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GREENSBORO — Less than two years after saying there was no problem, Guilford County Schools is considering sweeping reforms to its athletics program, including limiting the eligibility of high school athletes who switch schools.

The school board’s four-member governance committee gave preliminary approval Thursday to the plan, which prohibits students who switch high schools from playing sports for a year.

If approved by the full board this summer, the changes would give Guilford County Schools one of the strictest policies in the state for dealing with the growing problem of recruiting and families who abuse the transfer policy.

School board member Darlene Garrett, who has pushed for tougher transfer rules since joining the board seven years ago, called Thursday’s proposal long overdue.

“You know people will try to take advantage of the system,” she said. “They’re always going to do that, but this policy will make it much more difficult. For years, parents and coaches have worked the system. Well, now we’re changing the system.”

In addition to trying to clamp down on transfers, the proposal calls for head coaches — both high school and middle school — to be employed by Guilford County Schools as faculty or staff members.

Schools could still hire non-faculty head coaches, but those hires would first have to be approved by an independent five-person committee set up by the school system.

The crackdown doesn’t end there. In an effort to lessen the likelihood of recruiting, coaches would be prohibited from taking offseason jobs coaching students the same age as those they work with during the school year.

The school system’s transfer policy was first questioned in 2007 when coaches and athletics directors told the News & Record that the practice of athletes shopping around for schools was prevalent, and becoming even more common.

At the time, school board Chairman Alan Duncan said the problem was not widespread and that no changes to the school’s transfer policy were necessary.

He said Thursday night that only a small percentage of families abuse the transfer policy, but the proposal still has merit.

“By and large it’s still not a huge problem, but it’s an issue and it’s something the board wants to take a look at,” he said.

Several of North Carolina’s 115 school systems require transfer students to sit out a year. But Que Tucker, deputy executive director for the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, the governing body for high school sports in the state, was unaware of any comparable restrictions on coaches.

“I don’t think there’s any question that based on the coaching policies alone, this is clearly one of the strictest rules I’ve heard of in the state,” Tucker said. “Guilford is to be commended for stepping up and making a statement.”

School officials say roughly 2,000 students in the system switch schools each year. An overwhelming number of those transfers are legitimate, but an increasing number are done with sports in mind.

Under the school system’s current policy, a student who enters high school as a freshman but later requests a transfer to a different high school can compete in athletics at that new school without any interruption. Thursday’s proposed change would prohibit that student from playing sports for a year.

If that same student were to move to another school’s attendance zone during the school year, the current policy would allow them to play at the new school immediately. Under the proposed change, the student would have to sit out the rest of the school year.

“Basically you can play at one school per year — less depending on if you transfer and how you do it,” said Leigh Hebbard, the county athletics director.

Thursday’s proposal was born out of concerns generated by Guilford County’s 15 high school athletics directors. In November, when Hebbard became athletics director, he said his ADs shared with him their concerns that families across the county were continuing to abuse the school’s transfer policy.

“(Athletics directors) wanted something in place to guide them along and address a culture that’s gotten out of hand,” Hebbard said. “It’s not just a Guilford County thing, it’s everywhere.”

If the proposal was inspired by athletics directors, it was fueled by the school system’s investigation at Northern Guilford High, where it was determined last month that five students in four sports lived outside the school’s attendance zone.

The discovery cost the boys basketball team its 3-A state crown and the baseball team a berth in the state playoffs. The wrestling and junior varsity softball teams also suffered forfeits.

“I think it’s obvious the complaint at Northern brought all of this to light,” said Garrett, whose district includes Northern Guilford. “People have asked us to address the problem and that’s where we are today.”

Others weren’t so effusive with praise. School board member Garth Hébert said Thursday he supports the proposal, but added the school system’s current rules are just as effective. “We just needed to enforce them,” he said.

Hebbard said the proposal, which will be discussed at next Thursday’s school board meeting, still needs to be tweaked, particularly as it pertains to nonfaculty coaches.

Roughly one-third of the county’s 648 coaches and assistant coaches do not teach or work in the school system. “We obviously can’t apply the same ruling to all of those coaches,” he said. “We’ll have to take it on a case-by-case basis. But this is a good start.”

Page boys basketball coach Robert Kent agreed. Kent also coaches AAU basketball in the summer.

“I’ll gladly give it up for what they’re promising,” Kent said. “If this leads to more coaches cleaning up their act and not steering players in a certain direction, a lot of us will be for it.”

Schools attorney Jill Wilson, who helped devise the plan, said she believes some parents will think the school board is trying to limit where their children can play sports.

“They’re right,” Wilson said. “The bottom line is every student will be allowed to play a sport. Every student has the right to an education. They just don’t have the right to choose the school they want to play sports at, which seems to be where the abuse is.”

Contact Robert Bell at 373-7055 or robert.bell@news-record.com