That's what we've had in Rapides Parish for a couple of years now. Every child in the parish, athlete or not, can declare an intent to attend a school outside of his/her attendance zone during the spring of the child's eighth grade year. The caveat is that bus service is only given within the district, so all students outside of the zone must provide their own transportation. Once the freshman eligibility is established, a student cannot transfer without sitting out a year (or getting a special waiver, which is very hard to get). So far, it's actually worked pretty well.