Learn how a transfer happens in Minnesota high school sports

TRANSFERRING IN MINNESOTA | This is part of an exclusive Strib Varsity series.

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It usually starts with a phone call. A parent reaches out to a high school activities director, saying a son or daughter plans to transfer.

“My first reaction is always, ‘You want to come here because of our academics and our teachers, correct?’ ” Champlin Park activities director Matt Mattson said.

Quite often, however, that call is about sports. And transferring happens often: roughly 2,000 student-athletes across Minnesota transfer each school year.

How, exactly, do those transfers go down? This Strib Varsity article will tell you, walking you step by step from “first phone call” to “finished.”

First, here’s the baseline fact: Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) rules prohibit students transferring from one in-state high school to another from playing varsity sports for one calendar year at their new school, unless they meet one of several conditions.

Many students and their families aren’t interested in sitting out a year, though. There are options for immediate eligibility, a topic that comes up often in that first call.

Many ADs say they would prefer to handle the phone call themselves, keeping their coaches — and any perceived recruiting — out of it.

Mattson said the conversation must start with academics. And that’s before diving into the six pages of the MSHSL Handbook dedicated to transfer rules.

Here’s how a transfer happens, step-by-step:

Precursor: Eligibility provisions

While the baseline fact is that transfers aren’t eligible for a year, the MSHSL lists five “provisions” that would allow a transfer student to retain their eligibility after changing high schools. The first two provisions are easy to understand:

1.) If the student has moved into Minnesota from out of state, he or she is immediately eligible. And while eligibility is not in question, that doesn’t prevent families from asking Minnesota ADs entertaining questions. Andover AD Eric Lehtola said he has had calls “from [parents] with a thick Southern accent: ‘We’re down here in Texas, and we’re coming up there because my husband just got a job … and we hear you’ve got some pretty good ball up there. And we just want to know what you can do for us to come to your school.’ ”

2.) If the student is enrolling in the ninth grade for the first time, he or she is immediately eligible. A student who plays varsity as a seventh- or eighth-grader can transfer for ninth grade and remain eligible at the new school.

And the final three provisions are more nuanced, focusing on in-state transfers:

3.) Family residence change. And it has to be the whole family, with parents and minor siblings living there, too. “A parent can’t just rent an apartment in another district,” said Bob Madison, the MSHSL senior associate director who oversees transfers and eligibility.

4.) Court-ordered change for child protection. Madison said the league doesn’t see many of those, thankfully.

5.) Parents divorce or separate, and the student goes to live with the other parent in another school district. This transfer option is available once only from grades 9-12.

If none of those provisions apply, the student enters the review process having been deemed ineligible for varsity for one year (but is eligible at non-varsity levels such as junior varsity competition).

Monticello AD Gary Revenig said schools are diligent, sorting through which transfer students should keep eligibility.

“We’re asking people: ‘Did the whole family move? Do you have a document that shows the utility bill of your residence? Did you change your driver’s license? Can we see that? What documentation do you have to show us that? Did your parents get divorced? Is there a legal separation? Were you bullied at your school? You have to have documentation that that happened,’” he said. “So, there are different layers to it.”

Step 1: ‘Receiving’ school starts process

The receiving school, the one getting the transfer student, makes the first determination about eligibility and then submits the student’s request into the MSHSL’s online transfer portal.

“For example, a new 11th-grader shows up here,” said Mattson, the Champlin Park AD. “They’re fully enrolled. Mom or Dad and the student come into my office. Let’s just pretend they’re from Minneapolis North.

“[On the MSHSL website], there’s a transfer form that I fill out. The league asks for documentation that the student moved to Champlin. ... Gas bill, an electric bill, a driver’s license, all those things. I put all that information in, and I send it to [Minneapolis North AD] Kale Severson and the high school league.

“Then he fills in that the student is in good standing, that he’s doing well academically. As long as they move to Champlin or move from a single parent to the other parent, they’re eligible.”

The MSHSL refers to this step as the Initial Transfer Eligibility Determination. And the responsibility falls heavily on the receiving school AD, who uses the info provided by the family to determine whether eligibility should be restored.

This change-of-residence provision generates the most controversy. The question at the center of it: Does the whole family live there?

“Sometimes we’re told one thing, and we’re even shown documents that aren’t, perhaps, truthful or valid,” Lehtola said. “But the question then, as an AD, is to what extent are we responsible to investigate the validity of the claims?

“Are we asked to be on a stakeout with a paper cup of coffee on the dashboard to see who comes out the door at a certain address in the morning?

“The rule says that the whole family has moved and lives there; that’s where your toothbrush is. And I’m going to take it even a step further. I want to know that not only is your toothbrush there — that it’s wet”

Step 2: MSHSL reviews

The receiving school has made an Initial Transfer Eligibility Determination, and now the MSHSL office is making sure all I’s are dotted and T’s crossed.

