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John Crossman just rolled with the punches like a champ, but I am still peeved.

Crossman graduated from Butte Central in 2021, and my blood pressure goes up every time I hear his name. I will always get mad when I think about the years of high school sports that were stolen from him.

He lost his entire sophomore year at Butte High school because of a knee injury. Then he was robbed of his junior football season at Butte Central because of Montana’s silly 90-day transfer rule.

While his new teammates had a great season and made a playoff run in 2019, John could only watch. He was only allowed to play in subvarsity games, and the Maroons did not have enough players for a full subvarsity schedule.

At 5-foot-11, 235 pounds, he would have been a great addition in the trenches for the Maroons. He would have helped a team that overcame an 0-3 start to win five of six games down the stretch.

Instead, John was basically a practice player on an unofficial redshirt year for the Maroons after his parents decided they wanted all the children of their new blended family to attend the same Catholic school.

When John was finally going to get his time to shine on the gridiron for BC, he was smacked in the face by a pandemic. Game after game was canceled in what turned out to be a lost season for the Maroons.

Whenever BC was geared up to play, the best friend of a player’s great-aunt would show signs of a sniffle, and the game would get canceled in the over-thinking days of COVID.

The case of John Crossman highlights how unfair that 90-day transfer rule can be. It does not take a global pandemic to rob a student-athlete of an opportunity to play. It could be a twisted knee, a broken bone or a burst appendix.

We see players suffer season-ending injuries all the time. That is why we should never punish a player for transferring schools within district.

In a cruel twist, John probably sat in the crowd at Naranche Stadium in November of 2019 — the year he was not allowed to play varsity — as Bozeman running back Asher Croy ran all over Butte High state championship hopes.

Croy, remember, transferred to Bozeman from Huntley Project in the days just before football practice began, and he won a title with the Hawks. And good for him. Any player should be allowed to better himself of herself.

In 2020, Missoula Sentinel won a state championship with a quarterback who transferred in from Washington State just to play football for the Spartans. Like Croy, Camden Sirmon did not have to sit out a single varsity snap.

Like with Croy, Sirmon should have been allowed to play — even if they both obviously transferred to play football. In Sirmon’s case, his high school in Washington was not playing football at all that season.

Players can transfer from Huntly Project to Bozeman High School and play right away. Players can transfer in from out of state and play right away.

Yet players like John are still punished for transferring schools within districts — even when the move was not made for sports reasons. This is just not right.

The move is usually either made because the student wants to try the private school or because he or she is tired of private school.

I was reminded about John’s case when Kherington Adams won the 2.5-mile race at the Veterans Day Race for the third straight year last week. Her latest victory came just weeks after she was not allowed to run at the MHSA State Cross Country Meet in Missoula because of the 90-day transfer rule.

Kherington was attending Butte Central, but she transferred to become a home school student this school year. That means she runs for the Butte High Bulldogs instead of the Maroons. Many home school students compete in sports for public schools.

Like John, Kherington just rolled with the punches. A sophomore this past season, she ran junior varsity races this fall for the Bulldogs. She would have been the No. 4 runner on the varsity team, but the cross country season falls within the 90-day window of the transfer rule.

That is 90 school days, too, so it takes athletes into January before they are eligible to play varsity sports.

The timeline also highlights another problem with the 90-day rule. It punishes athletes who participate in fall sports. If they transfer schools for baseball, softball or track, they have no problem. If they transfer for basketball, they are only forced to sit out the early-season games.

While some players have transferred in the middle of a school year and had to miss a varsity basketball season, the vast majority of those punished by the 90-day rule play fall sports. By far the most time lost — time that could be spent earning a college scholarship — is taken from players of football, golf, volleyball, cross country and soccer.

So, yes, the use of the word “punish” is not too strong in this case. They are unnecessarily punishing students even after college sports came around on transfers.

Today, a quarterback can transfer from Alabama to Notre Dame between seasons and not have to sit out any time. Yet high school student-athletes in Montana have to sit out for the horrible crime of changing their minds or trying to better themselves.

The rule was put into place years ago to try to stop athletes from changing teams, as if that is such a great crime. The irony is student-athletes who want to transfer because of sports are easily allowed do to it, as we saw in the case of Croy and Sirmon. They just go play for a team outside of their current district.

It seems like it is only the student-athletes who really do transfer for non-sports reasons who are the ones who are punished by the 90-day rule. We saw it with John several years ago, and we are seeing it with Kherington today.

Kherington did not decide to go the home school rout because of cross country. She did it because she and her parents thought it was best for her education. But she likes to run, and she should have been allowed to run at the highest level she can.

Study after study shows that students who are participating in such activities have better grades. Their work ethic is better than the average student who does not participate in extracurricular activities.

While Montana’s 90-day rule might not discourage students from becoming student-athletes, it certainly does not help encourage participation. We should be in the business of encouraging participation.

The athletic careers of high school students are way too short as it is, and every season or career is one play from being over. So, it is time to stop this silly rule that takes away this season with the promise of being able to play next season.

If I have learned anything in my decades writing about and watching sports, it is that next season is promised to no one.

The schools could fix this rule right now. Superintendents, principals, activities directors, teachers and coaches should demand it. If not, then parents of transferring students should start filing lawsuits.

If the schools do not want to do the right thing, then the courts should force them to.

Then student-athletes like John and Kherington would never be forced to roll with those unnecessary punches.

 — Bill Foley, who never rolls with a punch, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74 or Bluesky at @foles74.bsky.social. Listen to him on the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.