service academy transfer question

There are some special considerations when transferring to WP.

First, he may be asked to attend the prep school for a year before admission to the academy. This is especially true for borderline academic admits.

The fact that he has started at his current school means that his 5 year clock has started. That clock can be interrupted in the case of military duty or religious missions (i.e. Mormons), but I believe this is done on a case by case basis and I'm not sure that transferring to a military academy would qualify, but then again, I'm not sure it wouldn't either. They may make an exception for a 1 year attendance at the prep school. The experts in this are going to be the WP coaches.

Now, here is a piece of advice...
If your son makes the team at the current school, that will burn one of the 4 playing years he is allowed. When he attends WP, he will begin as a freshman, no credits are ever transferred in, everyone starts as a freshman, (There was actually a player several years ago who transferred in after graduating at Eastern Illinois in 3 years. He started at WP as a freshman and had to do all 4 years to graduate. It was before the sit period started so he was allowed to play 1 year at WP).

So, all that being said, if your son doesn't play at his current school, he will still have 4 playing years left on his clock available at WP.

Good Luck to your son,
Chip Porter

I'm a little late to the party, but in addition to CPLZ's comments, here are answers to the three questions.

1. No transfer player "loses" a year of eligibility, service academy or not. Typically, a student who transfers to a D1 must be in residence at the new school for a period of one academic year before he is allowed to compete. But each player's eligibility continues until the earlier of a) 5 calendar years after first entering any collegiate institution or b) he has competed in 4 seasons.
If a transfer student to a D1 was not recruited (no more than one phone call from the coach; no arranged off-campus meeting; no NLI) by his first 4 year college, and has never received athletic aid, he does not have to serve a year in residence.

2. D1 coaches may not arrange a tryout of any sort. Some colleges ignore or dance around that rule, but I suppose that WP follows the rules pretty closely.

3. He may contact a college coach at any time, but the coach must inform his present school of the contact, and can't interact with the player until permission to contact has been received. A common work around is to ask a summer team coach to act as a go between, provided the summer coach is known to the potential new college coach.

The NCAA rules have a number of exceptions or special considerations for service academies, but I don't see any that relate to your son's situation. Sometimes players receive a waiver to eligibility rules; perhaps a service academy would have a better chance of success than most colleges in a transfer situation.

quote:

So, all that being said, if your son doesn't play at his current school, he will still have 4 playing years left on his clock available at WP.

Chip,
That's not necessarily true. If the player has to serve a year in residence, the 5 year clock will only allow him 3 seasons. To get in 4 seasons of baseball, if he has to sit out a year, he would need to play this year at his present school. Similarly, if he has to attend a prep school, he would only have 3 years remaining unless a waiver was granted. Double whammy would be if he has to attend a prep school, and subsequently serve a year in residence, leaving only 2 seasons.

quote:

Double whammy would be if he has to attend a prep school, and subsequently serve a year in residence, leaving only 2 seasons.

Well I wonder how that would work with West Point because they have their own prep school. Could that be considered the "year in residence" at West Point?

quote:

Originally posted by 3FingeredGlove:

quote:

So, all that being said, if your son doesn't play at his current school, he will still have 4 playing years left on his clock available at WP.

Chip,
That's not necessarily true. If the player has to serve a year in residence, the 5 year clock will only allow him 3 seasons. To get in 4 seasons of baseball, if he has to sit out a year, he would need to play this year at his present school. Similarly, if he has to attend a prep school, he would only have 3 years remaining unless a waiver was granted. Double whammy would be if he has to attend a prep school, and subsequently serve a year in residence, leaving only 2 seasons.

I get what you're saying, and agree...My point, was that there are two clocks at work, years played and the 5 year. I was theorizing along the lines of granted exception waivers allowing for the transfer since it was a military academy...dinging him for one year of the 5 year clock, but allowing him to play any remaining years on the years played clock.

If those are granted, I have no idea. He certainly needs answers.

The one thing I can say about being recruited to WP that was different than other schools, is that there is no smoke blowing up anyones butt. They will tell you how it is, what can and can't be done, and won't string you along with a bunch of maybe's and we'll just have to see's. They'll either know the answers (which they probably already do) or get them for you.