Any thoughts on having a transfer start over a returning payer? Does the returner get first shots in the games or does transfer get the starting job if he earned it in practice?
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If you're talking about college, whoever gives the team the best chance to win will play. I don't think coaches care where the person came from, if he's better, he will play.
Just read your other post mentioning HS rosters, looks like you are talking about HS? Either way, I think whoever gives the team the best chance to win will play. If you are the returning player, better step up your game and beat the other guy out. I can't see a coach sitting the superior player regardless of where he came from.
+1 to the above
It's logical to say the player who gives the best chance of winning will play, but how does the coach arrive at this determination? There's a nuance in the question that I find interesting:
"Does the returner get first shots in the games…"
You can take the above sentence and replace "returner" with "scholarship player" (or "walk-on") for college and see that on-field opportunities can be affected by off-field goings-on.
I point this out because high school transfers are becoming increasingly common in CA since they changed the rules to allow it, and I'm curious as to how coaches view this. My observation is that kids transferring in seem to have the advantage (i.e., they get right onto the field), but wondering what others who have seen this first hand have observed.
How do you determine who gets the nod at playing is called practice, intersquad games and scrimmage games. Odds are one of the two will start to stand out over the other. If they stay fairly close in terms of skills and productivity then you start looking at what other positions they could play and if they are better than the ones at those positions. If you have the skills and can produce you put them in the lineup somehow. Doesn't matter if they are returners or transfers.
What makes this difficult is there is the element of opinion as to what skills and productivity are. Everyone has their own definition and what they are looking for so it can become a debate as to which is better. End of the day the only opinion who matters is the guy who writes out the lineup card.
College teams always looking to up grade, so chances are if a transfer shows up day one he is a better option then what they currently have.