6A
Thursday, May 1, 1997
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
"People think, 'Oh, you can get over it. All you have to do is go to junior college and come back in a year.' But it's not that easy." Traci Kesterson
Traci Kesterson plans to leave Kansas for Mesa College in San Diego in the fall, where she will play soccer and try to earn the qualifying grades to olaiv Division II or ll soccer. if she makes the grade point average at Mesa College, Kesterson plans to return to Kansas to play.
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sion I or II school, whether he or she actually will, must fill out an initial eligibility form.
With so many forms to process, the Clearinghouse often just barely chugs along.
The student fills out the form, encloses the payment fee of $18 and sends it to the Clearinghouse headquarters in Iowa City, Iowa. A copy of the student's official transcript is sent from the high school.
High school students who want to play in college first must request a Clearinghouse form from their guidance counselor.
If the Clearinghouse decides that an athlete hasn't met the proper requirements, then the student is declared a non-qualifier. He or she is shut out of college sports at the Division I or II level.
In theory, the process seems relatively simple.
"There has been a problem, primarily with the speed of the Clearinghouse," said Allen Good, assistant director of academic services and eligibility coordinator at Oklahoma State. "They're understaffed and bogged down with thousands of transcripts."
That can put an athlete career on hold until the student earns qualifying grades at another school.
DASHED DREAMS
Sometimes it puts their careers on hold forever.
Traci Kesterson knows that dealing with the Clearinghouse is not always a smooth ride.
"The situation with Traci is a bit unusual," said Phil Lowcock, assistant director of student support services at the University of Kansas.
She was advised by her high school counselors to take a math class that they thought would meet requirements, Lowcock said. Her high school, Olathe East, was in its second year. Counselors knew that the same math class had counted at East's sister schools, Olathe South and Olathe North, so they went ahead and enrolled her.
That's where the problems began
"Traci's high school and the Clearinghouse fought over the math class for about two months." Lowcock said.
Finally, the Clearinghouse said: "We were wrong to ever give credit for the class at the other high schools and we're not going to give Traci credit for it."
The Clearinghouse had determined that the class in question lacked the appropriate weeks of geometry to be considered a geometry course.
Two weeks of geometry separated Kesterson from playing soccer at Kansas on scholarship. And now it was too late
How many weeks of geometry did the Clearinghouse determine was lacking from her math class? Two.
Once a student graduates from high school, the Clearinghouse doesn't allow them to take missed high school classes to establish eligibility.
Kesterson, her family and officials at Kansas filed a first appeal.
It was denied.
They filed a second appeal
It was denied.
Soon, the appeals began to take their toll on both Tract and her family.
Her father, Gary, had to be hospitalized for stress because of the Clearinghouse problems. Trac, herself, had begun to suffer from several medical side effects.
Traci enrolled at Kansas for the Fall 1996 semester, played at Naisim Hall and attended Jayhawk soccer games — but didn't play.
"I remember the day that I got the results from the third appeal," Traci said. "I went upstairs to get my cleats and saw my parents outside of my door. They were both dressed up."
Kesterson looked at her parents. She knew the answer to her question, but asked anyway. "Didn't get cleared did?"
Traci's parents looked back at her.
Traci Kesterson's final appeal to gain eligibility had been denied.
UNEXPLAINED TROUBLE
Bob Oliver, director of legislative services at the NCAA headquarters in Overland Park, is a staff liaison for the special committee overseeing the implementation of the Clearinghouse. The committee's job is to make sure that the Clearinghouse operates efficiently and follows NCAA guidelines.
Oliver agrees that there is a problem — but not with the Clearinghouse. He said that the agency has never had a dilemma with the speed with which an athlete's forms are processed — as long as students send in all of the proper information.
Despite having to process more than 132,000 student-athlete transcripts, Oliver said that the Clearinghouse was fully equipped to handle the tremendous amount of paperwork.
"There is not a problem with the certification process being done on time," Oliver said. "Ninety-five percent of the students on the certification list have been cleared."
Oliver said that the number one complaint with the Clearinghouse was not about its
speed, but stemmed from students who didn't receive the results they wanted.
"The only problem people have with the Clearinghouse is when they don't get cleared because a class hasn't been certified," Oliver said. "The problem is not with the speed or the process."
On the receiving end of whatever problems exist is the high school athlete. Many are, at best, vaguely aware of NCAA rules and procedures. Others remain completely ignorant of the agency's existence.
"Take a high school like Lawrence. They usually have a lot of recruitable athletes — so their counselors deal with this all the time. But take Travis Williams (former Kansas basketball player), his graduating class was 11. He went to a school were they're not going to graduate Division I prospects very often. It's a whole lot harder to deal with if your a small school." Lowcock said. "The other end is that you can get missed at a large school."
