Sometimes Transfer Can Be Wisest Move : Prep athletes: Geoff Noisy’s mother left Garden Grove for Irvine’s opportunities. They’re comfortable with the choice. The coaches aren’t.

Santiago High School baseball Coach Ralph Draeger hated to lose him. Irvine Coach Bob Flint felt guilty for accepting him.

But Jessie Noisy wasn’t concerned about the sentiments or the sacrifices involved. She simply wanted what was best for her son Geoff.

And that meant moving her and her two sons from Garden Grove to Irvine so Geoff, a junior center fielder, could receive what she feels is a better education and play for a high-profile, winning baseball program.

For Jessie Noisy, a single mother, the transfer proved costly. She moved into a larger, more expensive home, and suddenly her 36-hour-a-week nursing job just didn’t pay the bills. So Jessie took on a second job and her workweek increased from 36 to 60 hours.

For Giovanni Noisy, Geoff’s younger brother, it meant leaving his friends so his brother could have a better opportunity at a college baseball or possibly football scholarship.

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But Jessie Noisy said she hopes that the short-term sacrifices will pay off in the long term.

“I put my kids first,” she said. “Going to Irvine means being exposed. He could get a scholarship and scouts could see him.”

Plenty of scouts saw Noisy, who is hitting .260 after a dreadful start, during the Upper Deck Classic baseball tournament, where Irvine lost in the championship game to Miami Westminster Christian, the top-ranked team in the country. Irvine, which has won 14 games and lost six, is ranked second in the county. Santiago, Noisy’s old school, is 6-12.

But Jessie Noisy insists that baseball alone did not motivate her decision to uproot her family.

“Geoff is a very bright student,” she said. “He wasn’t getting that push he needed at Santiago. I wanted him to go somewhere where he would have more of a challenge. He was coming home at night and not doing homework and still getting straight A’s.”

Geoff, 17, has continued to get good grades, but Jessie Noisy said he is working harder for them.

“Now he has several books to read, and he stays up late,” she said.

By moving to Irvine, Jessie Noisy not only challenged Geoff academically and athletically, but also challenged him culturally. Noisy moved from a ethnically mixed neighborhood to a predominantly white area.

“Geoffrey is very outgoing, and he makes friends with a lot of people,” Jessie Noisy said. “I thought because he was black, maybe there might be some racial problems. But that didn’t keep me from moving.”

Geoff said he has fit in well.

“I have friends of all colors,” he said. “People were telling me that people were racist here. But we’re all friends here.”

Giovanni, a 17-year-old sophomore who doesn’t participate in athletics, hasn’t been able to say the same thing.

“He has no friends,” Geoff said. “He doesn’t like it very much.”

Geoff said he wasn’t even sure he’d like his new baseball team.

“I had doubts,” he said. “I heard the whole team was coming back. I was scared.”

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Irvine Coach Flint said he is happy to have Noisy, who usually starts in center field. But he sympathizes with his Santiago High counterpart, Coach Draeger, who lost eight of nine starters from last year’s team.

“The social tragedy is (Santiago) needs kids like that,” Flint said. “He’s a model citizen with a 3.7 grade-point average.”

Draeger agrees. “I feel we lost more than they gained,” Draeger said. “It seems like every year we have good kids move away.”

Although Draeger understands why Noisy left Santiago, he isn’t sure it was the right move.

“At Santiago, he would have stood out,” the coach said. “He could have been player of the year here. He’d be not only that here, he’d be singing the national anthem.”

Draeger said Geoff also would have been the Santiago football team’s starting tailback next year, instead of having to compete for the position at Irvine.

“I could see what Geoff was looking at,” Draeger said. “If we’d have been 9-1 instead of 1-9, he’d probably still be here. But Santiago is a transient, bedroom community. Once people find a better opportunity, they’re gone.

“To have a parent that cares that much, I hope everything works out. If the long run proves to be a scholarship, (she) hit the nail on the head.”

Jessie Noisy is praying she did.

“A college education (for two boys),” she said, “is a lot more than I would be able to afford.”