Tavares High School football coach and athletic director Gavin Jones got people talking this summer when he showed up at football media day wearing a T-shirt that read: We Coach. They Poach.

“I just like to speak my mind and was ready,” he says. “I had those shirts made in the spring.”

For some, it was funny. For others, perhaps provocative. But behind the slogan is a larger question facing high school athletics: Is all this chaos and constant movement good for the student-athlete?

Now that football season is underway, Gavin explains the sentiment behind the message.

“I feel like there isn’t a lot of loyalty anymore,” he says. “You put time and effort into the kids and then all of a sudden they leave.”

Nearly 20 players left the Bulldogs program over the summer, and after 31 years of coaching, Gavin says the exodus seems to reflect a larger change he has watched take place in high school athletics.

He understands parents and kids are looking for what they believe is the best opportunity and says he holds no ill will toward players who leave. Still, he wonders whether some families are being influenced by adults who suggest changing programs could lead to greater exposure or a better path to college.

“It’s possible that some kids are being misled,” Gavin says. “A very, very small amount of kids will go to a D-I school or get other opportunities.”

At times, he says it seems as though athletes are being “rented” to fill a position and make another team more successful. For a coach who sees high school athletics as part of a young person’s development, that can be challenging.

“We try to build character,” he says. “Life is not going to be easy and if you quit midstream, it can be a bad signal to send.”

A different view.

South Lake High School football coach Brad Lord has experienced the same movement from both directions. His program has gained transfers, but he has also watched some of his best players leave.

“I lost two of my best players,” Brad says. “It’s just the reality we live in.”

Brad agrees with Gavin on much of what has changed. Where they may differ is how coaches should respond to it.

He also points out that not every move is about athletics or loyalty. Families move more frequently than they once did, and students have more choices about where they attend school.

“Teams are losing and gaining guys. You can’t let it drive you crazy,” Brad says.

Brad sees a generational shift in how some young athletes approach opportunity, particularly when they believe another program might offer more playing time or exposure. He says social media and the lure of instant gratification are part of it.

“They think about what will get them from A to Z without doing B through Y first,” he says.

But if athletes believe another school offers them a better opportunity, Brad is supportive.

“We have to let them go so they have a chance at the best opportunities,” he says. “I still have great relationships with the players that left me.”

A changing game

Lake County Schools District athletic director Patrick Todd sees the issue from a districtwide perspective.

He has worked with student-athletes at the high school and collegiate levels for decades, and more than 50 athletes he coached went on to play professionally, representing about 5% of the total kids.

For Pat, the other 95% matter just as much.

“Every parent thinks their kid can play in college,” Pat says. “And that is a great goal, but perhaps not always realistic.”

He worries that expectations about playing at the next level, combined with greater freedom to move between schools, may be changing how families approach high school sports.

“They think if they aren’t starting, they’re dissatisfied,” Pat says. “That breeds the desire to move and in my opinion, this is not good in the long run.”

Pat says travel sports and 7-on-7 football also bring athletes into contact with coaches, volunteers and players associated with other schools, creating opportunities for influence away from school campuses, sometimes in something as ordinary as a postgame handshake line.

Choice versus recruiting

Changing schools, however, does not necessarily mean an athlete has been recruited.

“A legal school-choice transfer occurs when a student chooses a school for their own reasons,” says Jessica Eley, Florida High School Athletic Association administrator of public relations.

“Improper athletic recruiting involves a representative of the school’s athletic interests who influences the student’s decision for athletic purposes.”

Rules changed for the 2026-27 school year. A student may participate in a sport for only one school during the school year. An athlete who transfers after participating must meet allowable transfer criteria or seek an eligibility waiver.

Jessica says contact through travel sports and 7-on-7 teams does not automatically violate recruiting rules. It can become recruiting when someone representing a school’s athletic interests uses that contact to “pressure, urge or entice” a student to attend a particular school for athletics.

Violations can result in forfeited contests, fines, postseason restrictions and sanctions against school representatives.

For Pat, the larger question isn’t simply where athletes are allowed to play, but what they take with them when high school sports are over.

“Our focus was the total package,” Pat says. “The end game was to create young adults to get on to the next phase of their lives.”

“What happens to the kid after all the transfers?” he says.

For the coaches, their approaches may differ, but both remain focused on the players.

“I’m a grown adult,” Gavin says. “I don’t have hard feelings. Football is football. Those lights will still come on Friday nights, and we’ll still coach those kids to the best of our ability.”