Three days at different campus gives transfer player new insight

Athlete finds the 'grass isn’t always greener,' a takeaway that helped mold him into captain.

- BY ERIC SONDHEIMER

STARTING LINEMAN Harout Agazaryan returned to Chaminade after finding Burbank not to be a good fit.

ERIC SONDHEIMER Los Angeles Times

There were more than 17,000 high school sports transfers recorded last school year in California, and one of the most bizarre involved Chaminade offensive lineman Harout Agazaryan.

On a Monday in January, he checked out of Chaminade. On Tuesday, he began classes and football practice at Burbank High. By Tuesday afternoon, when his mother picked him up after football practice, he told her, “I don’t think it’s the right place for me.”

“You're probably right,” she said. “How do you feel? Do you want to go back to Chaminade?”

“Yes,” he said.

On Wednesday morning at Starbucks, he met with Chaminade football coach David Machuca and asked to return.

By Thursday, he was back at Chaminade in the same classes. He felt awkward, but his teachers joked, “You missed me already?”