High school sports transfers reached a record level in California for the 2023-24 school year, with 17,068 students switching schools, according to final statistics obtained from the California Interscholastic Federation, the state’s governing body.

The number exceeds the previous record of 16,839 established in the 2017-18 school year. Leading the way among the 10 sections was the Southern Section, which had 6,928 transfers, a rise of 545 over last year (8.56%).

There is clear evidence that parents are transferring their sons and daughters for sports reasons. That was shown during the 2020-21 school year, when the pandemic disrupted sports seasons and resulted in only 7,210 statewide transfers. The next school year, transfers doubled to 14,818 and have been rising annually since then.

Students who transfer without changing residences are ineligible for one month of the season, while those who do change residences are immediately eligible.

The question is whether a growing number of transfers should be a concern for CIF officials and what options are available to help people understand that rules need to be followed.

Ron Nocetti, executive director of the CIF, said, “98 percent of our students don’t transfer. We’re aware it’s the high-profile transfers that our membership wants to take a look at, and that’s what we’ll be discussing this fall.”

Nocetti has created committees that will look into CIF priorities for the coming years. On another note, Nocetti said participation numbers went from 763,000 to 806,000.

The transfer numbers come after a rare high school basketball season in which Harvard-Westlake won a state Open Division title and King/Drew won the City Section Open Division title with no transfers.

Terry Barnum, the head of athletics at Harvard-Westlake who will be joining the Southern Section Executive Committee this year, said, “Just because there’s a record number of transfers doesn’t necessarily mean rules are being broken. I don’t think kids are moving because some coach is lurking in the the bushes, ‘Come here.’ What I think happens more often is families are looking at the situation of a given school, ‘You know what, I don’t like the situation. I can play quicker here.’ I think the majority of these transfers are initiated by parents and families more than coaches.”

In the Southern Section, the largest section with more than 560 schools, when transfer information is submitted, it comes from the school. The Southern Section reviews the paperwork online. It rarely sends out anyone to review information at the school.

In contrast, the City Section, with 159 schools, sends out the commissioner to schools that receive multiple transfers from a specific sport, calls in parents, coaches and administrators, and goes over paperwork and any concerns, not relying on schools to simply clear the athletes.

The CIF has been promoting education-based high school sports, but transfers exceeding 17,000 for the first time statewide is something section commissioners and member schools can’t ignore in a changing environment that has private schools competing against public schools for athletes and sports trophies.

A French soldier was stabbed while on patrol outside the Gare de l’Est train station in eastern Paris on Monday, days before the 2024 Summer Olympics are set to begin with the opening ceremony next week. 

The soldier was hospitalized with a shoulder injury but was not considered to be in life-threatening condition, officials said on Monday. 

A statement from the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday identified the attacker as 40-year-old Christian Ingondo.

In 2018, Ingondo was under judicial investigation on murder charges, the prosecutor’s statement said. In 2020, the investigating judges dropped charges against him and ordered mandatory hospitalization.

Investigations into the attempted murder and the suspect’s background are ongoing. Ingondo, who was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was released from custody Tuesday morning and transferred to a psychiatric hospital under police supervision, the statement continued.

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A soldier stands by the French flag at the military camp in the Vincennes woods on July 15, 2024, just outside Paris. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

Following the string of Islamic State extremist attacks in 2015 that killed at least 130 people and injured at least 350 more, Paris created Operation Sentinelle for France’s domestic security. The Sentinelle force is designed to guard prominent sites and events such as the Olympics.

There are an estimated 10,000 soldiers and 4,700 police that make up Operation Sentinelle. The group’s soldiers have been targeted by terrorists in the past. 

Paris has been on high security alert for the Olympic Games that begin on July 26 and end on Aug. 11.

A soldier stands outside the barracks at the military camp set up in the Vincennes woods on July 15, 2024, just outside Paris. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

The city is expected to deploy around 30,000 police officers each day for the Olympics, with a peak being about 45,000 officers for the opening ceremony on the Seine River.

The French military is sending about 18,000 personnel to Paris to ensure security. Many of them are staying in a camp set up outside Paris for the duration of the Olympic Games.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Joe Bryant, a former NBA player and WNBA coach with a colorful nickname, has died at 69, four and a half years after his son, Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, granddaughter Gianna Bryant and seven other people died in a helicopter crash.

Fran Dunphy, the coach at Joe Bryant’s alma mater La Salle, told the Philadelphia Inquirer on Tuesday that Bryant recently suffered a debilitating stroke.

A teammate at John Bartram High School in Philadelphia nicknamed Bryant “Jellybean” because he had a vast array of moves despite being 6 feet 9. “Must be jelly because jam don’t shake like that,” Bryant recalled hearing, quoting the World War II-era hit song by Glenn Miller.

