By: David Burish
Most students attend a university to pursue a career that they will have for most of their lives. Others use the opportunity of a college education to network and create a group of people they can rely on in future endeavors. And some use it to fulfill the opportunity of a lifelong dream. So is the case for UW-Green Bay junior Warren Jones.
Jones is pursuing his degree in communication after transferring from Bradley University last summer and is on track to graduate next year. His main goal in college is to play the game he loves: basketball.
“I first started playing basketball probably when I was five,” Jones said. “I started playing on a little tikes hoop when I was young. My mom told me that I would never shoot on it until she would raise it all the way up and that’s the only way I would shoot on it.”
Jones looked to college to pursue the game he loves but it wasn’t until high school in his hometown of Centralia, Illinois that he saw it as a legitimate option.
“I started getting letters from some colleges and I realized that I can do this. I can play college basketball.”
Jones’ journey was not a typical path through college but he succeeded early. He started attending Southeastern Community College in Burlington, Iowa where he helped the Blackhawks to a 25-7 record in 2013-2014 averaging 16.8 points and 3.5 rebounds a game.
The college experience
After two years at SECC, he transferred to Division 1 Bradley University and again became an instant success for the Braves. But it came with a price for Jones.
“It was up and down all year. I was the leading scorer all year but I actually had a stress fracture in my foot,” Jones said. “I played nine games and after six games it was hurting and I would take pills and stuff before the games and I couldn’t feel my foot. I had 33 points and then the next game I played and got seven and could barely walk the next day.”
Jones was in a walking boot for the next eight weeks and had to watch his team from the sideline. After his injury had healed, Jones was ready to get back on the floor and in 2014-2015 he led his team in scoring with 11.9 points per game.
He was looking forward and began to workout for the summer. That offseason Bradley had hired a new head coach, Brian Wardle from UWGB to lead the team. Jones said he got along really well with Wardle and wanted him to be a major part of his team. But things got more difficult for Jones.
“At the end of the summer, there was this math class that I wasn’t doing so good in and I got some help for it but it wasn’t the kind of help I was supposed to be getting,” Jones said. “He told me then that was like my last strike and I ended up leaving because I would’ve had to sit out some games and I didn’t want to do that.”
The transfer process
Jones went back home and began looking into other colleges. He joined many students who look to transfer to a new school. According to statistics compiled by the NCAA, 528 male basketball athletes transferred to a new school in 2015-2016. Of those transfers, 44 percent of them transfer from one Division 1 school to another and 90 percent of the total athletes said they looked to transfer “for athletic reasons.”
Jones looked into many options and even looked at transferring to a smaller school.
“I took a visit to UW-Parkside,” Jones said. “Actually I committed there and told the coach I was coming. So me and my mom we drove to Parkside. That’s eight hours from my house.”
While Parkside became the main option for Jones, he took a visit on a whim to UWGB, even though he never considered it as a serious contender.
“Two days later we flew to Green Bay and then flew back the next day. But coach worked me out and showed me some tape of what they wanted to do here, how they wanted to play and that’s the kind of player I want to be.”
Jones committed to UWGB after that visit and he was told early on that the process to a new school would not be easy.
“They knew it would be hard for me and when I transferred here I had to do so much paperwork and it was a lot of work, more than I thought it would be.”
The paperwork for student-athletes to transfer is extensive. The NCAA guide book on transferring is a 20-page document in itself. The book opens with a question for potential transferring students that asks, What should I think about before transferring?
The NCAA suggests, “NCAA transfer rules are designed to help student-athletes such as you make sensible decisions about the best place to earn a degree and develop athletic skills. The decision to transfer to another school involves important and sometimes difficult choices.”
NCAA rules state that if a student athlete decides to transfer from one Division 1 school to another, the athlete must sit out one full year of eligibility. Student-athletes have a five year window to compete in four years of eligibility.
A lesson learned by former University of Northern Illinois punter Peter Deppe.
The lawsuit
According to a story in the USA Today, Deppe was looking to transfer from UNI to the University of Iowa. Deppe had a year of eligibility remaining and the University of Iowa athletic department declined to file a waiver to exempt Deppe from sitting out a year.
