At the end of the 2017 school year, several students, including some football and basketball players from McIntosh, transferred to Trinity Christian School. When the transfers began posting pictures in their new Trinity uniforms, saying that students from McIntosh reacted to it would be an understatement.

A total of eleven players transferred to participate in the football program at Trinity, which is located in Sharpsburg, approximately 13 minutes from McIntosh. The players were told they would have more scholarship opportunities playing for Trinity than they would if they were to stay playing for McIntosh.

Junior Kyle Riesselmann was one of the eleven football players that transferred to Trinity.

Riesselman said, ¨I had to take a risk for my family and my future.”

Students began to transfer to play Trinity sports when they saw differences in how many scholarships were offered to Trinity athletes versus McIntosh athletes. While McIntosh athletes do get scholarships, a larger number of athletes attending Trinity get scholarships to play sports in college.

Trinity’s annual tuition is $7,450, so, although the athletes might receive better scholarships, they have to pay to attend the school. Some students and parents think that paying to attend Trinity is worth it if they can work hard and get a college scholarship for sports.

Although some McIntosh students understand the transfers’ reasoning, some students’ reactions were more negative. Such reactions have been posted to social media, where students have been responding to posts by players who left McIntosh to play at Trinity.

Bella Mariano tweeted, “The GHSA draft has commenced and the former Chiefs have signed a 2 year contract with the Lions where the players must pay and are traitors.” She posted this comment in response to a former Chief’s twitter post that showed 11 former Chief players in Trinity uniforms.  

Sophomore Hayley Weronick said, “They moved to Trinity to get more playing time for football and basketball, but their division is lower so I’m not sure what they were thinking of transferring.” 

Junior Andrew Pinckney said, “None of them can guard me [in basketball].” It’s worth noting that Trinity, an Independent Christian school, will play in a different division than McIntosh, so they will not play each other this season. 

Although there are a number of McIntosh students who left for football, some students left to participate in other sports programs at Trinity. Students have described the transfers that left as “traitors.” This feeling seems to stem from the perception that the students who transferred abandoned their coaches and teammates.

Senior football player De’Andre Wade said, “Personally, I feel like it was selfish of them to leave because some of them could have played a major role this season with helping us reach our goals.” Wade is playing his final season as a Chief this year.