Column: Transfers are sign of times

Not news: Timber Creek High School's powerful football program has benefitted in recent years from an influx of talented transfers.

Nobody disputes that. Nobody pretends otherwise. Nobody acts like the Chargers haven't featured top players who began their scholastic careers at other high schools.

It bothers some people. It irks some coaches. It strikes some folks as running contrary to the level-playing-field ideal of public-school sports.

They make a good point.

But it's the position of supporters of the under-fire program that transfers are an increasingly prominent part of the culture of scholastic sports and that parents -- not rule-bending coaches, not looking-the-other-way administrators -- are the driving forces in the process.

They make a good point, too.

"My thing is that if you do a good job and you win, people are going to want to come," attorney Troy Archie, who represents Timber Creek coach Rob Hinson, said Thursday night at the Black Horse Pike regional school district board of education meeting.

Timber Creek's program currently is under investigation by the Camden County Prosecutors Office, which is believed to be probing residency issues raised by an anonymous letter sent to that office as well as the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association in May.

Black Horse Pike superintendent Dr. Brian Repici has confirmed in a statement that the district is cooperating with the prosecutors' office over "residency concerns" that have been raised by an "anonymous group of concerned citizens."

There's no question that the Chargers' success in recent seasons has rankled some others in South Jersey football, mainly because of the presence of players who have transferred into the school.

Archie makes no apologies for the transfers who have landed at Timber Creek. He says that "parents want to put their children in the best position to succeed." He says it happens "all over the country."

He notes that his own son, Chargers' star senior wide receiver Ezrah Archie, is a tuition student at Timber Creek who otherwise would attend Winslow Township.

More and more, this is typical. Parents are willing to look at the advantages of changing schools, of trying to find the right fit for the athlete or the value of joining forces with others in a successful program in hopes of increasing exposure and improving the long odds of landing a scholarship.

It's the AAU culture that has overtaken youth sports, especially at the high-powered travel level: Players jumping teams from year to year, parents as active agents of their children's careers and also as behind-the-scenes facilitators of other childrens' moves.

It's taken deep root in scholastic sports (and college sports, too, given the absolute stampede of transfers in football and men's basketball in particular).

Look around. It's unfair to paint with broad brush, but it seems like more and more teams every year, in nearly every sport, have prominent players who have transferred from another school.

There are notable exceptions, of course. And given the climate around sports today, those programs probably deserve even greater measures of respect and admiration. They're bucking the trend.

But the reality is that Archie is right: If a coach builds a successful program, develops a reputation for sending athletes to college and begins to win championships, players are going to find a way there.

They'll pay tuition. They'll try to win the school-choice lottery. They'll establish residency in a district through purchase of a property or rental. They'll even sign over guardianship.

It's "Field of Dreams" out there: "If you build it, he (and probably some of his buddies, too) will come."

That's what seems to have happened at Timber Creek. In Hinson's first three seasons, from 2006-08,  the Chargers were 15-15. The 2009 team went 9-3 and made the South Jersey Group 3 final, but the 2010 team was 5-5.

Since 2011, the Chargers are 52-8. They are the first team in South Jersey history above the Group 1 level to make five straight appearances in the sectional finals. They've won three South Jersey titles, including the Group 4 crown in 2015.

Supporters of the program say success led to transfers.

Critics of the program says transfers led to success.

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, with Chargers' rise to prominence attracting athletes and the on-the-field impact of some of those players pushing the team to a higher level.

Chicken?

Or egg?

The more pertinent question: Were they actively "recruited" to Timber Creek and aided in efforts to establish residency?

Or were they attracted to the program because of its shining success, which led their parents or guardians to take the steps necessary to allow them to join the team?

Those questions are at the heart of the investigation, and at the core of the controversy that has dominated the South Jersey football scene this summer.

Let's be clear: If it's the former, heads should roll.

If anybody connected to the program or the school has actively recruited students from other schools, or arranged for fake addresses, or gamed the system in any way to bring in players for athletic advantage, then sanctions should be swift and severe.

People should lose their jobs.

Period.

But there's another point that needs to be made as well.

This might not sit well with traditionalists. And heaven knows the Chargers have pushed the envelope with the sheer number of players who have enrolled in the school in recent years.

But the fact that a bunch of talented football players have transferred to Timber Creek, in and of itself, is no crime.

It's more a sign of the times.

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