High School Basketball's Free Agent Market

When the country's top-ranked high school basketball team plays one of the Washington area's top teams tonight at Coolidge High, the starting lineups for both teams will represent a growing trend: Seven of the 10 starters have transferred at least once during their high school career and three have played for three different schools.

Oak Hill Academy has a starting five of Washington area transplants who have relocated to the southwestern Virginia boarding school. Montrose Christian has two transfers in its starting lineup -- including one who played last season for Oak Hill -- as well as a Venezuelan who came to the United States last year to try to improve his basketball prospects.

Although athletes have transferred from school to school for years, longtime basketball observers believe it is becoming especially common among top players as they look for the playing time and exposure to land a basketball scholarship at a major university -- and in turn give themselves the chance to make millions as a pro.

"Basketball is big business," said Mike Jones, coach of Washington Catholic Athletic Conference champion DeMatha and last year's All-Met Coach of the Year. "Everybody is looking for their free education. Some people are good enough to have dreams of playing professionally and making millions and millions of dollars. Which [school] is going to give you the best opportunity to do that? That's not to say basketball is not as fun as it used to be, but for some kids, you almost want to call it a job."

School systems and state sanctioning bodies in Maryland and Virginia prohibit students from transferring schools for athletic purposes and generally allow students to attend and play sports only for the school in their geographical area, though those regulations hardly seem to affect the trend. A proliferation of private schools that want to field competitive basketball teams has provided even more opportunity for players to move.

"There is no question about it," said Ned Sparks, executive director of the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association, which oversees high school athletics in the state. "It wasn't that many years ago [transfer] was a dirty word. Now it's open season. Now, the shift is for 'me.' 'What are the best circumstances for me? Where am I going to get the best opportunity to be seen and what is going to improve my lot?' As opposed to the more traditional thinking: 'This is my school and this is where I belong.' "

"It's kind of odd to see a kid stay at a school for four years," Oak Hill Coach Steve Smith said. "I was gone from the office an hour this morning and I got three phone calls [from players looking to transfer]. And it's only February. It happens almost every day. In the springtime and summertime, it is every day.

"There are so many people around these guys -- parents, mentors, summer coaches, the high school coach, obviously, and there seem to be others. Not to say a kid has an entourage, but they seem to have a lot of people around them telling them what to do. And when one thing goes wrong, they tell them to transfer. . . . Parents didn't used to do that. Ten or 15 years ago, parents would stick with the coach, but they don't seem to have that allegiance now."

Among the players in tonight's game are Texas-bound Montrose Christian forward Kevin Durant, who played last season at Oak Hill and is considered among the country's best players, and guards Adrian Bowie and Tywon Lawson, who were teammates at Bishop McNamara during the 2003-04 season, but now Bowie starts for Montrose and Lawson for Oak Hill.

At Oak Hill, Lawson is joined by juniors Mike Beasley and Nolan Smith, who last season led Riverdale Baptist to a 33-1 record in their first and only year at the Upper Marlboro school. The Warriors' other two starters are Jeff Allen, who transferred from DeMatha before this season, and Anthony Wright, who is in his third year at Oak Hill after leaving O'Connell. All five of Oak Hill's starters have accepted college scholarships.

"There's no stigma [attached to transfers] any more," said Carroll Coach Bill Howze, who had two players transfer to Southern Maryland Christian before this season started. "Kids and parents are looking for the best situation. The so-called old-school [way] -- stay, work hard and try to earn your spot in the lineup -- doesn't happen anymore."

The reasons players and their families give for transferring vary. It might be because of playing time, or lack of it, or even more time playing a different position. Sometimes there are rifts between a player or those around him and a coach. Sometimes it is for academic reasons -- the most common answer provided by transfers, but one that players, parents and coaches generally regard as bogus for everyone but themselves.