ÃÛÌÒÓ°ÏñAV

Jim Dean, executive director of the AIA, said the new bylaw, adopted via an early Zoom meeting on Friday, Sept. 19, excludes military transfer students. He added that a hardship appeal process could be considered if deemed necessary by the school receiving the new student. An example of a hardship would be if a family has to relocate to Arizona due to a job move.

The board also adopted a stricter rule involving student athletes ruled ineligible or suspended for disciplinary reasons, Dean said.

“If a student is expelled, suspended, removed for disciplinary reasons, they’re ineligible,� he said. “The board also added to that bylaw that includes athletically and/or academically imposed reasons by school or state association. So if a student is deemed ineligible at another state and comes here, they would be deemed ineligible here, as well.�

The action was a direct result of four California high school football players transferring to Mesa High School this month, after the Arizona football season began. They were among 19 players at Bishop Montgomery High School in Torrance, California, who were ruled ineligible by the California Interscholastic Federation after an investigation involving a transfer-for-money scandal.

The 19 players were ruled ineligible to play in the California Interscholastic Federation for two years. They’re listed in the CIF-Southern Section transfer portal as being denied eligibility at Bishop Montgomery, which also forfeited its entire football season as a result of the federation’s findings.

The four players who enrolled at Mesa on Sept. 15 won’t be impacted by the new rules, which took effect on Sept. 19. However, Dean said the action had to take effect immediately, given that impacted California players are looking to Arizona.

Prior to the change, any out-of-state players coming into Arizona for the first time were eligible to play football once they went through the AIA-mandated heat acclimatization protocol.

Mesa Athletic Director David Klecka said the players who came from California are good students with high grade-point averages.

Klecka said that Mesa is using the in-state 50% transfer rule for the Bishop Montgomery players, making them eligible in Week 6, which would be in time for the start of the 6A Southern Region play at Salpointe Catholic on Oct. 3. In-state transfers are required to sit the first half of a sports season before becoming eligible.

Klecka confirmed the four players are quarterback Kane “Boogie� Anetema, wide receiver Kingston Anetema, tight end Caleb Tafua and linebacker Kainalu Skipps. They were all on the Mesa sideline on Sept. 18, during the Jackrabbits’ 53-6 rout of Mesa Desert Ridge.

Tafua, a 6-foot-5, 220-pound senior, recently committed to Texas A&M to play college football.

According to the CIF-Southern Section transfer portal, all four of those players are listed as declared ineligible to play in the CIF this year and next year.

Mesa head coach Jeremy Hathcock said a fifth player from Bishop Montgomery enrolled at Mesa on Sept. 18, before the AIA’s emergency bylaw was grandfathered in.