Indiana High School Athletic Ass'n v. Watson

913 N.E.2d 741, 2009 Ind. App. LEXIS 1672, 2009 WL 3047360
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 24, 2009
Docket71A03-0901-CV-25
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 913 N.E.2d 741 (Indiana High School Athletic Ass'n v. Watson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Indiana High School Athletic Ass'n v. Watson, 913 N.E.2d 741, 2009 Ind. App. LEXIS 1672, 2009 WL 3047360 (Ind. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinions

OPINION

BAKER, Chief Judge.

Valerie Watson is a single mother supporting three children and one grandchild. Over the course of two years, her salary was nearly halved and her work hours drastically curtailed because of the economic downturn experienced by the RV industry. As a result, she was unable to make mortgage payments and received a notice of foreclosure. Valerie decided to move to South Bend from Elkhart because she was unable to locate a suitable home in Elkhart that would rent to her and because she had family members in South Bend who were able to help her care for the children. The IHSAA, however, found Valerie's daughter, Jasmine, ineligible to play for South Bend Washington High School's basketball team because it concluded that the move and transfer occurred primarily for athletic reasons and because of improper undue influence. The trial court found that the IHSAA acted arbitrarily and capriciously and entered a preliminary injunction prohibiting the IHSAA from enforcing its ineligibility decision. We find that the trial court did not err by entering the injunction.

Appellant-defendant Indiana High School Athletic Association, Inc. (IHSAA), appeals the trial court's order entering a preliminary injunction in favor of appel-lees-plaintiffs Jasmine S. Watson, individually and by and through her mother, Valerie K. Watson. IHSAA argues that the trial court erred by finding that the Wat-sons are likely to succeed on the merits of [744]*744their claim and by granting an overbroad injunction. Finding no error, we affirm.

FACTS

The Move to South Bend

Sometime in 2003 or 2004, the Watsons moved to Elkhart. Jasmine attended Elk-hart Memorial High School for her freshman (2005-06), sophomore (2006-07), and junior (2007-08) years, and played for the high school basketball team all three years. She is a highly talented basketball player: she was a junior Indiana All-Star, was named to the 2009 All-Star team, and received recruiting inquiries and letters from multiple NCAA Division I programs.

In September 2007, Valerie, Jasmine's mother, received notice from her employer that her hours would be reduced such that she would work only four days per week and six hours per day. This decrease caused a substantial reduction in Valerie's wages and net income. In March 2008, Valerie's wages were garnished because of a judgment that had been entered against her. As a result of the decrease in her income and the garnishment, Valerie was unable to make timely mortgage payments on the family home. In June 2008, Valerie received a foreclosure complaint from her mortgage company. Valerie listed the home for sale in July 2008; consequently, Valerie and her family could have remained in the residence rent-free until November 2008 if it did not sell.

Valerie decided to begin looking for another place to live in the summer of 2008 because, if it turned out that they would have to change school districts, she did not want her children to have to change schools in the middle of the school year. She looked at multiple homes in Elkhart but was either rejected because of her credit rating or concluded that the properties were too expensive, too small, or located in areas she considered to be unsafe.

Larry Fielstra, Jasmine's basketball coach at Elkhart Memorial, learned that Valerie was having a hard time locating a suitable home in Elkhart. Fielstra offered her assistance in locating housing in Elk-hart, including contacting multiple landlords and real estate agents. Fielstra referred Valerie to one property where he had arranged for the owner to waive the security deposit and offer it at a reduced rent amount, but Valerie rejected the property because it was located next to a liquor store. When it became clear that Valerie was looking beyond Elkhart for housing, Fielstra offered to provide transportation to Jasmine so that she could live with her family outside of Elkhart but still attend Elkhart Memorial.

Valerie eventually expanded her search to South Bend, which is where she grew up and where her extended family lived. On July 29, 2008, Valerie signed a six-month lease for a home on the southwest side of South Bend, in the South Bend Washington High School (Washington) district.

The IHSAA

The TIHSAA is a nonprofit corporation whose members include public and private high schools in Indiana. The organization's purpose is "to encourage, regulate and give direction to wholesome, amateur, interschool athletic competition between the schools who are members." Appellant's App. p. 559-60. To achie.ve these ends, the IHSAA has adopted rules governing interscholastic competition. Washington and Elkhart Memorial are both member schools of the IHSAA and are subject to the IHSAA competition and eligibility rules.

Among IHSAA's eligibility rules are Rule 19 (the Transfer Rule) and Rule 20 (the Undue Influence Rule). Among other things, the Transfer Rule provides that [745]*745students who transfer from one school to another with an accompanying change of residence are generally immediately eligible to participate in varsity sports. If, however, a student transfers for "primarily athletic reasons" or as a result of undue influence-even if the student's family has changed residences-the student will be ineligible to participate in interschool athletics for 865 days following enrollment at the new school. Id. at 594. The purpose of this rule is to "preserve the integrity of interschool athletics and to prevent or minimize recruiting, proselytizing and school 'jumping' for athletic reasons, regardless of cireumstances. . .." Id.

The Undue Influence Rule prohibits the "use of undue influence by any person or persons to secure or to retain a student, or to secure or to retain one or both of the parents or guardians of a student as residents...." Id. at 598. The IHSAA does not define "undue influence," but identifies a number of examples of prohibited inducements to transfer:

a. offer or acceptance of money or other valuable consideration;
b. reduction or remission of regular tuition;
c. waiving the legal requirements of transfers;
d. offer or acceptance of board, room or clothing;
e. offer or acceptance of remuneration for work in excess of amount regularly paid for such service;
free transportation;
g. transportation by a coach, principal, teacher or school official;
h. offer or acceptance of residence with coach, principal, teacher or school official;
i. free rent or reduced rent for parents;
j. offer or payment of moving expenses of parents;
k. any inducement to get parents or student to enroll in a particular school or to induce parents to change residence for athletic reasons.

Id.

The Dispute

Under the IHSAA rules, a student who transfers from one member school to another must complete an IHSAA Athletic Transfer Report to be eligible to participate in athletics. In early August 2008, Valerie completed a transfer report for Jasmine, requesting that the transfer be approved based on the family's change of residence.

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Related

Indiana High School Athletic Ass'n v. Watson
938 N.E.2d 672 (Indiana Supreme Court, 2010)
Indiana High School Athletic Ass'n v. Watson
913 N.E.2d 741 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2009)

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913 N.E.2d 741, 2009 Ind. App. LEXIS 1672, 2009 WL 3047360, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/indiana-high-school-athletic-assn-v-watson-indctapp-2009.