Are getting out of hand.

Example A: Kid from Spain Park transferring to Thompson with one regular season game remaining before starting playoffs. "Bona fide move" by the parents.

...meanwhile...

Example B: Gulf Shores business paying rent for several Gulf Shores athletes and their families to who just happened to transfer in from out of district.

Personally, I wish they'd stick to a standard "must sit one year for varsity sports".

As long as they have the same rule for coaches. Shouldn’t coaches be loyal, virtuous, ethical? The high school kids aren’t even getting paid. Coaches can make $100k. They should be held to a higher standard. Not lower.

I'd 100% get behind a rule that prevented coaches from coaching for 2 schools in 1 season.

This didn’t just start. Hoover did it every year under Rush Prost.

Been doing it for years. Even down to 1A.

Private school 1A at that.

That cost my group a few rings in high school. Went from zeros to hero’s quick.
I have a house that has an address but isn’t livable. Been asked several times if the address could be used…

Its a form of idol worship. Just sit down and think about that for a while. Not just the recruiting but the whole deal. Im going through it with a son and daughter right now. I know there are some good benefits from high school sports. I really enjoy sports. Coaches and parents have screwed it up pretty bad. Its out of hand

Yep

I would think that regulating it at this point would be a civil rights Pandora's box due to the NIL and the results of it.

Good observation on the idol worship. I have to watch myself and family too with a son in high school playing sports.

35 years ago you showed up for football and they threw out a pile of helmets and pads. Some wore out so bad it was crazy. No parents at practices, no parent inclusion at all. You had a pep rally on Friday and that was it. We practiced on the grass parking lot to the football stadium. The coaches flat out abused you and instilled a sense of submission and respect. No, big deals of having the signs in your yards and the boosters feeding you 3 times a week. It was just football. Baseball and basketball were the same except less of a deal with no pep rally , etc.

It's changed a lot.

I am afraid you are correct. Not to mention, there is the mentality that playing is a student's "right" not a privilege. Schools formerly emphasized the STUDENT in Student Athlete... now, not so much. Where does it end?

This right here.

The Gulf Shores thing boils down to parents bragging about “ we’re moov’in on up”.. or in this case, down to the beach.

HS athletes get up and go to school earlier in the summer than they do through the year. About 3/4 of the summer break. They go straight out of one sport into another. No breaks to speak of. No way a 16yo boy can have a job if he plays sports. 13yos have to be at the school at 6:30 and picked up at 9:00. No consideration whatsoever that parents have jobs. No consideration whatsoever that some families might need their teenage kids to work summer jobs or the kids might want to. Coaches kids play whether they can play or not. A coaches kid will make the team 100% of tge time, it dont matter how bad they suck. And the kid who is way better at that position sits the bench, a kid who might havea future playing ball gets robbed of that future so coaches kid can play every down or every inning. That is theft.coaches are stealing kids futures who practice hard, play hard and deserve to play. I have seen a coach force his son to take the field with his son screaming "no daddy, i dont want to play", and the kid wanting to play that position sitting on the bench wishing he could get on the field. Coaches kids making error after error costing the team games and they never come off the field. Thats messed up. Thats just a couple of things going on at the school. Then theres all the parents bs that they do. I wont even get into sll that. It has definately turned quite a few people i liked and some i really looked up to into people i dont even want to be around.

I’ve got a nephew that has played football since he was 7 years old. He’s a junior this year at Northside High School and walked away from football this year because of the coach playing his son and other teachers’ kids regardless of talent level. He’s played cornerback for most of his playing days and was the fastest kid on the team. He’s attended the Saban clinics numerous times. A teacher’s kid was named starter over him. The kid is awful and has never played cornerback. Two other high schools contacted him wanting him to transfer and play for them, but opted not to because both schools do not have track teams. He will most likely get scholarship offers for track. Northside had a lot of players that were good athletes quit this year because of it and the team is a dumpster fire now. Believe they’ve only won 2 games.

Shaw, my son was QB since seventh grade. 11th grade this year. New coach named a boy starting QB who had never played one down of football in his life, before spring training even started. It was Josephs time to be QB, actually should have got a shot last year but was never even considered. He had played half of several games in 9th grade, the year we wint to the state championship game. Was the jr high starter from day one. The nee coach never put him on the field with any starting line tge whole first year he was there, not one play. At the end with 1:00 or so left, he would put the whole second team offense in at one time. First time they went in, he hadnt even taught them the plays. Most screwed up part of it was he told the other boy he would be starting QB and Joseph got to hear it through the grapevine. Joseph didnt play this year. They have won one ballgame this year against a team we always beat bo 60 pts. The new QB isnt a teachers boy but his daddy is a world class s☆☆t talker. I assume he got his boy the job. He has been a pitiful QB. That coach really hurt my son.

Battles over boys QB position can be downright brutal. Some dad gets it in his head that his boy just “will” be the QB on the team and won’t stop at anything until it happens. Usually someone with an extremely forceful personality like you described above.

Hate that for your son jwalker. The athletic director for the Tuscaloosa County school system is looking in to the situation at Northside. He spent a half hour interviewing my nephew Wednesday. I hope for my nephew’s sake the peckerhead coach gets canned and my nephew is able to play his senior year.