In between the four years of high school, students commonly begin to experience the feeling of boredom at the school they attend. This feeling could be caused by a lack of academic guidance, sports availability, or simply the need for a new environment. 

Many students view transferring schools to be the perfect solution to their desires for guidance in achieving their academic goals. 

I was one of those students. 

 For the 2022-2023 school year, I was a freshman attending Discovery Charter Prep School. I had attended the school as it had been known for excellent college preparation and was local in my area. It is a relatively small school with graduating class sizes of about 70. 

I admired the advantages of attending a small school. I believed it allowed each student to receive full academic attention and guidance for high school and school beyond. Discovery also had a basic variation of sports. However, I had never been affected as it fulfilled my interests in soccer and softball. 

It took a full academic year to realize Discovery would not be able to continue to provide the academic guidance I desired for my high school career. I wanted more of a challenge in my academics through college courses, APs, and a bigger variety of honors and electives. 

Looking into different schools, I came across North Hollywood’s SAS (School for Advanced Studies) program. I knew immediately that it was the type of school I wanted to attend and challenge myself with. 

For the 2023-2024 school year, I started my sophomore year at North Hollywood High School. During the first month of school, I had a grasp of how my academic years would be improved, and I loved the program including the people and staff. It had all fulfilled my desires for my education, so I committed to staying. 

Being at North Hollywood, I wished to continue my participation in sports. I attended tryouts for softball and ended up making the team. However, after attending the informational spring sports meeting, my family and I were informed about CIF rule 207.

CIF Rule 207 is, “In a transfer that does not involve a CIF defined valid change of residence (CIF Bylaw 207) students can be granted eligibility ranging from unlimited, to limited, to the Sit-Out Provision provided the application is true, complete, correct and not fraudulent.” 

In short, any player that transferred schools without also moving residence locations will have to go through an eligibility process if they had been on varsity for their sport[s] at their previous school within the past year. The eligibility process determines if the player would be eligible to participate in 0% of the season, 50%, or Sit-out-Provision [equal to 50% of the total number of days in that specific season of sport]. 

As much as I felt I made an amazing choice of transferring schools, I had come across an unexpected challenge. Even though I didn’t transfer to North Hollywood for sports, it still disappointed my family and me. The thought of missing a year of high school softball gave me an uneasy feeling. 

However, it had all gone away when I had been fortunate enough to still be eligible to participate in softball. Still, it came with some advantages and disadvantages. I had been eligible to only play softball for junior varsity with a Sit-out-Provision for varsity. 

Even though these challenges were not what I expected to interfere with my transferring, they left me where I felt was perfect for my sophomore year. I learned several things and met several amazing people, including the softball team and coaches. 

I wish to continue to grow academically, personally, and with my softball girls, whether it’s on JV or varsity for my junior year.