COLUMBIA — An effort to overhaul the independent league that oversees middle and high school sports competitions in South Carolina resumed Tuesday as a House committee advanced a bill put on pause last year.
The bill getting rid of the South Carolina High School League was on the verge of advancing in the final days of the 2025 session, as legislators cited continued complaints from parents. But when a league official reached out, legislators agreed to put a pin in the issue for the time being.
House Education Chairwoman Shannon Erickson laid out a list of changes legislators needed to not dissolve the league and replace it with a committee they controlled. Among them were changes for safety, such as having emergency medical professionals standing by during games and matches, and assurances that the league would fairly enforce its eligibility requirements for students transferring schools, Erickson said.
Those changes didn’t happen, Erickson said Tuesday.
Legislators, who have threatened to get rid of the league for years, are tired of waiting. The committee unanimously advanced the bill.
“We’ve been dealing with this for years,” said Rep. Jeff Bradley, R-Hilton Head Island. “The upshot of the whole thing is it’s just time to fix it.”
Jerome Singleton, longtime president of the High School League, denied the accusations leveled against the league, including that it selectively enforces eligibility requirements and fails to meet safety standards. If anyone has a problem with a league decision, they can go through the lengthy appeals process, he told the SC Daily Gazette.
Singleton, who legislators grilled last May, did not speak during the meeting. The league will deal with any changes as they come, Singleton said.
The bill would get rid of the league entirely.
Instead of the High School League, which has overseen the state’s K-12 sports contests since 1913, an 11-member board composed of appointees from the governor, state superintendent and legislators would oversee a statewide association tasked with making athletics decisions.
The association would make rules, set championship dates and create brackets for high school sports across the state, all responsibilities delegated to the High School League.
The bill would set one rule for the association: Students would get to play right after transferring schools once in middle school and once in high school.
Eligibility for students who change schools has long been a source of contention with the High School League. For years, league rules forced students who changed schools to sit out of sports for a year, regardless of the reason for their transfer.
The idea was to prevent schools from recruiting students for the sake of building a winning sports team, particularly as athletics-focused charter schools popped up around the state. Facing concerns from parents, the league changed that rule last year, allowing all students one penalty-free transfer.
Still, restrictions under the rule have led the league to continue sidelining transfer students, said Larry Church, who coaches girls’ volleyball at Atlantic Collegiate Academy in Conway.
Under part of the rulebook labeled “helpful interpretations,” the league tells coaches that many students “will not be eligible under the transfer rule,” even though the rule itself suggests otherwise.
For instance, any member of the Grand Strand Juniors Volleyball League who transferred to the charter school where Church coaches would have to sit out for a year under league rules barring students from playing for their out-of-school coach right away. That applies even if Church, a co-director of the group, has never met the student, who could play on any of 35 teams, he said.
Students must also sit out part or all of the season if they transfer after the season has started, with different requirements for those who start after practice and those who start after the first competition.
“These kids only get four years to compete in high school sports,” Church said. “We’re taking 25% of that away.”
“That’s not right,” Church added.
Sometimes, a student can’t help transferring, said Rep. Adam Duncan, a Seneca Republican who coaches high school wrestling.
If a student’s parents need to move partway through the school year, they should still be allowed to play on the new school’s sports team, and the league should recognize that when considering requests to transfer teams, Duncan said.
“We talk about students getting the best opportunities and options for education,” Duncan said. “I feel the same way about athletics. Athletics can teach you a lot.”
Sports are often how teens make friends and learn life skills, such as discipline, Church said. Learning they must sit out a year of a sport can be devastating for a new student, he added.
Some students may be transferring to bolster a sports team’s chances, but the confusion that comes with the process of transferring is unfair to students, parents and coaches, said Rep. James Teeple.
“We’re not talking about LeBron James saying he’s taking his talents to South Beach, here,” the Johns Island Republican said. “We’re talking about kids.”
The league has an appeals process for anyone unhappy with a transfer denial or eligibility issue, Singleton said.
But the process takes so long that even a student who qualifies to play straight away might miss a whole season waiting for a final decision, Church said.
Confusion reigns over what might qualify or disqualify a student, Duncan said. He has called the league to ask questions and gotten different answers from different people.
That lack of consistency is one of the problems legislators were not satisfied the league fixed in the months between sessions, Erickson said. Decisions about which students are allowed to play sports after transferring schools seem to vary with no rhyme or reason, she said.
The persistence of problems legislators have no authority to address shows they need to take some sort of action, said Rep. Tim McGinnis.
“Somebody needs to hold somebody accountable at this point,” the Myrtle Beach Republican said.
SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. SC Daily Gazette maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seanna Adcox for questions: info@scdailygazette.com.
