Undefeated Maize South girls lose player, wins because of transfer paperwork
Maize South is taking the floor Wednesday night without its passionate senior point guard.
The Kansas State High School Activities Association has suspended Zayda Perez for the rest of 2018-19 season and is vacating Maize South’s first six wins because of her “ineligible” presence on the court.
Perez moved from Valley Center, where she lived with her mother, to the Maize South district to live with her father, who has lived across the street from the school since 2007. Perez moved in with him over the summer. The parents have split custody since Perez’s father moved into his Maize home, her mother Latavia Limon Klumpp said.
“If her father would have moved out of their house and into the house next door, it would have been a legit move,” Limon Klumpp said.
According to Rule 18 of the KSHSAA Handbook, “If a student’s parents, or legal guardian in case neither parent is living, make a bona fide move to a new permanent residence in the vicinity of the new school to which the student transfers, the student is then immediately eligible.”
Although Perez moved to a new residence, her father did not. Therefore, she would have been ineligible for her first 18 weeks at Maize South by KSHSAA rule.
The Maize South and Valley Center athletic directors needed to fill out a certificate of transfer and a transfer hardship, which is completed for students, “who, because of unforeseen, unavoidable, or unusual circumstances; including but not limited to, broken home conditions, death of parents or guardian and abandonment, find it necessary to change schools,” according to the KSHSAA Handbook.
KSHSAA Executive Director Bill Faflick said KSHSAA never received a hardship form. Inquiries to Maize South athletic director Curt Klein were not immediately returned.
“A separated family in and of itself is not a hardship to determine eligibility,” Faflick said. “There may be one associated with that, but it’s not an automatic. ... I can’t answer a blank statement because I don’t know any of the details.”
The suspension is being appealed, but if it and the removal of six wins is upheld and the Mavericks make it to the state tournament, the Mavs would enter at 16-6 rather than 22-0.
Faflick said he has 10 days to gather at least five of the eight members of the appeals board in Topeka along with the appealing party. Both member schools are invited to attend with the expectation that they will attend, Faflick said.
A meeting is being scheduled. Valley Center athletic director Caleb Smith said he has not been contacted to make a trip to Topeka.
Faflick said an appeal would be granted when there is inconsistency in the interpretation and execution of the rules.
Limon Klumpp said another option is to hire an attorney, something that she said starts to sound “crazy.”
“This is beyond Zayda,” she said. “I’m doing this for any other family who has any kind of hardship that has to transfer their kid for their best benefit to make them a better human being regardless of sports. Sports is a small portion of life. Now I’m fighting for every other family out there that’s going to have to deal with this stupid rule.
“Sub-state week, and now we’re going to have to go get an attorney to defend my daughter, who has done nothing wrong.”
Limon Klumpp said she talked with Faflick, who told her there are “three levels of accountability: the school, the sport and individual accountability.”
“I questioned him and said, ‘You tell me which one of those is Zayda,’“ Limon Klumpp said. “Zayda found the school that had the accountability. You’re already taking away six games from the team sport. And individual accountability is not on Zayda. That’s on those who didn’t fill out the form, and that’s on KSHSAA, who didn’t review the forms to say, ‘Hey, we’ve got a problem.’”
Both forms needed to be filled out, Limon Klupp said. Smith said when he receives a certificate of transfer, he looks at the new address. He said he knew it was a divorced family, but he did not know whose residence Perez was moving to.
“All I do is look and see if the address is different from the one they enrolled with at Valley Center,” he said. “That’s the only thing I go off of. If they enroll at another school with a different address, based on the information I have, they made a move.
“To me, it’s a big KSHSAA issue on what they expect of their athletic directors. I would also say that I don’t think KSHSAA does a good job of training athletic directors on this. But as far as I’m concerned, I did it the right way.”
Limon Klumpp said the certificate of transfer does not involve a student or parent; the principals and athletic directors complete it and keep it on file at the member schools. The hardship is completed the same way and sent to KSHSAA.
Maize South has gone from nine to 20 wins this season. The Mavericks are the No. 1 seed in Class 5A West and play host to Arkansas City at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Perez has been a reason for the turnaround. Perez, a Butler County commit, fills the stat sheet at 8.6 points, 4.4 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 3.3 steals per game. She is one of the vocal leaders on the court and often sets up the offense.
Faflick does not take pleasure in the situation and knows the timing is terrible, he told Catch It Kansas. He does not believe there was a sneaky or malicious intent but upholds that the information on the transfer paperwork was not accurate.
“If my daughter was not to play, we would have followed the rules,” Limon Klumpp said. “If my daughter was supposed to be on the pine, her butt would have been on the pine. She would have rolled six games out, sat there and watched her team until she was eligible.
“But I want to know where the accountability comes in.”
This story was originally published February 27, 2019 at 2:19 PM.