Imperfect rule hurts good students

Napoleon Aniciete is caught in that frustrating place of holding the short straw with no opportunity to choose again.

Aniciete this school year was to pursue the second of what he dreamed would be four straight state wrestling titles. He won at 103 pounds last year while competing for Bishop Gorman, but for what his family says is financial hardship, Aniciete transferred to East Career and Technical Academy this fall.

Four-for-four no more.

Perfection is a difficult concept to discover anywhere (Gemma Atkinson notwithstanding), and there isn't a state going with flawless transfer rules. This includes Nevada, which demands any prep athlete leaving one school for another be denied eligibility for 180 days in a varsity sport in which he or she competed at his or her previous stop.

Private to public. Public to private. It doesn't matter. You bolt one campus for the other, and you sit a year. Aniciete's family knew the regulation, knew it probably would lose on appeal (it did), knew the NIAA rules book was meant for something other than a doorstop.

"Our only sin as parents was sending him to Gorman as a freshman and now not being able to afford it," Aniciete's father, Joey, said. "We didn't read everything in the (NIAA handbook), but this doesn't seem right."

On its face, it's entirely correct. It's the rule.

But problems reside below the surface.

Finances no longer can be appealed as hardship, not even for a UPS driver like Joey who estimates he could lose $10,000 in wages this year due to fewer hours as a result of the economy and missing months of work while on disability following two surgeries.

Too many others tried taking advantage of that specific appeal in the past, and the rule proved far too ambiguous in court hearings as to what defined monetary suffering.

Example: If your earnings slipped from $1 million annually to $900,000, is it hardship to claim you can't afford a $10,000 private school tuition? More than a few tried, which ultimately hurt those in need like the Aniciete family.

This part isn't unclear: The Clark County School District statute that allows athletes who are expelled from one school for disciplinary reasons to become immediately eligible at another upon serving an assigned punishment needs to be changed.

For a kid such as Napoleon Aniciete, who left Bishop Gorman with a 3.75 grade-point average and is enrolled in a medical professions curriculum at his magnet school with the desire to become a pediatrician, to miss an entire wrestling season and another kid get kicked out of school for a criminal act and be starting at quarterback somewhere else the following year is ludicrous.

Clark County principals agree and are working on making the transfer consequences tougher on those expelled. They need to expedite the process, as in yesterday.

"I will tell you for every good kid penalized by the (transfer) system, 10 others don't deserve to play, and we stop them from taking advantage for either recruiting reasons or leaving a school with athletics being the only reason," district athletics director Ray Mathis said. "Good kids sometimes get caught up in the rule, but for the most part, it is exactly what it is intended to do, and that is keep a fair playing field."

How can things be made better?

People such as Mathis and Eddie Bonine of the NIAA -- whose desk Aniciete's appeal landed -- have difficult jobs that would be made easier with a one-transfer policy. One shot. One opportunity. One chance for any high school student to switch schools without consequence. After that, anyone wishing to transfer again would be slapped with the 180-day ineligible tag.

Sure, it would be murder on Clark County officials already drowning in paperwork, and people still would file hardship claims for multiple transfers. Some fear a handful of schools would benefit from all superior athletes in certain sports arriving on campus, although be assured kids and parents study depth charts and calculate playing time more than anyone.

For the most part, kids still want to compete for their neighborhood school and alongside their friends. Bonine says national surveys put the number at 83 percent.

A one-time transfer rule would have allowed Napoleon Aniciete to wrestle this year and over time solve most transfer issues facing the NIAA. It would allow a young man who has done everything the right way to continue chasing his dream. Most of all, it would make more sense than not.

"I suppose the only positive I see is how hard I will train for my junior year," said Napoleon, who will compete in athletics for Las Vegas High while attending East Career. "I wanted to be a four-time state champion since I can remember. That's over."

That's a shame.

The rule is what it is.

Imperfect.

Ed Graney can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.