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The grass isn’t always greener on the other side, or on the other side of the other side.

Two boys basketball players who would have been counted among Orange County’s better returnees this season are transferring to what will be their third high schools.

Tyler Burch has left Westminster. He is in the process of enrolling at Cantwell Sacred Heart of Montebello for his senior year, according to his grandfather. Burch, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard, was at Ocean View his freshman and sophomore years.

Jayce Johnson has left JSerra and enrolled at Findlay Prep of Henderson, Nev., for his junior year. Johnson, a 6-11 center-forward, spent his freshman year at Mater Dei before transferring to JSerra.

Rules of the CIF-Southern Section, the governing body for high school sports in much of Southern California, require Burch to change residences to become athletically eligible immediately. He would have to sit out the first month of the season if he does not move.

Burch averaged 27 points a game as the Lions went 10-0 in the Golden West League, then were eliminated in the first round of the CIF-SS Division 2AA playoffs. He has been an excellent outside shooter since his freshman year and became a better all-around scorer his junior year.

Having to sit out games in December because he did not change residences, Burch played in 13 games and scored 350 points. That is the same total scored by teammate Daniel Thomsen, but it was Thomsen who was the Westminster player who shared league MVP honors with Isaiah Merrill of second-place Loara.

Unhappy at Westminster, Burch considered JSerra and Orangewood Academy before choosing Cantwell.

Cantwell went 23-9 last season and advanced to the semifinals of the CIF Southern California Regionals in Division 4.

Johnson averaged 10 points and nine rebounds at JSerra. He played only 17 games because he, too, had to observe the one month sit-out period. Johnson is a terrific rebounder and, unlike many young post players, enjoys body contact around the hoop.

Johnson and another potential Mater Dei starter, Mario Soto, departed Mater Dei early in the 2013-14 school year. Whatever their reasons, it had become obvious to anyone familiar with Mater Dei basketball that Stanley Johnson would be offensive option Nos. 1, 1A, 1B and 1C for the Monarchs.

JSerra won the CIF-SS Division 4AA championship last season. Findlay Prep is annually high in national rankings and has seven former players in the NBA.

Some high school athletes transfer for great reasons. Many transfer because they and their parents – especially the parents – are convinced that a different school means better college scholarship opportunities. College coaches, though, question if an oft-transferred kid can be counted upon to be a team-first athlete.

There is no memory of a great pro athlete saying, when asked for the key to success, “It’s all because I transferred from high school to high school every year.”

Maybe somebody who transferred a lot gets invited to multiple reunions. Sounds fun, although nobody will know you.

Transfer rules are fairly loose and that’s OK because kids and their parents should be able to easily exercise their right to change their minds.

But it should be kept in mind that it is a small percentage of high school athletes, transfers or not, who make it to the pros. It’s a larger percentage of them who later wish they had stayed with their friends for four years.

Taking a look around Orange County high school sports:

• Mater Dei is No. 18 and Servite is No. 19 in USA Today’s preseason football national rankings. USA Today has St. John Bosco at No. 2. Bishop Gorman of Las Vegas, which plays Servite tonight at Cerritos College, is No. 1.

• CalHiSports.com’s preseason state top 50 has all six Trinity League schools in it and two South Coast League teams. St. John Bosco of the Trinity League is No. 1. Other Trinity teams in the preseason state rankings are No. 3 Servite, No. 4 Mater Dei, No. 26 JSerra, No. 45 Santa Margarita and No. 48 Orange Lutheran.

The South Coast League’s Mission Viejo is No. 20 and Tesoro is No. 29 in the state top 50.

• Prime Ticket will televise live coverage of tonight’s Servite-Bishop Gorman game. Fox Sports West, Prime Ticket and Fox Sports’ online Prep Zone will carry coverage of 85 Southern California high school football games. Today’s schedule includes live streaming at Prep Zone of Trabuco Hills’ home game against Rancho Cucamonga and Santa Margarita’s home game against Bishop Amat of La Puente.

• Mission Viejo’s football team has three intriguing games in the first three weeks of the season. The Diablos play Liberty of Bakersfield tonight in the first part of the two-day Mission Classic, which includes Mater Dei vs. Centennial of Corona on Saturday. The Diablos also play host to La Habra in the Mission for the Armed Forces game Sept. 12.

• St. John Bosco star lineman Matt Katnik is part of the Katnik clan that had a few football standouts at Foothill and USC.

Paul Westphal, who has broadcast all sorts of county sports for Cox3, Time Warner Cable and others, is part of the Fox Sports West Prep Zone team. He knows county football as well as anyone and should be on Prep Zone coverage here, but the group has him working the northern fringes of the Southern Section.

• St. Michael’s Prep is the only county school with an 8-man football program. St. Michael’s Prep, an all-boys boarding school in Silverado, plays in the Express League with Avalon, La Verne Lutheran, Pacific Lutheran of Gardena and Rolling Hills Prep of San Pedro.

• Orange Lutheran’s new athletic facilities include what the school said is the largest high school weight room south of Fresno and a film room that seats 125 in large, padded red chairs with a large white “L” logo on each of them. Every Lutheran team has its own team room. Lutheran has five full-time members of its athletics training staff. Three are physical trainers, the other two performance-maximizing personnel.

• The Anaheim Ducks High School Hockey League will have five divisions with the addition of 13 teams for the 2014-15 season. County schools in the top division, Varsity Division 1, are Edison, JSerra, Orange Lutheran, Santa Margarita and Servite.

• The Sage Hill girls volleyball team beat Edison in the finals of the Kamehameha Maui Volleyball Invitational Tournament earlier this month.

• Follow me at twitter.com/stevefryer for updates on high school football on game nights.

Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com