The nickname stuck and Bryant became a star. He was the High School Public League Player of the Year in 1972, then remained in Philadelphia to attend La Salle, averaging 20.3 points and 11.1 rebounds per game during his two seasons.

Paul Westhead, the La Salle coach at the time, seconded all of Jellybean’s motions.

“He had a lot of moves,” Westhead said. “He’d cut you up any which way.”

Bryant was the 14th overall pick in the 1975 NBA draft, going to the Golden State Warriors, who sold his rights to his hometown Philadelphia 76ers shortly before the 1975-76 season began. Perhaps Bryant’s most memorable moment as a player came in his first game with the Clippers when he dunked over Lakers 7-foot-2 center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Also in 1975, the 20-year-old Bryant married Pam Cox, sister of former NBA player Chubby Cox, and they had two daughters, Sharia and Shaya, in addition to their son, Kobe.

Bryant was a key contributor off the bench for four years in Philadelphia, playing behind future Hall of Famers and fellow forwards George McGinnis and Julius Erving. The 76ers made the playoffs in each of Bryant’s seasons, losing in the NBA Finals to the Portland Trail Blazers in 1977.

The 76ers traded Bryant to the San Diego Clippers ahead of the 1979-80 season for a future first-round draft pick and his playing time nearly doubled. He averaged 11 points and 5.5 rebounds in three seasons with the Clippers before averaging 10 points with the Houston Rockets in his last NBA season.

“Joe ‘Jellybean’ Bryant was a local basketball icon, whose legacy on the court transcended his journey across Bartram High School, La Salle University, and his first four NBA seasons with the 76ers from 1975-79,” the Sixers said in a statement. “Our condolences go out to the Bryant family.”

Bryant then embarked on a nomadic career overseas as a player and a coach. He played through 1992 in Italy and France, not returning to Philadelphia until Kobe was about to begin high school. Bryant served as head coach of the girls’ team at Akiba Hebrew Academy in 1992-93 before moving to La Salle as an assistant for the duration of Kobe’s career at Lower Merion High.

“We are saddened to announce the passing of La Salle basketball great Joe Bryant,” the school said in a news release. “Joe played for the Explorers from 1973-75 and was a member of our coaching staff from 1993-96. He was a beloved member of the Explorer family and will be dearly missed.”

Shortly after finishing high school, Kobe was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets and immediately traded to the Lakers in 1996.

Joe and Pam Bryant moved to Los Angeles with their 17-year-old son and had to co-sign his first Lakers contract, a $3.5-million deal over three years, because Kobe was too young to sign for himself.

The Lakers rookie used some of his newfound wealth to buy cars for Joe, Pam, Sharia and Shaya, all of whom lived with him in Pacific Palisades for three years until Joe and Pam purchased a house less than a mile away.

“We weren’t just going to let him come out here by himself,” Joe told Times columnist Bill Plaschke early in 2003.

“My family was always there for me,” Kobe said around that time. “I love them for that.”

Their relationship remained strong until Kobe courted and eventually married Orange County teenager Vanessa Laine in 2001.

“It’s right there in the Bible,” Kobe said. “When you get married, your mother and father and sisters are no longer the priority.”

His parents did not come to Kobe and Vanessa’s wedding or visit their new home. When Lower Merion High retired Bryant’s jersey in 2002, Joe and Pam sat in one section of the stands, Vanessa in another.

Why the tension? Kobe said his father — who had been younger than Kobe when he married Pam at age 20 — felt uneasy about his devotion to Vanessa and did not like that she was Latina. Joe said: “Once he decided to get married, it’s his life now.”

Bryant jumped back into coaching in 2003, spending one year each with the Las Vegas Rattlers and the Boston Frenzy of the American Basketball Assn. He moved to the WNBA and became head coach of the Sparks for two seasons, leading L.A. to a 25–9 record and a conference finals berth in 2006. A year later, he was replaced by former Lakers star Michael Cooper.

“I’m devastated to hear about the loss of my friend Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, the father of Kobe Bryant,” Magic Johnson wrote on X. “Joe was not only a talented basketball player; he was also a great coach.

“Joe was an exceptional human being with a radiant smile that had the power to brighten any room, and a great husband and father. Cookie and I are praying for his wife Pam, daughters Sharia and Shaya, and the rest of the Bryant family, friends, and all those who loved Joe.”

From 2007 to 2015, Bryant coached a handful of teams in Japan, Italy and Southeast Asia. As recently as 2013, Bryant was working out regularly at the full-length basketball court on the second floor of the L.A. apartment building where he and Pam lived.

His workout? He’d make 120 shots, 60 on each end — 20 from the left side, 20 from the right, 20 down the middle — proving to himself that “Jellybean” still had the moves at age 60.