High School tranfer , MHA Fine

[91catAlum]

Transferring to a school that actually plays 11 man football, and will have more exposure for athletes, is not a problem at all.

Let's think of the kids here.

Let's balance that with remembering what high school is actually for...
Aren't things starting to get out of hand with HS athletics just a bit? Is it just me?

[bobcat99]

Transferring to a school that actually plays 11 man football, and will have more exposure for athletes, is not a problem at all.

Let's think of the kids here.

Let's balance that with remembering what high school is actually for...
Aren't things starting to get out of hand with HS athletics just a bit? Is it just me?

Is he not still getting a HS education? If a kid moved to go to a better scholastic school to qualify for an academic scholarship, nobody would complain.

[iaafan]

Transferring to a school that actually plays 11 man football, and will have more exposure for athletes, is not a problem at all.

Let's think of the kids here.

Let's balance that with remembering what high school is actually for...
Aren't things starting to get out of hand with HS athletics just a bit? Is it just me?

Is he not still getting a HS education? If a kid moved to go to a better scholastic school to qualify for an academic scholarship, nobody would complain.

I don’t think transferring is a problem for that reason. Like others I don’t care for HS coaches recruiting. That’s BS. Sends the wrong message. I also don’t like stacking teams.

I don’t have a problem with Lee going to Sentinel. They’re probably going to be average anyway. Didn’t make the playoffs last year. 7 seed two years ago. Ex-Griz Dane Oliver is the coach.

[kennethnoisewater]

Happens all the time, finally a smaller school said something. Not surprising when the AD is the football coach.

...and the Principal, and the Superintendent. Small town fiefdom at its worst.

Yes he wears a lot of hats and yes he probably gets to act pretty unilaterally. But besides being a little bit of a crybaby, he didn't do anything wrong. Kids look elsewhere for better opportunities all the time. Schools are allowed to talk to those kids about the benefits of their school. The MHSA will not rule against a school for that. Obviously Sentinel did something illegal and everybody is making it sound like Cutler broke the rules. I know it's a $100 fine, but I think $200 is the maximum amount the MHSA is allowed to fine a school. None of the fines are very punitive.

[Hawks86]

Maybe they should do something like the new college transfer portal. Once the kids name is in the portal they can be recruited by other schools. All current MHSA transfer rules would still apply. Since these are just kids it shouldn't be a public database.

[iaafan]

Happens all the time, finally a smaller school said something. Not surprising when the AD is the football coach.

...and the Principal, and the Superintendent. Small town fiefdom at its worst.

Yes he wears a lot of hats and yes he probably gets to act pretty unilaterally. But besides being a little bit of a crybaby, he didn't do anything wrong. Kids look elsewhere for better opportunities all the time. Schools are allowed to talk to those kids about the benefits of their school. The MHSA will not rule against a school for that. Obviously Sentinel did something illegal and everybody is making it sound like Cutler broke the rules. I know it's a $100 fine, but I think $200 is the maximum amount the MHSA is allowed to fine a school. None of the fines are very punitive.

There’s a difference between recruiting a player who is known to be looking to transfer and recruiting one that isn’t. If I’m a coach and I find out that a coach is recruiting one of my guys, who hasn’t mentioned wanting to transfer, I’m going to have a problem with it. I don’t blame the Drummond coach one bit if that’s the case.

[Cu-Ag-Au]

I don’t blame the Drummond coach one bit if that’s the case.

Philipsburg.

[vike_king]

I don’t blame the Drummond coach one bit if that’s the case.

Philipsburg.

Both, I believe they co-op.

[Phat Daddy]

[/quote]
Not just in AA. The first I knew of this was with Whitefish head basketball coach Julio Delgado in the 90s. A great athletes parents would miraculously get jobs in or around the town of Whitefish and it just happened to work out that their son would then be able to play basketball the next school year. Crazy how crazy coincidences work out like that...
[/quote]

This isn’t accurate. I’d love to hear the examples behind your claim.

[SACCAT]

Not just in AA. The first I knew of this was with Whitefish head basketball coach Julio Delgado in the 90s. A great athletes parents would miraculously get jobs in or around the town of Whitefish and it just happened to work out that their son would then be able to play basketball the next school year. Crazy how crazy coincidences work out like that...
[/quote]

This isn’t accurate. I’d love to hear the examples behind your claim.
[/quote]

Just sent you 4 or 5...

