FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JUNE 18, 2008
This is to clarify
the interscholastic athletic eligibility status of two students (Chad
Jackson and Dakotah Euton)
transferring to Scott County High School from Rose Hill Christian, and their
requests for a waiver of KHSAA Bylaw 6.
School personnel have now been notified that the waiver requests of
both students have been denied.
Because of public statements
made by Clay Euton (the father of one of the
students) indicating that his son’s transfer to Scott County was in whole or
partly motivated by a desire to play basketball at the school as well as
concerns involving the recent transfer of other AAU basketball
teammates to Scott County, Dakotah Euton's request for a waiver of Bylaw 6 was denied.
In addition, due to a clerical error in correspondence,
The member schools
of the KHSAA enacted Bylaw 6 to maintain the integrity of high school athletics
and prevent and deter transfers due to recruiting and for athletic
reasons. Bylaw 6 provides an objectively based standard that makes a
student ineligible for one year from the date of transfer if the student
participated in varsity athletics after grade nine at the former school.
An objective standard is necessary because the KHSAA does not have the
resources to comprehensively investigate the true motivations
underlying the nearly one thousand transfer forms that are submitted to the
KHSAA each year, and would have rare success in identifying athletically
motivated transfers thinly disguised as transfers for alleged academic or other
non-athletic reasons.
In order to allow a
student to become eligible under situations where there are objective
indicators that the transfer was not due to recruiting or for athletic reasons,
the member schools of the KHSAA have enacted nine exceptions under which Bylaw
6 may be waived. As an example for the year ending May 31, 2007, the
application of these exceptions resulted in a high percentage (74% - 596 out
of 805) of transferring students being eligible.
Students have
the right to appeal eligibility rulings in accordance with KRS Chapter
13B, which includes a hearing before an independent hearing officer. At
this hearing, the students can present information to support their
positions and have all pertinent issues in their
cases addressed. If these students timely take an appeal, the final
decisions regarding their eligibility should be issued prior to the start
of basketball season. In this manner, the KHSAA can consider the
interests of all member schools and their student-athletes in the
proper and fair application of Bylaw 6.
As is KHSAA policy,
the Association will have no further comment while the cases remain within the appeal
timeline. Please contact school
personnel at