Edina activities director Troy Stein said the process “takes time, but it is time well spent to make sure that everything is on the up and up. And that we’re not halfway through the season and somebody’s accusing us of having a player that hasn’t legally made the transition to our school.”

MSHSL vice president Keith Cornell said he sometimes hears critiques like, “You just need a mailbox in that community, and you’re eligible.”

“And I don’t think that’s true,” he added.

Step 3: Initial request ruling

In the 2024-25 school year, the MSHSL received 1,933 transfer eligibility requests. Many of those were granted with the sending and receiving school using the transfer portal. Numerous other requests were deemed “insufficient.” Those requests often needed more documentation.

The MSHSL handbook says if the request for review is “insufficient,” the league will notify the receiving school. Additional information or documentation for the MSHSL can be sent within 15 business days.

The MSHSL doesn’t keep statistics on how many of the initial requests are granted or declined “due to a number of factors,” executive director Erich Martens said, “i.e. the student never actually enrolls, the student does not go out for a sport, the student goes back to their previous school within the provided 15 days, etc.”

Most requests for immediate eligibility end here, after the initial request is approved, dropped or declined. Some families within the “declined” group choose to continue on through a review process.

The MSHSL’s data from 2024-25 shows that 141 students requested a review that year, with 49 of those granted eligibility and 92 denied.

Here’s what those further review steps look like:

Step 4 (if necessary): Exceptions create pathways

A family of a transferring student can ask for a review by the MSHSL’s Eligibility Committee, which includes six active board members, three MSHSL staff members and the league’s legal counsel, who attends the reviews.

The MSHSL has seven eligibility policy “exceptions,” and those often come into play here. If one of these applies to the transfer student, he or she could be eligible immediately at the new school:

1.) Adoption, abandonment, or death of a parent.

2.) A negative change in family finances, requiring the student to withdraw from his or her current school.

3.) Student bullying or harassment at school.

4.) Administrative error in addressing a student’s initial eligibility.

5.) Completion of a licensed chemical dependency treatment or a diagnosed mental health disorder.

6.) School administrators review.

7.) Documented internal Board of Education policies regarding the movement of students within the school district.

Amid those seven exceptions are some serious and sensitive issues.

“We’ve got to remember, these are 15-to-18-year-old kids,” Cornell said. “We’re not about to blast why they’re eligible. Sometimes I think there are questionable things, but sometimes there are some really personal things going on in families. I’ve said to people, ‘I know a little bit about this one; leave it alone because they’re going through a lot.’”

Footnote: If the Eligibility Committee doesn’t approve an eligibility request, and if the transfer student asks for a review, the student is no longer varsity eligible at the sending school.

Step 5 (if necessary): Sending school weighs in

This is the first time that the “sending” school — the school the student is trying to leave — has a key decision to make. If the sending school doesn’t agree a further review is justified, the Eligibility Committee doesn’t review. But if the sending school agrees it’s justified, the case goes before that committee.

“You hear these stories, and your heart breaks as a parent, but it doesn’t mean they should be eligible,” Cornell said. “And that’s a hard message to send.”

Step 6 (if necessary): Committee ruling

If the MSHSL decides a case deserves a hearing, it heads to the Eligibility Committee. The eligibility reviews by the Eligibility Committee begin the third week of August and are scheduled every other week through May, as needed.

Families are given 15 minutes to make their case, and the Eligibility Committee makes the final eligibility determination.

“That can be a very difficult 15 minutes for the family, but sometimes it gives them the opportunity to tell us what they haven’t been able to tell us yet,” Madison said. “Either their financial standing or a gut-wrenching health [situation] that they aren’t willing to share.

“A 15-minute conversation with the family might lead into 45 minutes of discussion [within the committee].”

Step 7 (if necessary): A final pitch

The process isn’t quite finished yet, as any transfer student who gets denied by the Eligibility Committee can submit a written request to the Executive Committee for further review. The request must note why the Eligibility Committee was in error and why there should be a reversal.

Over the past four years, 17 transfer students have gone before the MSHSL Executive Committee, with five granted immediate eligibility and 12 denied.

The entire process can be difficult for some, and it’s that way by design, aligned with the MSHSL’s stated goal in its handbook to “prevent athletic transfers and ensure competitive equity amongst schools.”

Revenig, the AD at Monticello, said once a transfer student arrives at that school, “they are entitled to everything, just like everyone else. ... We’re not going to say, ‘Oh, because you’re new and you didn’t play since kindergarten for our youth program,’ ... no, everyone has a fresh start.“

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Transferring in Minnesota

This story is part of a Strib Varsity exclusive series focused on student-athletes transferring high schools in Minnesota. Other stories to read include our main story on why athletes transfer and our FAQ on transfer athlete rules in Minnesota.