Oliver said that the NCAA has done everything within its power to get the word about the Clearinghouse out to the high schools.
"We have spent an inordinate amount of money trying to improve the communication between the Clearinghouse and the high school athletes," Oliver said. "The NCAA has put together a whole new package to let the high schools know what the game plan is."
Last year alone, the NCAA sent more than 500,000 pamphlets to high schools instructing them about the rules and procedures of the Clearinghouse. However, Symons said that for the process to run smoothly, each party — including the Clearinghouse — has to be involved.
Symons sees the Clearinghouse as part of a chain of events. When any link is broken, whether by the athlete, the high school or the Clearinghouse, the Clearinghouse gets the blame.
Calvin Symons, director of the Clearing,
house, insists that the-NCAA and the Clear
"Were not trying to set up anybody as an example — that's not our job," Symons said. "But there are a lot of factors in solving this problem. Everyone has to uphold their end of the bargain. Even at the Clearinghouse we have had problems with missed information."
Schwartz knows first-hand how disruptive and difficult dealing with the Clearinghouse can be. Last fall, two of his track athletes,
NO ONE IS SAFE
The University of Kansas is hardly alone when it comes to problems with the Clearinghouse.
"There are thousands of stories like ours," Gary Schwartz, Kansas track coach said. "I was talking with my fellow coaches and this is not an isolated incident."
Ned and Drew Ryun, sons of Kansas representative Jim Ryun, weren't cleared until two-thirds of the way through the track season. Because they had already missed most of the season, Schwartz was forced to redshirt both athletes.
"I do know that they turned in their stuff in what we thought was plenty of time," Schwartz said. "Of course, our perception of what is plenty of time and the Clearing-house's are two different stories."
Both Ryans had been homeschooled and, because of their age, they had lost years of eligibility. That, the Clearinghouse said, was what held up their clearances.
"If this had been their only chance to run cross country, they would have missed it," Schwartz said.
Iowa State gymnast Kelley Cherwein almost missed her chance.
Unable to afford college without a scholarship, Cherwein withdrew from Iowa State.
Despite graduating from high school with honors, Cherwein was declared a non-qualifier because her sophomore honors English class had never been certified.
Iowa State coach Amy Pyle said that the missed semester cost Cherwein important training and set back her development as a gymnast.
Not until mid-semester, after her parents threatened a lawsuit and politicians from her home state of Minnesota became involved, did the Clearinghouse reverse the decision. Cherwein, however, wasn't able to enroll until the second semester.
"It was one of the most difficult situations that I have ever had to deal with," Pyle said. "She lost out on the training, the practice and getting used to the university."
PLAN FOR ESCAPE
Traci Kesterson never played for the Jayhawks last season.
After her third appeal was denied, she finished her semester at Kansas and transferred to Johnson County Community College.
Next year, she plans to attend Mesa College in San Diego. There, she will live with her sister, play soccer and try to earn her way back into Kansas.
If she can make qualifying grades at the junior college, she may return to Kansas to play soccer.
However, the cost will be much more than a year of eligibility.
“It’s tragic, absolutely tragic,” her father said. “Fortunately she has parents who could afford to do this. This is going to cost me around $36,000. If they would let me pay that money to them right now and Traci could play — I would do it in a heartbeat.”
Traci said that her ordeal with the Clearinghouse has, at times, been more than she could handle.
“It’s terrible to see all my friends walk by in their soccer outfits and their gear going to practice. For one day, I want somebody to be in my shoes,” Kesterson said with a sigh. “Sometimes I just felt like giving up. People think ‘Oh, you can get over it. All you have to do is go to junior college and come back in a year.’ But it’s not that easy for me.”
Traci knows that someday she will be in a Kansas uniform, playing alongside her friends on those cool autumn afternoons. But, until then, she is trying to take one day at a time.
"There is not a day that I don't cry," Kesterson says. "It's so awkward to realize that I'm not playing soccer and that I don't have any control over it. They are ruining a lot of people lives. I know I'm not the first one."
Division I eligibility standards
For athletes to practice, compete and receive athletic scholarships as freshmen, they must comply with the sliding scale established by the NCAA. Grade point averages are calculated from 13 high school core courses. Core courses include four years of English, two years of math, two years of social science, two years of natural or physical science and two additional academic courses. SAT scores are based on the new scoring system, and ACT scores are based on the sum of subscores in English, reading comprehension, science reasoning and mathematics.
ACT scores
SAT scores
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