Senior Jalen Stokes transferred from Dublin High School to Dougherty Valley at the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, having previously led his former high school basketball team to various California Interscholarship Federation (CIF) Northern California playoff games. Soon after his transfer, he was deemed ineligible to join the Dougherty Varsity basketball team, as his switch was claimed to be “athletically motivated.”
The CIF rules and regulations regarding transfer athletes state that the students are ineligible to play by default until they are processed by their individual schools and CIF itself. Once the eligibility for their transfer is confirmed, they are granted access to participate in games and tournaments.
“It was very frustrating for me because me and my family made the choice for me to move, and when we made that decision, it wasn’t easy,” Stokes said. “They were trying to take away something that had nothing to do with the reasoning for the move.”
CIF grants the athlete final eligibility based on the reason for the transfer and the given context and files provided by individual schools. Valid transfer causes may include verified address changes, student history, or discontinued athletic programs, among others.
Pat Cruikshank is the commissioner of athletics for the CIF North Coast Section, and is in charge of all finalized transfer decisions once the school has sent over athletes’ files.
“[The school where the transfer is located] does a transfer case in their CIF home account,” Cruikshank said. “That transfer case then routes back to the former schools, and those schools have an opportunity to respond to it. Then it comes to our office, and once it is responded to by all the former schools, we take a look at it, and based upon our rules, we determine a ruling.”
CIF rules state that any athlete transfer that is athletically motivated, follows a former coach to a new school, or presents inaccurate information on their transfer files will be barred from competing at the new school.
Mike Hansen is the men’s basketball coach at Dougherty Valley High School and has supported Stokes’ presence as a qualified player on the team.
“He tried out for basketball like everybody else and made the team, and then was ruled ineligible,” Hansen said.
With CIF decisions, athletes have the opportunity to appeal their decision if they have enough proof that they were not transferring for the wrong reasons. Stokes won his appeal only after spending the first semester of school not playing.
“We basically had to prove that there was hard evidence for me to transfer that had nothing to do with basketball, or sports in general,” Stokes said.
Though he won his appeal, rumors spread in the school about his transfer and the potential trouble that Dougherty Valley High was in for recruitment violations.
Hansen believed that “The allegations are false, like no one’s told me that. It had nothing to do with any recruiting.”
Though the school’s situation has not been confirmed, Stokes officially won his appeal as of Dec. 27, 2024. He has been playing in official games and tournaments ever since, with just two more games left in the season as of Feb. 3, 2025. He also committed to UC Davis as a basketball athlete and will join the Aggies for the 2025-2026 season.
Sue Ellen Thomas, Dougherty Valley’s Athletic Director, declined to comment at this time.
