Being a backup isn't part of plan anymore

"I think it's something probably going on throughout the country, especially in certain positions," Oaks Christian Coach Bill Redell said. "With college tuition so high, if they think their son has the ability to be a major-college quarterback, he has to be playing. But the truth is there are very few guys who can be a Division I quarterback. It is a little out of balance."

At Santa Ana Mater Dei, USC-bound Matt Barkley is beginning his fourth year as the starting quarterback, and his presence has scared off many quarterbacks from enrolling. Forget about the chance to learn by playing behind Barkley.

"I'm not afraid to say that competition is not the leading factor anymore [in choosing a program]," Mater Dei Coach Bruce Rollinson said. "Playing time is."

One reason this summer has resulted in an influx of transfers in Southern California is the new statewide CIF rule that allows freshmen a one-time free transfer before the start of their sophomore year.

During this past school year, there were 601 students in the Southern Section who used the transfer rule and 157 in the City Section. Clearly, those numbers are on the rise in the second year of the rule because it's much easier for an incoming sophomore to switch schools without losing athletic privileges.

Seymour, 47, who lives in Simi Valley and works in the medical field, said if he had kids today, "I would bring them up the way my parents did. I think they push them way too early. They don't know how to mow a lawn anymore. All they play is sports. . . . It's very unrealistic to think every kid is going to make it."

Rooney urges parents to see the bigger picture, choosing a school first for academics, and for kids to play "for the love of sports, not personal glory."

But what parent wants to be the dream breaker? That's why kids are going to continue to transfer when told they're going to be second-string.

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eric.sondheimer@latimes.com