By Ron Rop
LocalSportsJournal.com
Some issues have been somewhat cloudy regarding the situation with Muskegon Heights High School student-athletes.
Those issues were cleared up today in a conversation between the Local Sports Journal and Jack Roberts, the executive director of the Michigan High School Athletic Association.
Questions have emerged whether Muskegon Heights students who transfer to other schools would immediately be eligible for fall sports.
Roberts said there are 15 rules that enable students to transfer to a new school without being penalized.
“Normally they’d be ineligible unless their circumstances fit to our 15 rules,” Roberts said. “But the current intention of the Emergency Manager appears to be, in effect, close Muskegon Heights and have a new school open in its place, a charter school.
“Should that happen, those students would be eligible to transfer,” Robert said.
The other issue deals with incoming students – those who would transfer into the new charter school.
“The reverse is also true for anyone who transfers to the new school,” Roberts said. “They would be immediately eligible.
That was a clarification of an earlier media report that said athletes enrolling at the new charter school, other than ninth graders, would have to sit out a semester.
“We’ll be as flexible as we can,” Roberts said. “We’re watching what unfolds in Muskegon Heights very closely and we will be flexible in either situation.”
Jason Goorman contributed to this report.