Deppe is now being represented by Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP out of Seattle in a lawsuit filed in March that claims, “The NCAA’s limitation on the mobility of college athletes is patently unlawful. For a striking contrast, one can simply examine the unfettered mobility of the players’ coaches. Football coaches, including assistant coaches, are free to leave a school at any time they choose to take another job in the college or professional football ranks. This ability to better their own situation has allowed coaches to reap enormous financial benefits…”
The NCAA responded later citing back to previous, unsuccessful lawsuits.
“The Deppe complaint repeats many of the same arguments made by the same law firm in other cases against the NCAA,” Donald Remy, chief legal officer said. “Repeating allegations and legal theories does not make them true. As a result, the lawsuit should be dismissed.”
While Peter Deppe is in a far different circumstance than Warren Jones, the consequences of selecting a new school to transfer to does not come without some difficulty.
“It’s a tough rule,” Jones said. “I don’t really see the point of it but a lot of stuff the NCAA does, I don’t see the point of it.”
Jones found the rule most difficult after showing what he was capable the last three years.
“I already had been playing and been the leading scorer on my team. I already had my name out there so it’s kind of like you’re put in the shadow and put away for a while.”
The struggle continues
Jones said the process has been especially hard this year. After moving nine hours away from home and only knowing a couple of players from years at Southeastern Community College, Jones was alone on a campus and could not participate fully in the game he loves.
“When everyone’s gone, especially for the first half of the year, I was alone. Me and David (Jesperson, another transfer student-athlete from Pepperdine University) didn’t really hang out outside of workouts and practice. It was like I didn’t really know anybody so I was always by myself. I didn’t talk to anybody so no, it didn’t help me.”
Jones continued to find a way to workout with the team and practice as hard as he could. Jones said that the year got easier as it went on. He began making friendships with his teammates and hoped they continued their success.
This year the men’s and women’s basketball teams succeeded more than in two decades. They both won the Horizon League championship and earned automatic births to the NCAA National Tournament. In their game against Texas A&M, Jones was watching like the rest of us.
“I was at a bar watching the game, just a little sports bar watching the game. I just went by myself.”
Jones worked all year to help his team be as successful as they could and all he could do now is wish he was there.
“Every game I watch on TV I wish I was playing but this one, I really wish I could be playing just because it meant so much more being in the national tournament. In the last 20 years, it hasn’t happened so it meant a little more and I wish I could be there but I couldn’t.”
What the future holds
Jones said despite his wishes of being there with his team, the team has been a great support system. He said after the game he was on the phone with teammates and discussed what had happened.
“I have a relationship with all the guys,” Jones said. “I work hard just to get them better cause you know you’re not going to play but the coaches encourage me to keep working hard for them and myself.”
UWGB coaches and other players were unavailable for comment on their transfer athletes. The Director of Strategic Communication, Joseph Daniels, responded to an interview request with this comment.
“With the success of both of our basketball teams this season, we received a lot of national media attention as well as a handful of local media requests. While I understand your request is for a class project, this is something we have simply declined in the past. Our men’s basketball student-athletes receive a ton of attention in the media nationally and regionally and this request is among the many that we decline.”
Since Jones and Jesperson had transferred to the university in the summer, there were no stories written about them by the national or local media outlets.
Jones however has remained optimistic and looks forward. Building into another year and looking to get his chance and contribute on another successful season.
“I got to practice with a great team for a year which made me better. It’s like up and down thing. It has it’s positives and negatives.”
According to UWGB statistics on the 2015 student body statistics, the total enrollment at UWGB is 6,779 students and 661 were new transfer students, including Warren Jones and myself.
Jones has been looking the last couple of years for a place to achieve his dream of being a basketball player and a university graduate. His struggle is familiar to many and he said that this time has given him a great gift.
“It helped me mature. It helped me think about things I was doing, things that weren’t right and just try to better myself. A lot of time to think. A lot of time.”
The NCAA rules prohibit him this year from being a part of a game that reminds him of home, his mother and a life that could be. But Jones will play next year, and he looks forward to getting the opportunity that has been taken from him.
The Avenue 