When are a cancer patient and her family NOT “victims?” How about when a child needs to transfer schools because of cancer in her family, and she still wants to continue to play varsity basketball…but isn’t allowed to because she transferred. The mom is fighting cancer, the kid has to leave her friends and team mates…and she’s now forced to miss half the season because the rules – which CAN be bent in this situation – won’t be.

These family members are not victims, according to the Colorado High School Activities Association.

In a recent ruling by CHSAA Commissioner Bill Reader (which was upheld by the three man appeals board of Mike Winant, Don Gatewood and Pat Latta) Legacy High School junior Taylor Archuleta, who transferred from league rival Mountain Range over the summer, has been ruled ineligible to play varsity basketball for the Lightning until the 12th game of the upcoming 24-game season. The reason for the transfer does not matter, according to Reader. Had Taylor left Mountain Range for Legacy simply because she liked the school colors better, the penalty would have been exactly the same.

Except that Taylor did not leave Mountain Range on a whim. She left because her mother Doreen Archuleta is battling breast cancer. The Archuleta’s older daughter, Bree, is a senior at Legacy, and the family needed the girls to be in the same school to reduce the hardship of trying to be in two places at once – especially on game nights. It was a battle they took on last school year, shortly after Doreen was diagnosed with the disease just over a year ago. It was a grind all season. Their original plan of having one parent go to one game and the other parent to the other game had worked okay the season before…before Doreen got sick. The Archuletas had been prepared to stay that course for three years…then the cancer struck. Last season, the wear and tear on Doreen and husband Mark was noticeable as the season progressed. Finally, when the season was over, they made the difficult, non-basketball decision to have Taylor leave her friends and teammates – against her wishes – and transfer, for the wellbeing of the family. They assumed that they would qualify as a “hardship” case with CHSAA. They were wrong.

Bree had enrolled at Legacy as a freshman to participate in a special academic program called Legacy 2000, which was not offered at Mountain Range. It was certainly the right move, because she recently received a scholarship to the Colorado School of Mines. Meanwhile, Taylor enrolled with friends at Mountain Range a year later, with plans to help put the school on the basketball map.

The sisters both play varsity basketball. Bree was in the regular rotation for Jamie Carey’s formidable Lightning squad last year, while Taylor was a standout on the upstart Mustangs for two years. There’s little doubt she has the skills to play and contribute for Carey this season.

But that won’t happen until sometime in 2010, if then, because for the first half of the season, Taylor will have to sit out the varsity games. Her transfer and ability to play immediately was approved by the Front Range League, but Reader said no, saying he had to uphold the rules for everyone. According to the letter sent to the Archuletas, they should have seen something like Breast Cancer coming before they enrolled their daughters in different schools. (Yes, really.)

“(The appeals committee) supported the notion that when two different high schools are chosen for a family’s children, that over a period of four years, it is likely that something will happen to make the logistics of this attendance very difficult,” Reader wrote. “It is very unfortunate that cancer caused difficulty for attendance at two different high schools, but it could have been difficult for a variety of other reasons. When the decision was made to send your daughters to two different high schools, it is reasonable to expect and anticipate difficulty with this situation.”

The fact of the matter is, the Archuletas did not have Taylor transfer “for a variety of other reasons.” It was freakin’ CANCER, nothing else. CHSAA believes not only that the Archuleta’s should have planned for Breast Cancer, but seem to also say that difficulties created by Doreen’s cancer don’t actually qualify as a hardship at all. You could certainly challenge that interpretation based on by-law 1800.41…the one that Reader mentioned in backing his decision. The by-law states:

“ ‘Hardship’ means an unforeseen, unavoidable and/or uncorrectable act, condition or event that imposes a severe, non-athletic burden upon the student or his/her family.  The Commissioner shall have broad discretion in applying this standard to specific cases.  He/She may take into consideration not only the needs of the student and family directly involved, but also the best interest of member schools and interscholastic athletics/activities generally as he/she understands those interests.”

The way I read this, Breast Cancer would certainly seem to qualify as a hardship, and I can’t see how any other students or schools would be harmed by allowing Taylor to play immediately. The Front Range League was okay with it. CHSAA does not agree. The penalty for the transfer would have been the same no matter what, Reader acknowledged, and the fact that it’s certainly within his authority to apply the “hardship” clause to this case - and he won’t – backs up the notion that he does not view this case as a hardship.

Commissioner Reader and I exchanged emails on the Archuletas, and he allowed me to use what he wrote to me in this column. As we closed, he encouraged me to help the Archuletas accept his decision.

“A friend would help the Archuletas understand and appreciate the opportunities they have rather than perpetuate the perception that these people are victims,” Reader wrote to me. “In this situation, choices were made that didn’t work out as planned.”

I’m sorry, Mr. Commissioner. While I think very highly of most of the work done by CHSAA, this decision is 100% flat wrong and hurtful. We have a system that’s supposed to work FOR the betterment of the student-athlete. Now, because her mother has Breast Cancer, and she needed to do what was best for her family, Taylor Archuleta is being punished by the system.

To me, that qualifies Taylor, Doreen and the entire family as “victims.”