By BRENDAN McGAIR

Times sports writer

Supposedly rules are written in black and white, leaving little wiggle room for interpretation.
But when is a rule not a rule? When it is enacted in such an inconsistent fashion that there's confusion as to just what the rule's place and point is?
When it comes to the Rhode Island Interscholastic League and those student/athletes who transfer, the outcome follows a similar script to an athletic contest. There are the winners, i.e. the adolescent who change schools and are hardly impacted, if at all.
On the other side resides a group that is forced sit and wait for a long time - some may feel too long - the defeated if you will. It's a Catch-22 that potentially does more harm than good.
There's a school of thought that believes that some sort of checks and balances system should be in place. Otherwise, you have, for example, O.J. Mayo, who traveled the country before the bus dropped him off at Southern California. Mayo played three years of high school ball in Ohio before coming home to his hometown of Huntington, WV for his senior year.
Here is the RIIL's stand on transfers:
1). If a student transfers from one secondary school to another without a corresponding change of address, the student shall be ineligible for 50 percent of the total league schedule. If the total number of league games is an odd number, it will be rounded up to the next higher number. In addition, he/she may not participate in non-league games during the period of ineligibility. 
2). A student who transfers and enrollment without a corresponding change of residence may be declared immediately eligible provided the student has not participated on a varsity level.
3). A student shall become immediately eligible provided there is a corresponding move into a new district by his/her parent(s).
According to RIIL director Tom Mezzanotte, there's a perfectly logical explanation why the above course of action is taken on their end.
"The whole basis is that we hope kids don't transfer for only athletic reasons," he explained. "I was involved with the committee when the rule was changed around seven or eight years ago and we felt this [policy] worked best."
But what if the transfer isn't solely motivated by athletics? There are parental concerns and academic matters that could just easily play a hand, the latter of which Avery King provides a perfect case study for.
King played basketball the past two years at Tolman High, all while enrolling at The Met School in Providence, which features a pass/fail grading system. King is now at St. Raphael Academy.
"He wants to go to college, so he would have a hard time getting in. That's how he ended up [at SRA]," said boys basketball coach Tom Sorrentine. "He was trying to better [his academic surroundings] by thinking ahead."
If King was a circus performer, there's no question he would struggle juggling the consequences of his decision. He may have upgraded his chances for a chance at college, but also attached is a "punishment" disclaimer that takes away basketball that must seem like an eternity.
King's compliance includes nine league games and four non-leaguers. The first game he's eligible is Jan. 25.
"I'm dying to get out there, but my time will come," said King, who has helped pass the time by keeping track of shots during Saints' games. "I knew that when I made decision that I would have to sit. The toughest part is when we go down to the locker room and talk strategy. Everyone's getting dressed and I'm sitting with a jersey on."
Academic integrity is something the RIIL has always stood firmly behind when promoting high school athletics, but what the transfer rules don't take under consideration is the side effects that pop up for both player and team.
By the time the sentence is up, an athlete is lucky if he/she gets their feet wet in a handful of games before the playoffs. That's doesn't appear much time for athlete to work his/her way into the graces of the coaching staff and earn their place. Not to mention blending in with a team that has been intact since the first day of practice.
"Avery practices hard every day, but he's still going to have to earn his spot on the floor," said Sorrentine.
Alex Butler, East Providence's boys' basketball coach, knows he's in a fortunate spot. Butler welcomed two out-of-towners in Abe Daramola, who played two years at Tolman High before moving over the summer. The other is Jonathan Robinson, who arrived to the Ocean State via Indiana.
Both Townies, because of legitimate address changes, were able to play right away. Thus Butler avoided the unenviable task of trying to find roles with the clock winding down on the regular season.
While Daramola and Robinson checked out all right, you have to wonder the rationale behind the Trinity Hull situation. We don't know how all the particulars regarding how the situation was handled behind closed doors, but on the surface, you have to wonder how a high school senior could move from one school to another, in this case Cranston East to Bay View, only to enlist back at her original school just in time for basketball season.
Hull, currently a freshman at Providence College, was green lighted to play the same time the season tipped off - even though there was a legitimate transfer on her end.
 "You just want to be fair because ideally that's what we're here for the kids," surmised Tolman girls basketball head coach Tammy Drape, she herself dealing with a transfer in sophomore Leanna Fanning, who shifted from St. Raphael and will rack up 14 DNPs before setting foot in an official game.
"I teach my team that in life there are rules and we will follow them," continued Drape. "You may not always agree with the rule, but have to learn how to respect it."
In Antone Gray's case, the 2007 SRA graduate also suffered the same fate as King and Flemming when he decided to change schools. Only difference was that the current Rhode Island College guard was transferring not from an RIIL affiliate. Gray's prior port of call was St. Andrew's in Barrington, where he was on the Varsity 'B' team. Though Gray was completely new to the RIIL, he was still saddled with the sit-half-the-league-season order.
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SO WHAT FITS the criteria as being, quote-on-quote, fair? A reasonable target date could be two weeks after the first game of the season, regardless of the sport. That would give the athlete the opportunity to jump into the mix without scarifying a huge chunk of the slate.
The bottom line, is equal and fair mediation too much to ask? After all, high school athletes are the reason why there's a Rhode Island Interscholastic League in place.