[Rich K]

Not just in AA. The first I knew of this was with Whitefish head basketball coach Julio Delgado in the 90s. A great athletes parents would miraculously get jobs in or around the town of Whitefish and it just happened to work out that their son would then be able to play basketball the next school year. Crazy how crazy coincidences work out like that...

This isn’t accurate. I’d love to hear the examples behind your claim.
[/quote]

Just sent you 4 or 5...
[/quote]
I appreciate you doing this in pm's. Personally, I don't even like it that the title of this thread has a kid's name in it, even if it is already public knowledge.

[Cu-Ag-Au]

Happens all the time, finally a smaller school said something. Not surprising when the AD is the football coach.

...and the Principal, and the Superintendent. Small town fiefdom at its worst.

Yes he wears a lot of hats and yes he probably gets to act pretty unilaterally. But besides being a little bit of a crybaby, he didn't do anything wrong. Kids look elsewhere for better opportunities all the time. Schools are allowed to talk to those kids about the benefits of their school. The MHSA will not rule against a school for that. Obviously Sentinel did something illegal and everybody is making it sound like Cutler broke the rules. I know it's a $100 fine, but I think $200 is the maximum amount the MHSA is allowed to fine a school. None of the fines are very punitive.

There’s a difference between recruiting a player who is known to be looking to transfer and recruiting one that isn’t. If I’m a coach and I find out that a coach is recruiting one of my guys, who hasn’t mentioned wanting to transfer, I’m going to have a problem with it. I don’t blame the Drummond coach one bit if that’s the case.

I had never heard of this kid, and knew nothing of his accomplishments before this transfer thing blew up. Having been through Philipsburg once in my life(Ugh!)I really have no desire to experience that again. I knew Drummond had a couple of very successful players who went on to play for the Griz and Cats, and, now, Drummond kids had to co-op with Philipsburg for football.
I will just summarize what I have read for the convenience of BN readers. I have no first hand information. My sources are a couple of posters on eGriz, evidently with Granite County roots, and a couple Missoulian articles. Philipsburg/Drummond took its second consecutive State Title this past fall. Players get a ring to remember season. Rings handed out at halftime of a basketball game, big show, and Jaxson is on the basketball team. But no ring presentation for Jaxson. Cutler gave the ring to his little sister earlier in the day, for HER to give the ring to her brother. That was before he announced he would transfer. After being told Jaxson would transfer, Cutler then threatened the kid, in front of witnesses, that he'd never get a scholarship or even play football again.
Playing time during the season was another sore spot, but there were other star athletes. The team has four seniors who did well. One got a partial offer with Rocky. As far as I know, none of the others did. Jaxson has a current offer from MSU. As a junior, the stud star WR(who excelled at running back and defensive back and ST returner) didn't even get nominated for post season conference honors by his 'coach.' This in a small Class C conference, where Jaxson was a heads and shoulders above the rest. A five time post season football honors recipient since his first year at P-burg, his freshman year.
So, the kids been in P-burg two and a half years, now wants to transfer for 'social and academic' reasons to Sentinel. He also looked at Butte, but Sentinel got the nod, probably family related decision, as his uncle went there. In a Missoulian article, he mentions the difficulty he had socially, finding kids to hang with, the limited academic offerings at P- burg(he looks forward to taking some classes just to explore possibilities(he has a 3.8GPA)), the limited lifting time(if any)he could get in this little school. Now lifts twice a day and is enjoying the experience and new friends. He mentioned not having the same students in every class as a plus. He has said, in another article after the MHSA decision, that he was not recruited, that it was a 'social and academic' decision on his part.

