Opinion: Back Again

Reclassification and Cross-Jurisdictional Enrollment are Affecting High School Sports

By Nick Hanley

High school sports have seen more freakish athletes and super-teams than ever before. This is proven annually in the NFL Combine, where times drop and numbers seem to get faster year by year.

To make it to the Combine, however, these players must earn a scholarship or walk on to play college sports and then get invited to the draft. These Combine grades are not significantly rising due to a fruitful draft class, but due to these athletes’ raw abilities, on top of their college training. This fact is important to reclassifying (reclassing) and cross-jurisdictional enrollment (CJE) as it gives them portunity,” said Cibes. “When I received my LOA for Army, I was lost for words. I never thought I would even be considered for such an honor.”

“I was notified a week in advance to complete my application before the LOA deadline for consideration, which was around late August. I rushed to acquire the rest of my recommendations and finish my personal statements. I was proud of my accomplishments, but I knew I could not have done this without God’s assistance, and my parents and classmates pushing me every day to strive for the best.”

Cadet Buchanan is, at the time of writing, serving as Judge Advocate General of the class of ‘23 and the team captain for the track team, and he still has his mind open to what he wants an unfair advantage of excess exposure and recognition. Reclassing is when a student repeats a school year.

It is a method for athletes who may not have received as much playing time to play an extra year and essentially have make-up time for recruitment.

CJE is when a student who lives in another county or city uses the address of someone who lives in the school zone. This is a method used by athletes to play on a better team, one for which they lack the residency requirement. These two methods are detrimental to the game and the true way it is supposed to be played.

A common trend of all recent VHSL state champions is that their star players are zoned for a different school. I think this trend ruins the nature of high school sports by changing it from one where the school with the best athletes in its zone wins to one where the school with the most illegally enrolled athletes will. We should all take issue with this practice because it is unfair to schools without the name cred, similar to college football. For example, Alabama will always have an advantage when it comes to athletes wanting to come play for the Crimson Tide, due to its impeccable athletic history. Schools such as Kent State, on the other hand, will never be true D1 playoff contenders due to its lacking such a strong reputation. A local example is Highland Springs, which also has an astounding reputation and draws athletes from all over the state to its doors. While I am not accusing the Springers of participating in any illegal activities, they certainly do have an advantage that takes away the whole point of high school sports: to see what districts and counties have the best teams or athletes. Another problem that is twisting high school sports is reclassifying. Reclassing is bad for the sport as it gives players another year of eligibility, resulting in five (and sometimes six) years of high school sports. That means that