Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream…in another zip code

How student-athlete transfers shape sport teams

Sariya Chunawala, Reporter • March 6, 2026

Approximately one in four students at Claremont High School (CHS) are interdistrict transfers. These students are zoned to surrounding school districts, including Pomona, Bonita, and Upland, rather than Claremont Unified School District (CUSD), but apply to go to schools in Claremont. While most schools are composed of students residing in that immediate district and have strict caps on how many students can transfer in, CHS’s unique stance on district transfers makes it an inclusive and diverse environment.

Claremont High School is one of the highest-ranked schools in the area in terms of academics. However, numerous students choose CHS for its sports programs instead. For example CHS cross country is considered a “powerhouse” team, consistently placing high in the state and even nationally, with multiple California Interscholastic Foundation (CIF) wins to its name. Track and Field, which features many of those cross country runners with the additions of other athletes, set school records and sent a record breaking seven athletes to state last year. Soccer, volleyball, water polo, tennis and golf are also noteworthy in CHS history.

For all these successes, athletes who want to improve their game and find teams that are the right fit for them often transfer to CHS.

On the other hand, there are students zoned to CUSD who make the decision to transfer to other districts. A former district transfer, now a university student, cited reasons like balance for the decision. For his privacy, he wishes to stay anonymous.

“I made the decision to transfer because I wanted to find a balance of happiness and competition for myself,” he said. “I wanted to pursue sports, but not have it take over my whole life. That being said, I did also want to put myself in the best position possible to succeed. It ended up working out in my favor after a lot of struggle. The process was pretty difficult since the transfer rules can get complex, but I ended up figuring it out with the help of my family and coaches. Transferring is not for everyone, but I do think it’s a great option.”

Donate to The Wolfpacket

$270

$500

Contributed

Our Goal

Hello there! Our goal is to provide relavent, engaging journalism for readers of all ages. Your donation will support the student journalists of the Wolfpacket at Claremont High School, and will allow us to purchase equipment, print our monthly issues, and enter in journalism competitions. We appreciate your consideration!

About the Contributor

Sariya Chunawala, Reporter

Sariya Chunawala is a freshman at Claremont High School and a first-year Reporter for the Wolfpacket. She joined the Wolfpacket because of her love of all kinds of writing and desire to contribute to the field of journalism. She’s planning on writing valuable articles and pitching ideas that will make the Wolfpacket a newspaper that everyone will want to read! When she’s not in school or writing for the Wolfpacket, you can almost always find her with her nose behind a book, at Speech and Debate tournaments, sailing at the Marina del Ray, listening to a variety of music, crashing out about her Wolfpacket computer, or being an unpaid babysitter. She would like to give a special shoutout to Marjorie Barndt, her unofficial Speech and Debate Coach and fellow Reporter!