Iaafan, I use your words for emphasis of what I have read, not to criticize you:

"...probably gets to act pretty unilaterally." Hometown boy coach/teacher, then add AD, then Principal, then Superintendent. Vertical integration, may be efficient in production management, but, in this case its obvious this is NOT good on an interpersonal basis, especially with KIDS. IMO, Cutler has abused his position of authority, and has not been held responsible for his actions.
"If I'm a coach and I find out that a coach is recruiting one of my guys, who hasn't mentioned wanting to transfer, I'm going to have a problem with it." If you were Jaxson, and did not grow up in P-burg, knowing what you do about this 'coach,' would you be in any hurry to tell this 'coach,' your AD, your Principal, your Superintendent, that you would be transferring, and would not, therefore, be coming back to the coaches football team next year? Knowing Cutler as he did, Jaxson probably knew he would be in for a bad time once the transfer was known or even considered. As an administrator, I'd want to help the kid make the transition as smooth as possible. It would be best for the kid. Yeah, this 'coach' has a problem, but its bigger and much more detrimental to those under him than meets the eye.
"Obviously Sentinel did something illegal..." Exactly what did Sentinel do. Who did it, and when. I don't know those facts, and I doubt anyone else does, or ever will. MHSA did the minimum, which says volumes.

If someone has additional information on this matter, I'd like to read it.

[kennethnoisewater]

"...probably gets to act pretty unilaterally." Hometown boy coach/teacher, then add AD, then Principal, then Superintendent. Vertical integration, may be efficient in production management, but, in this case its obvious this is NOT good on an interpersonal basis, especially with KIDS. IMO, Cutler has abused his position of authority, and has not been held responsible for his actions.
"If I'm a coach and I find out that a coach is recruiting one of my guys, who hasn't mentioned wanting to transfer, I'm going to have a problem with it." If you were Jaxson, and did not grow up in P-burg, knowing what you do about this 'coach,' would you be in any hurry to tell this 'coach,' your AD, your Principal, your Superintendent, that you would be transferring, and would not, therefore, be coming back to the coaches football team next year? Knowing Cutler as he did, Jaxson probably knew he would be in for a bad time once the transfer was known or even considered. As an administrator, I'd want to help the kid make the transition as smooth as possible. It would be best for the kid. Yeah, this 'coach' has a problem, but its bigger and much more detrimental to those under him than meets the eye.
"Obviously Sentinel did something illegal..." Exactly what did Sentinel do. Who did it, and when. I don't know those facts, and I doubt anyone else does, or ever will. MHSA did the minimum, which says volumes.

If someone has additional information on this matter, I'd like to read it.

Some of those were my words, so I'll address.

About the guy getting to act unilaterally, I'm not claiming to know anything. I'm not even defending the guy, I'm just saying I don't think a guy needs to get approval of a school board to air a grievance against Sentinel. I would argue that generally the school board doesn't need to get involved with every little thing that happens with the MHSA. If they do, in my opinion, you're giving them too much say over what happens in the day-to-day of an athletic program. That's when the really bad small town stuff comes in. So-and-so is on the board and his kid is a QB, so he should start, etc. But that's just one man's opinion and I could be wrong.

And as for Sentinel doing something illegal, I'm not sure that we'll ever know what it was. I do know that the MHSA gets word of these things happening all the time. Generally these things don't turn up any wrongdoing, so the MHSA must have found something, however minor it was. But the maximum penalty for something egregious isn't very high either, so I don't put any stock in the thought that it must not have been a big deal if the MHSA only fined them $100. At Sentinel, the AD is the football coach, so that's going to raise some eyebrows.

I think it will be interesting when we see what happens with Troy Walters, the Westby-Grenora football coach (and Superintendent). He's accused of some pretty big stuff, and we'll see if his punishment is similar.

[Cu-Ag-Au]

Thanks for your reply. What I don't know fills volumes, esp. where school admin/boards are concerned. Boards set policy and handle personnel matters in the final determination. I think they have a loose cannon in Cutler, and they need to step on him. If they want him as Supt., fine, hire a coach, AD, and Principal. He's become a petty assed dictator. I think that's borne out by the brief vignettes provided. Yes, that North Dakota thing bears watching.

[allcat]

Thanks for your reply. What I don't know fills volumes, esp. where school admin/boards are concerned. Boards set policy and handle personnel matters in the final determination. I think they have a loose cannon in Cutler, and they need to step on him. If they want him as Supt., fine, hire a coach, AD, and Principal. He's become a petty assed dictator. I think that's borne out by the brief vignettes provided. Yes, that North Dakota thing bears watching.

Yea a school that has little money needs to hire a bunch more admin people so that one guy won't fight for what he thinks is right.

[Cu-Ag-Au]

"What we have here is failure to communicate."