Estimated read time: 7-8 minutes
- A high school football player from Australia has filed a lawsuit against the Utah High School Activities Association claiming a new rule discriminates against students with F-1 visas by restricting their participation in varsity sports.
- The rule was unanimously ratified by the association's board amid allegations of student-athlete recruiting, despite opposition from private schools.
- The student is seeking to play the final games of his senior season.
DRAPER — Every week, Katie Tuckerman answered a phone call in her Melbourne home from her teenage son, living halfway around the world in Utah, that broke her heart.
"Every Monday morning, (my son) wakes up and he thinks, 'This might be my week,'" she said, choking back emotion as she described why her 18-year-old son agreed to be the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed Monday that alleges a new Utah high school rule placing restrictions on some foreign student-athletes is discriminatory. "'This might be my week that I could play again.' And we've had to deal with that from home. … It's not been easy."
She said it wasn't easy to let her son leave home at 17, but Zac Szymakowski grew up dreaming of playing American football at a high school or college in the U.S., thanks to a childhood spent watching Chicago Bears games with his dad. So when he found Juan Diego Catholic High School, he persuaded his parents that it was the perfect place to chase all of his dreams — academic, spiritual and athletic.
But in the spring Jerry Szymakowski said they learned the Utah High School Activities Association passed a new rule that bars students with F-1 visas from playing varsity sports. He said when they realized that meant his son couldn't play varsity sports, they were "gutted."
Zac Szymakowski had a long list of nonathletic reasons for returning to Juan Diego for his senior year, but he also knew school officials were planning to file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the rule. So every week, he called his parents to tell them he'd spend another week on the sidelines, supporting his teammates but not with his punting abilities.
On Monday, David Jordan filed a lawsuit on behalf of Szymakowski, and possibly other students in his situation, asking a federal judge to strike the law down.
Szymakowski is a senior at Juan Diego and came to Utah on an F-1 visa at the beginning of the 2023 school year. Most foreign students attending U.S. high schools and colleges use two types of visas — F1 and J-1. There are major differences between the two types of visas, and when it comes to high school sports, it has led to restrictions and controversies.
Students attending U.S. high schools on a J-1 visa generally come through a "cultural exchange" program, pay money to a program or accredited agency, have no ability to select host families, usually can't choose which school they attend and are restricted to attending school for a specific amount of time, usually one school year.
Students attending high school on the F-1 visa can come to a school on their own or through an agency, can choose their schools, can choose host families and often are required to pay host families, pay tuition directly to the school (have to provide proof before acceptance that they have the money), and can attend a school until graduation.
Many private schools have robust foreign student populations, and the advantage of F-1 visas is that students can attend for multiple years.
That aspect of the rule is what caused concern after a KSL investigation last winter revealed that some student-athletes said they were recruited to play basketball through both foreign and local club basketball programs. One student provided the association and KSL with a letter congratulating them on earning a "full-ride" scholarship to Juan Diego, and an immigration document that showed him paying $5,000 in tuition (much lower than normal for a foreign or domestic student), and the student, his family and his host family denied that he paid any tuition or other costs.
The association opened its own investigation, which extended to several other private schools, and in April, a subcommittee recommended this rule change to address what it said is a growing problem. Leaders from private schools, including Juan Diego, attended the hearings and suggested a number of compromises. Instead, the association's board of trustees voted unanimously to ratify the change.
Because it was a change to the organization's by-laws, it had to be ratified by 90 percent of the group's 159 member schools. Only private schools voted against the rule change. Association attorney Mark Van Wagoner said the investigation is ongoing and he said he expects there will eventually be hearings regarding the allegations of recruiting.
Szymakowski said it was "tough" learning he wouldn't be able to play varsity football.
"I was already here and situated," he said in an interview Tuesday. "I'm a (student body officer), I've already picked my classes, I'd passed three of my four AP (classes). ... I'm already part of the community. But then, just that being taken away, it hurt. … It was just kind of ripped away."
Jordan argues that the discrimination "is between F-1 visa students and other Utah high school students." He said such students are attending Utah schools "at the invitation of the United States of America … and they shouldn't be treated differently than anyone else."
"This is not the first case of its kind," Jordan told KSL. "Other cases in other jurisdictions where similar agencies to the Utah High School Activities Association sought to put in place rules that restrict foreign students' participation in sports, and the courts have uniformly stuck those down. We'll be arguing the same thing should happen here."
Van Wagoner said Tuesday he had just received the lawsuit Monday night and needed time to review it with the association. He said the request for a preliminary injunction is problematic.
"One of the filings asks the court to severely shorten the time for the defendants to respond to these charges," he said. "Plaintiff wants to be on the varsity squad. The rule was publicly changed months ago. On Aug. 16, 2024, in the first football game of the season, when Juan Diego chose not to play him in the varsity game, he knew the effect of the rule."
Szymakowski played on the school's varsity football team last year as a punter, but the restrictions of the new rule didn't allow him to play on the varsity team this season.
Jordan filed several motions with the lawsuit, one of which asks a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction that would allow Szymakowski to play immediately, saying that he'll suffer "irreparable harm" without immediate relief.
If granted, it means Szymakowski could play in the school's final two regular season games. Juan Diego plays in the 3A division, and last year the team made the playoffs but lost in the first round.
Szymakowski's parents flew to Utah for three weeks hoping to get to see their son play a game or two.
"For him to be able to run out there, particularly on senior night, with the guys, and contribute on the field … that would be making the best of a bad situation," Jerry Szymakowski said.
"The UHSAA's rule is discriminatory on its face and should be struck down," Jordan said in a motion filed with the lawsuit. "Under the rule, Utah high schools face a choice — they must either discriminate against students with F-1 visas by prohibiting them from playing any varsity sport or forfeit the opportunity for the school's team to have any postseason (playoff) play and the opportunity to compete for state championships. In other words, if a school refuses to discriminate against some of its students and simply allows F-1 students to compete for (a) place on a varsity team like any other student, the school is blacklisted and cannot play for state championships."
Szymakowski is a member of the team, but "he is precluded from participating in official competitive play," according to the lawsuit. "But for the UHSAA's unlawful rule … Zack would be playing for Juan Diego's varsity football team during this current and ongoing fall 2024 season."
The lawsuit asserts the new rule "bans" F-1 visa holders from playing high school sports at Utah schools. But the association said it enacted restrictions, not a ban.
The rule says students attending schools on an F-1 visa will not be eligible to play varsity sports unless one of two things happens — a school can opt to go independent, which means it would no longer be a member of the Utah High School Activities Association (and not eligible for postseason play), or a school can play F-1 athletes on a varsity team but be ineligible for postseason play and are barred from winning a championship.
