Small: OSSAA abuses merit lawmakers’ response

OSSAA abuses merit lawmakers’ response

By Jonathan Small

Oklahoma law allows “open transfer,” meaning any student in Oklahoma can attend any public school with room. But the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association (OSSAA) too often prevents transfer students from playing sports, effectively undermining the open-transfer law. OSSAA board members, who are mostly school superintendents, often see “recruiting” whenever a competitor school might get transfers.

The OSSAA recently barred four teenage boys from playing basketball for Glencoe, alleging recruitment because the boys have long known new Glencoe basketball coach Garrett Schubert and his son, Maddox.

The OSSAA’s Board of Directors voted 12–0 to declare the four boys ineligible. The boys’ families filed a lawsuit on Aug. 14.

Their petition says OSSAA’s purported reasons for denying the boys’ eligibility shifted repeatedly.

At one point, the OSSAA claimed the boys were ineligible to play for Glencoe because they attended a sports camp. But one of the boys did not attend the team camp.

The OSSAA also claimed the boys should not have attended the camp without “unenrolling” from their prior district. But there is no process to “unenroll” during the summer, and one cannot enroll in a new district until August.

In a nutshell, the boys were punished for failing to do the impossible and/or punished for actions that never occurred.

Further, an affidavit submitted to OSSAA by one parent indicated her son’s transfer to Glencoe was prompted by the abusive behavior of a coach at his prior district.

The boys’ petition declares OSSAA’s actions to be “collusive, unreasonable, arbitrary and/or capricious.”

It’s hard to conclude otherwise.

This isn’t the first time OSSAA has been accused of abusing its authority. In 2024, the family of Kayleb Barnett sued after he moved out of the Broken Arrow district (where he lived with his mother) to the Jenks district (where he lived with this father), and OSSAA tried to ban him from playing football.

Barnett and his father had clearly established residency in the Jenks district after having been subjected to three at-home visits, two scheduled and one unscheduled.

In 2007, the 10th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals concluded OSSAA is “a state actor.” Following the Glencoe controversy, multiple lawmakers have called for greater state oversight of OSSAA. They’re right to do so.

If education is crucial to workforce development – and it is – parents must be allowed to put their children in the schools that best serve them. OSSAA is an obstacle to those efforts.

In theory, the OSSAA exists to oversee school competition. But in practice it often serves to reduce competition, undermine state law and discourage parents from using open transfer.

It’s time for serious oversight of OSSAA. The days of it acting as a rogue state agency must end.

Jonathan Small serves as president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.