MIDVALE — The Utah High School Activities Association held two transfer hearings Thursday morning.
In the first case, a sophomore volleyball player from Timpanogos was given sub-varsity eligibility to play at Pleasant Grove by a hearing panel. Heather Gneiting was denied a hardship waiver, but the panel used its discretion to allow here to compete at the junior varsity level. The 6-foot-3, 15-year-old was originally granted eligibility, but Timpanogos appealed the decision asserting the move was made mainly for athletics.
The Gneiting family said it may appear to be an athletically motivated transfer because Heather’s only experience with Timpanogos High was through volleyball as she attended a junior high that feeds both schools. But her mom said it had to do with providing her daughter a better environment emotionally and educationally. The family's older daughter remains at Timpanogos and is a member of the T-wolves' volleyball team.
In a second hearing, the same panel granted three sophomore siblings transferring from Brighton to Jordan High immediate eligibility. Sophomore volleyball players Sariah and Haley Naea and their brother, Kacey Naea, were given a hardship waiver because of changes in the family’s residence and employment that made it easier for them to attend Jordan.
The appeal hearings are held on an as-needed basis at the UHSAA offices in Midvale. The panels are made up of members of the UHSAA’s executive committee, and the staff doesn’t participate in deliberations or have a vote in whether students are ruled eligible. Students can go to any open school when they first enter high school, but after that, they lose a year of athletic eligibility if they can't prove the transfer is the result of an unforeseeable, unavoidable hardship.
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