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BENNETT'S MINUTES: Mobility a new way of life in athletics
One of the trends in high school sports increasing in frequency is mobility from school to school.
Some are legitimately family-related, whether for parental separations or job changes. No one knows the reason for each move, although most people lump all of them into the same pool of people trying to find the best competitive athletic situations for themselves.
The IHSAA lists the number of transfers in its executive board minutes, and normally the number of player transfers per year is more than 1,000. The number of “limited eligibility” rulings is small, and the number of “ineligible” decisions is normally about a dozen or so.
Some schools challenge the eligibility of players transferring to nearby rivals, and those players are forced to sit out 365 days from their last game competition before competing at their new schools.
The number of transfer cases falling under this category is growing year by year, and another even more recent trend has been similar activity among coaches.
When coaches accept new jobs, normally they start working long before ever signing a contract with their new positions. This summer, however, at least seven or eight coaches have accepted new jobs during summer break and have resigned those positions before the new school year started.
Again, only the people involved know their motivations.
One of the coaches on that list is former Greencastle girls’ basketball coach Tod Windlan, who accepted a job at Connersville in May. That job is now open, again, and is listed on the Fayette County Schools website.
Unconfirmed chatter on multiple online sites has Windlan connected with an opening at Kokomo, pretty late in the game with most schools starting classes within the next couple of weeks.
Kokomo is 10 miles closer to Windlan’s Anderson home than either Greencastle or Connersville. His mother is 86 years old, and wanting to be close to family is understandable.
Windlan told me earlier this month that it would be a few years before Connersville would be ready for success at the varsity level. Kokomo’s recent history is even worse, as outgoing coach Troy White went just 9-37 over the past two seasons.
Many local fans speculated about how long Windlan would stay at Connersville, based upon his track record of frequently moving from school to school.
No one probably predicted “less than two months,” however.
On a similar note, multiple sources have confirmed that Mia and Ella Shields have withdrawn from Greencastle and transferred to Frankton — much more closely located to their former school of Hamilton Heights.
The Shields sisters were expected to be key players for Greencastle for the next several years, and both had several moments of brilliance last year for the Tiger Cubs under Windlan.
The sisters are at their third school in nine months, having transferred from Hamilton Heights to Greencastle in October. It will be interesting to follow them and see if their eligibility is approved.
Yes, it is a different world in which we live.
Bits and pieces
• Marian University football coach Mark Henninger has high hopes for incoming Greencastle freshman Gavin Bollman.
I was able to catch up with Henninger earlier this month while researching a story on Cloverdale grad Tyler Lotz, and Henninger was enthused about having Bollman to come on board.
“We absolutely love his size and athleticism,” he said. “We run a tight end-oriented offense and last year’s starter [Brandon Dillon] was signed by the Minnesota Vikings. We think Gavin will have the opportunity to develop into something special.”
• South Putnam’s school board approved the hiring on Monday night of Northview assistant coach Chuck Sorrell as its new head football coach.
Sorrell was head coach at South Vermillion for three seasons and has been an assistant at Lapel, Cascade, Indianapolis Pike and his alma mater of Brownsburg.
South Putnam’s late summer opening arose when Nathan Aker went to Monrovia earlier this month.