding the enrollment numbers, will the UIL require and the school must agree to play in the highest classification?

14.2's post has prompted me to read about the select divisions being considered by some states.  That's an interesting concept.