Junior quarterback John Gazzaniga played for Orange Lutheran in August.
Playing for Santa Margarita last week, Gazzaniga completed 20 of 30 passes for 377 yards and four touchdowns in a win over Bishop Amat.
Nothing wrong with that. People work for one company on a Monday and a few days later are working someplace else because they sought a superior opportunity.
Seeking a superior opportunity is what Gazzaniga did.
He enrolled at Santa Margarita on Aug. 29. Transfer paperwork was filed with the CIF Southern Section on Sept. 5, the CIF Southern Section granted athletic eligibility to Gazzaniga at Santa Margarita on Sept. 7 and that night he made his Santa Margarita debut.
The Gazzaniga family had to change residences for John to become eligible at Santa Margarita. That move, even for a private school student, has to be made from one public school attendance area to another.
Santa Margarita president Andy Sulick said school athletic director Donald Evans thoroughly checked the new residence to verify that the move was legitimate.
“You have to make sure someone is living there,” Sulick said. “You have to make sure it’s not just a staged house.”
And make sure of everything else, too.
It’s 2023, the Trinity League is the king of high school sports leagues in the United States, football is the king of high school sports and quarterback is the most visible position in high school sports.
If a Trinity League starting quarterback in 2023 makes a bogus transfer it’s not going to stay secret for long. Those schools do keep a wary eye on each other. Trinity League people might act all buddy-buddy, but there are Servite folks who are not jazzed that their former principal, Michael Brennan, is now the president at Mater Dei.
The CIF State organization, of which the CIF Southern Section is one of 10 members, has a 19-page guideline for school administrators that covers transfer guidelines. Included is a checklist of 21 items that must be addressed before transfer paperwork can be submitted to a section office.
Included in those 19 pages is a section on “athletically motivated transfer.” That is, “If a student completes a valid change of residence … a student may not be eligible to participate at the varsity level if there is evidence the move was athletically motivated or the student enrolled in that school in whole or in part for athletic reasons … “ and athletically motivated includes “(e)vidence the student’s move would result in the assurance the student would gain varsity participation at the new school or result in more playing time.”
Of course the huge majority of the transfers of high school athletes are athletically motivated. The Gazzaniga transfer sure looks athletically motivated.
But, so what? If a student wants to move from School A to School B because School B has a better music program, that student should be allowed to transfer. If a student who has Major League Baseball aspirations wants to move from School A to School B because School B has a better baseball program, that student should be allowed to transfer. (But most students with MLB aspirations are not close to MLB potential so they should stay at School A and have a blast playing with their friends if their parents are smart enough to realize this.)
The CIF State and Southern Section people will do all they can to make sure that kids have the opportunity to play sports. It has to be something very egregious for them to not grant transfer eligibility; they are completely in the right to have that stance. The “athletically motivated” language is as relevant as Latin.
Gazzaniga (6-7, 235) competed for the Orange Lutheran starting quarterback position all spring and summer. It was unlikely that he would beat out returning starter TJ Lateef, also a junior, for the starting role. Lateef was All-Trinity League first team last season. It was suggested to Gazzaniga that he might consider switching to tight end to get some playing time.
Gazzaniga played briefly in Orange Lutheran’s season opener against Serra on Aug. 18. Eleven days later he was a Santa Margarita student.
Orange Lutheran, as required by CIF regulations, signed off on the transfer that the move followed all protocols on its side.
CIF rules allow for an athlete to play for different schools in the same sport in the same season of sport as long as all transfer regulations are followed.
Gazzaniga began practicing with the Santa Margarita football team upon his enrollment there. In the Bishop Amat game last week, Gazzaniga looked very comfortable running the offense, signaling receivers when it was time for them to get into motion, executing play action fakes, working through check downs to find the open receiver. He has a strong and accurate arm, and just might be the Eagles quarterback for the remainder of the season, which includes a home game against Orange Lutheran on Oct. 6 at Saddleback College.
Quarterback in the Trinity League is a sought-after position but not always a secure one.
For a recent example: Zander Singh was JSerra’s starting quarterback last season as a junior. Michael Tollefson transferred to JSerra from San Juan Hills and is this year he’s JSerra’s starting quarterback.
James Johnson, a junior quarterback, transferred from Servite to Santa Margarita before this school year. He was the Eagles’ starter before he injured an ankle in the season opener. Hunter Melton, a senior, took over for the next couple of games and was the starter last week against Bishop Amat until late in the first quarter when Gazzaniga came in and shined in the Eagles’ 51-45 win.
Santa Margarita coach Anthony Rouzier said that while it’s difficult to bring in a new player to replace someone like Melton, it’s something that will happen.
“We tell the guys all the time that you have to compete every week and every day,” Rouzier said. “You’ve got to put yourself in the position to play Friday night or Saturday night or maybe in the junior varsity game. That’s just the reality of the situation.”
Gazzaniga’s father, Dr. David Gazzaniga, a Los Angeles Chargers team doctor, declined to comment on his son’s transfer. It’s easy to understand why he declined. Whatever he would say would be misconstrued by a troll who is going to post uninformed garbage on Twitter/X while hiding behind a fake name. Nothing can be gained by saying something.
Parker Awad waited for his turn to be the Mater Dei quarterback a couple of years ago. Then Elijah Brown arrived at Mater Dei and he became the starter as a freshman. Awad transferred to Edison and was great there, winning All-CIF recognition and being named Sunset League offensive player of the year.
Transferring gave Awad that opportunity. That’s why high school athletes transfer, and that’s why everyone should respect the transfer of Gazzaniga.
