LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A Las Vegas teenager who has spent nearly his entire life chasing a dream of playing Division I baseball says a newly enforced eligibility rule is costing him his senior season.
His father, a well-known valley baseball coach, tells me dozens of student-athletes across Clark County could be affected in all sports.
I sat down with them to ask about why:
"I've been playing baseball since I was in T-ball, like 3 years old, so it's always been my dream to play in the major leagues," Cannon Sheff told me.
Now, that dream — and his path to Division I baseball — is filled with uncertainty. Sheff tells me he repeated his eighth grade year through homeschooling, which now has the district counting him as a fifth-year senior — a violation of the state's eligibility rules.
"I want to be a college baseball player and get NIL [Name, Image, and Likeness] money, and that's kind of, like, not helping it at all," Sheff said.
His father, Chris Sheff, agrees a lot is at stake for Cannon and players in all Nevada high school sports.
"It affects scholarship; it affects NIL; it affects a lot of things," Chris said.
Chris Sheff is well-known in youth and high school baseball in Southern Nevada, coaching some of the valley's top baseball talent for more than two decades.
He tells me holding Cannon back in school wasn't about creating an athletic advantage, it was about giving his son another year to mature academically and as a player — a decision he had already made successfully with his older son, Cooper, who now plays Division I baseball.
Sheff says it was a no-brainer for Cannon to follow that path, and it's a decision that many high-level athletes and their families make.
"People had homeschooled and held their kids back, and no one was told that these rules were coming down, so all of a sudden, it's you know, slash, you're ineligible; you lose a year. So, there's a lot of quality kids in town that are being penalized," Sheff said.
Coach Sheff believes these athletes are losing their biggest year for college recruiting.
"You start your clock on the NCAA after your 19th birthday, when you step on campus," Sheff said. "So he fit everything, fits the criteria of moving on to the NCAA, and here we go; we're still losing a year, for some reason."
I asked the Clark County School District about this issue. Associate superintendent for Education Services, Kevin McPartlin, told me in a statement that there are no CCSD or Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association regulations regarding "redshirting."
As outlined in CCSD Regulation 5111, student grade placement upon enrollment is determined by age, regardless of whether the student is participating in athletics. McPartline said this ensures a consistent, standardized process for all students. But for Cannon, losing his senior year of playing baseball could hinder a dream he's been chasing for most of his life.
"I also have some friends at private schools that are, I have some kids that are older than me playing as a freshman, so it doesn't really make sense," Cannon said.
The Sheff family also questioned the application of the rule, telling me they have reason to believe it's not being applied at private or charter schools in the valley. They said they hope CCSD will reconsider.
