Former Duncanville girls basketball players Kaylinn Kemp and Kenidi Glover were ruled ineligible for transferring to Lancaster for athletic purposes, two people with knowledge of the situation told The Dallas Morning News on Thursday.
The 11-6A district executive committee met Wednesday and made the ruling on Kemp and Glover after they were among four Lancaster transfers who began last season at Class 6A state champion Duncanville. Former Duncanville coach LaJeanna Howard was announced as Lancaster’s new head coach in June.
Kemp was a second-team all-area selection in 2023, when she averaged a team-high 14.8 points for Duncanville, and she was a key player for last season’s state championship team and started in Duncanville’s 59-41 win over South Grand Prairie in the Class 6A state title game. Glover began last season at Duncanville before leaving to go to Legion Prep Academy.
Howard won state titles at Duncanville as a player (2003), assistant coach (2016) and head coach (2020), but she was suspended for the 2022-23 season by the UIL, which also banned Duncanville from the playoffs that season because of a rules violation. Her last time coaching there was the 2021-22 season, when Kemp and Glover were both on Duncanville’s varsity.
The University Interscholastic League prohibits students from transferring for athletic purposes. Transfers have become a hot-button issue, as the UIL said this summer that as many as 15,000 athletes could transfer to Texas high schools this school year, either changing schools within the state or moving in from out of state.
Kemp and Glover can appeal the DEC’s decision to the UIL’s state executive committee. But last school year, the SEC denied 38 of the 45 appeals (84%) that were brought to the UIL.
Six players in all transferred to Lancaster, coaches at the girls’ previous schools told The Dallas Morning News in August. Other transfers who used to be at Duncanville and are now at Lancaster are Makenzie White and T’Anna Saddler. Saddler left Duncanville to attend Lincoln, and White came off the bench for Duncanville in the state championship game as the program won its 12th state title, third-most in UIL history.
The other two transfers to Lancaster are Monique Phoenix, a second-team all-district selection from North Crowley, and Jalynn Staten from Lincoln. Saddler and Staten helped Lancaster reach the Class 4A state semifinals last season.
Lancaster is the second Dallas-area girls basketball program to come under scrutiny this offseason because of transfers. UIL charter school Oak Cliff Faith Family added 13 transfers after hiring four-time state champion Andrea Robinson as its head coach, according to the 13-5A DEC, and Faith Family as a school, Robinson and assistant coaches Kadi Creel and Jordan Jones were found guilty by the DEC of recruiting violations, a lack of transparency and withholding information regarding the transfers.
The UIL’s state executive committee will meet next Wednesday to determine punishments for the school and the coaches. That is two days before UIL girls basketball teams can begin playing games.
A DEC hearing has not been scheduled yet to determine the varsity eligibility of the Faith Family transfers.
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