Their hope is to prevent the building of a high school "Dream Team." The Ohio High School Athletic Association has announced that the members of the association have approved changes to the transfer rules for high school athletes that will take effect in August.
OHSSA members have been calling for the changes for several years because of the impact that transfer students have had on basketball in particular. Commissioner Dr. Dan Ross says schools are not supposed to be "stacking teams" and the transfer rule will help prevent that. Transfer students must sit out half the season after their move but until now they were required to miss the first half of the year. This rule change now requires the transfer player to miss the second half of the year and any post-season play. Sixty-five percent of the member schools approved the change.
The Deer Park basketball team that went 29-0 this year and won the state championship had come under criticism during its historic run because the roster was made up of several transfer students who were not on the team that went 11-13 the year before. OHSSA did look into the eligibility of all of the Wildcat players and confirmed that no rules were broken.
700WLW's Bill Cunningham, who played basketball himself for Deer Park followed the undefeated season very closely. He was invited to help cut down the nets after the school won its first Division III state championship.