LA/Miss/Ala transfers play tonight...

[Ben E Lou]

Gulf transfers take field Friday

By CRAIG CUSTANCE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/16/05 The high school football careers of many Hurricane Katrina evacuees will resume Friday night.

Georgia High School Association executive director Ralph Swearngin processed paperwork this week for 93 athletes from Louisiana and Mississippi who have relocated to all parts of the state, and most have been cleared to play.

"If they're an entering ninth-grader, they automatically clear," said Swearngin, who had a four-inch folder full of transfer requests waiting on his desk on Wednesday when he returned to the office from a business trip. "A lot of the kids were able to furnish transcripts, especially if they are upperclassmen. Evidently, the families grabbed them when they came."

Because of the large concentration of Catholic schools in New Orleans, metro Atlanta Catholic schools have had the highest number of transfer students apply to play fall sports. Nearly 15,000 high school students attended private schools in the New Orleans area in 2003-04, according to a Louisiana Board of Education report. Twenty-four of the 93 recent transfers will be playing for private schools in Georgia.

With 13 athletes, St. Pius X in DeKalb County had the largest transfer group in the state. Blessed Trinity was next with four. Blessed Trinity athletics director Ricky Turner said more are on the way.

"We've added 15 kids in the whole school," Turner said. "All of ours are coming from Catholic schools that are in New Orleans. . . . They're relocating to the area with either family or friends, and they're finding the closest Catholic school to where they're relocating to."

St. Pius football coach Paul Standard said the school hoped to expedite the eligibility process by getting transcripts from Louisiana before sending transfer requests to the GHSA.

The Golden Lions added seven players to the football program, mostly freshmen. The only senior transfer is tailback and defensive back Ronald Cousin, who has a football scholarship offer from Miami.

"He's real good," Standard said. "You can tell he's been coached. He's a fine young man."

According to Tommy Whittle, assistant director of the Georgia Independent School Association, his organization has received paperwork for 15 athletes looking to play for GISA schools. Of those 15, the GISA has cleared three.

Swearngin anticipates the transfer requests to continue, especially when winter sports, including basketball and wrestling, start practicing.

— News researcher Alice Wertheim contributed to this report.

Two New Orleans kids were at practice at Tucker on Wednesday. They were awaiting the paperwork to be cleared so they could practice on Thursday. I am told that three New Orleans kids played in the freshman game yesterday. It was heartening to see both kids and adults literally and figuratively embrace the two kids I met yesterday when they found out they were from N.O.

[albionmoonlight]

Great Story/News.