Football: Don’t be fooled by QB’s transfer from Oaks Christian

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The next time a top transfer student enrolls at Westlake Village Oaks Christian from across the country, it might not be so easy to convince people that he just happened to find the campus out of nowhere.

Luke Falk, the junior quarterback who left Oaks Christian on Monday to return to Logan, Utah, after losing his starting position, is a prime example how families are using athletics to identify schools for sports reasons -- and when things don’t work out, they have no trouble leaving pronto.

Yes, there were ‘personal reasons’ for the decision for Falk and his family to abandon California, according to Coach Bill Redell, but I don’t think anyone believes he would have left if he were still starting at quarterback for the Lions.

It has become very clear that quarterbacks who don’t get to start at Oaks Christian have little patience to wait their turn. Is anyone surprised? That’s the way things are in 2011, and not just at Oaks Christian.

Remember when Westlake had two top quarterbacks in Nick Isham and Michael Bercovici, and when it became clear Isham would be the starter, Bercovici left for Taft. He ended up with a scholarship to Arizona State. So I don’t blame the families for looking for opportunities.

But please don’t expect others to be fooled by the continued moving around from school to school. And as long as there’s a state rule barring athletics-motivated transfers, the rule needs to be enforced.

-- Eric Sondheimer