However, Bingham wants to play soccer, and because Maeser will not have sports teams, Bingham wants to play for Lone Peak High, his traditional boundary school.

Senior-to-be Kailin Tripp is in a similar situation. She likes the academic challenges that Maeser is promising, but wants to be on Lone Peak's swim team. Steven Hair wants to attend Maeser, but play football, basketball and soccer for Orem High, if he can make those teams.

But the Alpine School District has allegedly told Bingham, Tripp, Hair and several others that they can't do it.

"They've said that if I want to play for Lone Peak, I have to go to Lone Peak," Bingham said.

The students' cases were presented to the state Legislature's Administrative Rules Review Committee on Monday as members of that group of lawmakers continued their look into the rules, regulations and role of the group that governs high school sports in Utah, the Utah High School Activities Association.

The explosion of charter schools, private schools and home schools the past few years, coupled with the way traditional schools have changed, has meant increased scrutiny of the UHSAA and its methods of granting athletic eligibility to the roughly 50,000 students who play high school sports in Utah.

"I think that past history and experience has shown that there are some students in our state who are having frustrations in being able to participate in extracurricular activities," said Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Lehi. "Time and again the [UHSAA] has bubbled up through the discussions and the analysis, and that's been the sticking point. It is a curious organization."

The irony that surfaced Monday is that the UHSAA believes potential Maeser students should be eligible to play because Maeser is not an athletic member of the UHSAA. Mark Van Wagoner, attorney for the UHSAA, said his impression without knowing all the particulars is that the students would be classified as home-schooled students, who can play at their boundary schools if they meet certain academic requirements.

Alpine Superintendent Vern Henshaw did not respond to phone calls seeking comment. Rob Smith, assistant superintendent of business services, said the district has believed it is following UHSAA policy in regards to its "co-op rule." That rule says that when a given sport is not available at a student's high school of eligibility, the student may become eligible for that specific sport at another high school "provided the student transfers to the desired school and gains full-time status at the new school."

Van Wagoner said the district might not know that Maeser is not a member of the UHSAA and therefore the co-op rule would not apply to its students.

Said Robert Baker, Maeser's chairman of the board: "The whole culture [at Alpine School District] seems to be anti-charter school, and the level of inconsistency [in applying the correct rules] among school districts that belong to the UHSAA is ludicrous. It is absolutely childish and it is territorial and it needs to be stopped."

drew@sltrib.com