Quad Rugby/Story - 2002-2003 Player Transfers

UNITED STATES QUAD RUGBY ASSOCIATION

December 2002

USQRA 2002-2003 Player Transfer Decisions
Tom Hamill, USQRA Commissioner

The Commissioner has received and reviewed the following transfer requests:

Approved
Steve Dunn, from Casco Bay to South Florida
Frank Groenstege, from Casco Bay to Connecticut
John Harwood, from Plan B to U of A
Charlie Clark, from Columbus to Pittsburgh
Al Ballinger, from Columbus to Pittsburgh
Kyle Johnston, from California Quake to U of A
Chad Farrington, from Phoenix to Portland
Mark Bobowski, from Chicago to U of A
Gerry Aldape, from Casa to Plan B
Dan Shaw, from Casa to Plan B

Please note that a copy of a driver’s license establishing residence within 150 miles of the new team is due by December 15. This can be faxed to 888-453-0777.

The following transfers are approved, however, the player is ineligible for post season play in 2003 as the move is to a higher ranked team.
Job Falk, from Casa to San Diego Bushwackers
Dean Maccabe, from Casa to Phoenix
Brian Burger, from Columbus to TNT

The following transfers are approved, however, the player is ineligible for post season play as the transfer violates the 150 mile rule.
Brad Hopkins, from St. Louis to Indianapolis
Larry Porter, from St. Louis to Indianapolis

The following transfer is approved, conditioned upon a job offer, however, the player is ineligible for post season play in 2003 as the move is to a higher ranked team.
Brad Schramel, from Minnesota to Chicago

With the demise of Casa and Columbus this year, several players questioned the applicability of the player transfer rules to those players. At the 2002 AGM, the following Bylaw amendment was passed overwhelmingly- "A transfer shall be defined as any players move from a rostered team in the current or previous year." Accordingly, any player rostered for Casa or Columbus in 2002 would be required to go through the transfer process for moving to a new team in 2002-2003.

Also at the 2002 AGM, proposals to delete the Bylaw requiring a player to miss a season of post season play if they transfer to a higher ranked team and that "the Commissioner shall have broad, subjective power to allow any transfer based upon the best interests of the sport, competition, the player and the teams involved. A protest of the Commissioner's decision will only be upheld where the Commissioner can articulate no legitimate basis for a transfer decision" were both resoundingly defeated.

Accordingly, the USQRA membership has expressed a strong desire to make it difficult and with consequences for a player to move to a higher ranked team. There are obviously many reasons for the transfer rules, but two that are frequently articulated are to protect current teams and to insure that the transferring player is not a quick fix in an attempt to improve post season chances for the player and new team. Obviously, maintaining the prior team would have kept these players eligible for post season, as would a transfer to a lower ranked team. A forward thinking team will certainly use a year that a player must sit out post season to bring that player into the new system and use that player as opposition to prepare for post season.

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