The landscape of the West Virginia high school sports scene is in the early stages of significant change.
How much impact House Bill 2820 has depends on the point of view, but it’s clear student-athletes across the Mountain State have liberalized rules allowing them to transfer schools at least once and maintain athletic eligibility.
Previously, a student transferring after ninth grade was required by the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission to sit out one year unless he or she could verify a change of address into the district of the new school or petitioned the WVSSAC and won an appeal.
“There’s been kids transferring all over the state for years. It’ll balance and even the playing field out a little bit,” said Zach Green, who stepped down as Logan boys basketball coach in May following a seven-season stint. “I’m not sure what we’re going to see out of it. I don’t think it’ll be to the extent of what’s gone on in the NCAA or anything like that, but I am anxious to see how it progresses.”
The creation of a de facto high school transfer portal came about after The House of Delegates approved HB 2820 and the Senate merged it with Senate Bill 262.
As it was originally structured, HB 2820 was designed to allow HOPE Scholarship recipients attending private schools, micro schools, learning pods or homeschool settings to participate on public school teams unless that sport was already offered at their school.
However, an amendment meant the bill would also include policies originally in SB 262, which then allows student-athletes to transfer schools at least one time and maintain eligibility.
In late March, Gov. Jim Justice allowed the bill to become law without his signature only a few hours before a bill decision deadline.
That night, Justice released a statement and said in part, “I fully support the ability of our HOPE scholarship recipients, students in micro schools or learning pods, homeschooled students or our private school students to participate in extracurricular activities at their school or at their local public school. However, the extra provision in this bill which allows all public school students to transfer schools and retain athletic eligibility one time during their four years of high school is something I have a big problem with. Allowing student-athletes to transfer to any school whatsoever with no purpose other than jumping to a better athletic team will do nothing but make a few teams better at the expense of all the others.”
Already this summer, a number of notable high school athletes have made it known their intention to transfer to a new school, which in most cases, is within a reasonable drive of the one they’re leaving behind.
“We are probably in an area that’s not going to be affected as much,” Elkins boys basketball coach Amrit Rayfield said. “There’s going to be some movement, but I’m thinking and imagining in areas like Charleston, Morgantown, the Eastern Panhandle, it’s going to be very interesting.
“I’m not sure it’s going to be really good. Maybe I’m old school, but I think we’re in a situation where if someone is getting coached hard or someone is thinking it’s not going the way that I want it to go, then it’s easy to jump ship. I don’t know if that’s a good thing, because unfortunately, we’ve already got a mentality in the generation of it does get too hard, then let’s try to find something else.”
Since Tygarts Valley and Harman the only other high schools in Randolph County and Philip Barbour and Buckhannon-Upshur are the only non-Randolph County schools within 30 miles of Elkins, it’s understandable why Rayfield feels there will be minimal impact on the Tigers.
While expressing doubt that an open transfer policy often leads to a better situation for student-athletes, Rayfield said he can see the plus side of it as well.
“On the flip side of that, if it works out and it’s a better situation for someone that’s for all the right reasons, then more power to them and hopefully it is the right move,” he said. “I just don’t want people jumping all over the place all the time, because I don’t know what that’s doing for them as a person, but also for everyone and how it’s going to benefit them. We’ll see.”
Like Rayfield, Parkersburg South football coach Nathan Tanner believes transfers will be far more prevalent in populated areas. To reference why, Tanner thought back to his six seasons as a football coach at Summers County High School, which included a stint as head coach from 2013-16.
“When you’re in Hinton, you’re 45 minutes from Princeton and 45 minutes from Beckley,” Tanner said. “Kids aren’t coming there and kids aren’t leaving. The transfer stuff doesn’t really impact those schools. Now if you go to some of the larger, I guess you could call them metropolitan areas — you have from Charleston to Huntington and Parkersburg you have some places to go. Wheeling, Morgantown, the Eastern Panhandle and Berkeley County. I think it’s always gone on. Now it’s just more in your face, because it’s legal per se.”
In the spring, it was revealed Robert Shockey, last season’s standout quarterback at Parkersburg South, is transferring to Cabell Midland for his senior season. Shockey was instrumental in leading the Patriots to a Class AAA runner-up finish and 12 victories in 2022.
Tanner says it’s his duty to adjust to the new rule — something coaches at all levels of college athletics have had to do with the increased popularity and impact of the NCAA Transfer Portal.
“We’re not going to blame, complain or be defensive,” Tanner said. “I think it’s here to stay and there’s nothing we can do about it, but at the end of the day, who I am as a coach and a person, I feel very strongly about community and having a sense of pride of where you’re from. That means a lot to me.”
Tanner, a native of Pearisburg, Va., and a graduate of Giles High School, still follows his alma mater closely and said he checks the score of their football game each Friday after he’s done coaching PSHS.
“I had my teammates and my boys I grew up with and we were going to war on Fridays and having fun,” Tanner said. “It’s just different now. I still have a strong feeling about that and I think there’s something to being loyal to where you’re from and having a strong sense of pride in your community and who you are as a community.”
When Green played high school basketball, he spent his first three seasons at Scott and then transferred to Logan for his senior campaign.
“It was a three-ring circus,” he recalled. “The same banners from Tug Valley to Westside to Wyoming East read, ‘Welcome Logan Skycats.’ The whole deal. I was a part of some of that in 2004.”
Although those rivalries and plenty of others exist across the state’s high school sports scene, Green feels the current era has somewhat lessened them.
“What I did was kind of uncommon at that time. Today, these kids play on the same AAU teams and they’re so much different,” Green said. “They’re all friends. It’s not as do or die as it used to be from the early 2000s and back. I’m anxious to see where it goes.”