There were more than 17,000 high school sports transfers reported in California last school year, and one of the strangest involved Chaminade offensive lineman Harut Agazarian.
On a Monday in January he was discharged from Chaminade. He started classes and football practice at Burbank High on Tuesday. On Tuesday afternoon, when his mother picked him up after football practice, he told her, “I don’t think this is the right place for me.”
“You’re probably right,” she said. “How are you feeling? Do you want to go back to Chaminade?”
“Yes,” he said.
He met Chaminade football coach David Machuca at Starbucks Wednesday morning and asked to come back.
By Thursday, he was back at Chaminade for the same classes. He was embarrassed, but the teachers joked: “Have you missed me yet?”
It took courage to ask for a second chance and what a decision it turned out to be. Five times this season, the coach appointed Agazaryan as team captain. The 6-foot-3, 255-pound senior was a standout offensive tackle and defensive lineman.
“He was amazing,” Machuca said. “You're talking about a kid who has done a 360-degree turn. He represents what I think is important in a captain – dedication, holding people accountable. He does everything right.”
There are many lessons to be learned from Agazaryan's experience.
“The grass isn't always greener where you go,” he said. “I’ve found that there aren’t many places better than Chaminade.”
It was his parents who gave him the green light to transfer, even though they wanted him to stay.
“To be honest, I had a lot of friends at the time. [at Burbank]“They wrote to me every day. Here I was not very good at studying. I thought I needed a restart.”
He quickly realized that he was wrong. But will he have a chance to return to his old school?
One of the most important decisions he made was to talk to Machuca. to he left. Very often, students and their parents do not even tell the coach that they are leaving.
“I think you need to leave on good terms because I know teammates who left last year and didn’t talk to Coach Machuca at all,” he said. “I felt like a man, I needed to talk to him.”
This previous discussion left Machuca open to welcoming Agazarian's return as long as parameters were met.
“I actually told him as he was leaving that I was really glad we were approaching the conversation,” Machuca said.
The second chance was not missed.
“It was much better,” Agazaryan said. “When I came back, my head changed. I was a lot better, better in the classroom, better on the field. I felt like I had better control over my emotions.”
Coaches have complained that it has become more difficult to coach players these days because they know that if someone takes something the wrong way, they will immediately consider transferring to another school.
Agazarian warns, “Never burn your bridges because you never know what's going to happen. Just because something bad happens doesn't mean you should take your things off and leave. You need to build relationships with everyone on campus, then you'll truly be happy.”
