captdaddy":1ed0rvez said:
I am part of the FEAST homeschool organization and I can tell you that the reason we adopted eligibility rules is so that we could play other teams that have rules and we avoided the "appearance " of doing whatever we wanted..our eligibilty rules are as strict as any school we play and I think that it has helped us establish a good relationship with these teams...I would also ask that you consider that if you decide to start a homeschool team that you start with eligibility before you do anything else...it helps all of us that homeschool to show that we play by the same rules (i.e. don't bring in ringers)
Don Miller
FEAST Varsity asst coach-2008
FEAST Board member
830-995-3738
Thanks, Don. FEAST is pretty good about eligibility rules, although from experience, I know they are close but not equal to TAPPS rules.
With the proliferation of home school sports groups, and some forming for short periods of time ... I wonder how many will take your advice and at least set up basic eligibility rules. With the exception of FEAST, Houston HCYA and maybe a couple others, there isn't a long track record for most home school sports groups.
If I were so inclined to have a home school group, I would voluntarily provide these to any school that I scheduled. I might even produce something like an eligibility list with names, date of birth, and grade equivalent and have it available at all times.
Chances are, you aren't gonna end up like Rocky and Bullwinkle in that classic cartoon, where Bullwinkle's alma matter, Whatsamatta U., is hookwinked by Boris Badenov and his gang of hoodlums, dressed up like little girls, coming over to play a game. But it could happen ... and it has (unfortunately, done by brick-and-mortar private schools).
I hate to pick on FEAST, but I remember being at a junior high league meeting a few years back (we were thinking about moving to ISAL, a private school junior high league in San Antonio) and an issue came up about a kid (who I think played for FEAST) who accidentally played a fourth year of junior high sports (usually limited to grades 6-8 in this league). It amazed me to hear from a league who was selling me on their adherence to rules that this wasn't a big deal and could be forgotten ... especially since he was "a pastor's kid."
To be fair to the group in the wrong (and again, it's my old, feeble memory ... I think it was FEAST, but I'm not sure), they were willing to accept punishment for their fault ... it was the rest of the group that blew it off ... and they were ALL brick-and-mortar private schools, many of whom were members of TAPPS or SPC for secondary school sports.
