FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 20, 1999


Representative Assembly adopts 33 changes to Association's bylaws

GAINESVILLE – A proposal to create a new category of membership in the Florida High School Activities Association was one of 33 proposed changes to the Association's Bylaws which were adopted Tuesday during the annual meeting of the FHSAA Representative Assembly.

Meanwhile, a proposal to raise the Association's current maximum age for participation in interscholastic athletics from 19 years, 9 months to 20 years did not receive the two-thirds majority vote needed for passage. Also defeated was a proposal to eliminate restrictions on the composition of non-school teams which may be coached by member school coaches during the "off season", which is considered to be that time during the school year when a sport is not in season.

The Representative Assembly also approved amendments to 12 proposals submitted by Commissioner Robert W. Hughes before adopting them. The amendments were recommended by the Association's legal counsel and endorsed by Hughes.

Proposals adopted as originally submitted were 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 20, 22, 25, 26, 27, 30, 33, 34, 37, 40, 43, 44, 45 and 48.

Proposals adopted as amended were 1, 2, 16, 17, 20, 23, 24, 35, 36, 39, 42 and 47.

Proposals not adopted were 3, 7, 21, 29, 31, 32, 38, 41 and 46.

Proposals withdrawn by their sponsors were 4, 5, 9, 18, 19 and 28.

Click here to review the complete text of all proposals as adopted by the Representative Assembly.

All adopted proposals will take effect July 1.

The Representative Assembly consists of 69 delegates elected by member school representatives, district school boards and district school superintendents and has sole authority to adopt or reject proposals to amend the Association's Bylaws. The annual meeting of the body was held over two days. Monday's session consisted exclusively of a public hearing during which any individual could address the Representative Assembly regarding their position on a particular proposal. All discussions among delegates and voting took place during Tuesday's session. A total of 47 delegates were present for the voting.

The newly created "affiliate" membership will be offered to schools which have an enrollment of less than 100 students in grades 10 through 12, and which wish only to compete against full members in regular season competition. Such affiliate members will not be eligible to participate in the Association's state championship series, vote on Association matters, run for any Association office or share in any FHSAA revenue distribution plan.

"Affiliate membership will provide new opportunities to small schools who need to play some of our full members to complete a regular season schedule, but who do not have any realistic chance of being competitive on a day-to-day basis with full members," said Commissioner Hughes. "These schools now will be able to pay a minimal fee to join as affiliate members, play our full members during the regular season and still be able to play within their own small leagues of schools which may not be affiliated with the FHSAA."

Hughes continued: "It's a proposal that doesn't hurt anyone. It helps those very small schools who want to and can schedule some of our full members. Meanwhile, it doesn't compel our full members to do anything. For them, competition against an affiliate member will be strictly voluntary."

In addition to the enrollment cap, schools applying for affiliate membership will be required to state in writing to the Commissioner why they do not desire full membership in the FHSAA, and must provide a copy of the guidelines they use for determining athletic eligibility in their schools. Schools whose eligibility rules are not comparable to the FHSAA's will be denied affiliate membership.

"The main thing we will be concerned with is the maximum age of the student-athletes in those schools," Hughes said. "For obvious safety reasons, we have an age limit for student-athletes in our Association and we won't want to expose the student-athletes in our schools to opponents who are older than them.

"Likewise, while academic record may not be as important since these schools cannot compete for one of our championships, we still will expect affiliate members to hold their student-athletes to some legitimate academic expectations."

Hughes said current full members who may be eligible for affiliate membership but who already have been assigned to a classification and district in the FHSAA State Series in any sport for the 1999-2000 school year will not be permitted to convert their membership to affiliate status until the 2000-2001 school year.

Among other proposals adopted by the Representative Assembly were:

• A proposal to require all member schools and those individuals associated with them to adhere to the highest standards of sportsmanship and ethics, and to reinforce the Commissioner's authority to investigate reports of unsportsmanlike conduct and to invoke penalties against offenders when necessary.

• A proposal to allow member schools to compete against schools in other states which belong to any association responsible for governing interscholastic athletics within that state's borders. Such an association must have eligibility rules comparable to those of the FHSAA, and the state's sports seasons must be concurrent with those of the FHSAA. Currently, out-of-state schools must be members of a state association which belongs to the National Federation of State High School Associations.

• A proposal to eliminate a requirement that at least 30 percent of the Association's member senior high schools must sponsor programs in a sport before the FHSAA's Board of Directors can initiate a state championship series in that sport. The Board of Directors must adopt a policy at its June meeting to replace this requirement.

• A proposal to restrict the eligibility of students who transfer schools to follow their coach to that new school. Under this new rule, such transfers will be considered to have occurred for athletic reasons and those students will be ineligible.

The Florida High School Activities Association is the governing body for interscholastic athletics in Florida. It has a membership of 635 schools, both public and private, on the middle school, junior high school and senior high school levels.

Contact:
Jack Watford
Director of Communications, FHSAA
(352) 372-9551 ext. 170
jwatford@fhsaa.org