FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 5, 2001


FHSAA Board of Directors adopts new classification plan for baseball, basketball, softball, volleyball state series

GAINESVILLE – The Board of Directors of the Florida High School Activities Association today voted to implement a new method of classifying member senior high schools in team sports for FHSAA State Series competition that will ensure consistency in each school's classification and district assignments.

Under the new plan proposed by Commissioner Robert W. Hughes, all 561 member senior high schools will be assigned to six basic classifications for the sports of baseball, girls basketball, boys basketball, softball and girls volleyball. Classes 6A, 5A, 4A, 3A and 2A will be comprised of the 400 largest schools (80 schools in each classification). All remaining schools (161) will be assigned to Class A. Schools will be assigned to basic districts in each classification, and the schools who are members of those districts will not change from sport to sport.

Similarly, all 561 member senior high schools will be assigned to four basic classifications for the sports of girls soccer and boys soccer. Classes 4A, 3A and 2A will be comprised of 96 schools each, with all remaining schools being assigned to Class A. Again, schools will be assigned to basic districts in each classification, and the schools who are members of those districts will not change between the two sports. Fall soccer will continue to have one classification. The number of districts, however, will be reduced from 16 to eight in that single classification.

All classification and district assignments will be for a two-year period – the 2001-02 and 2002-03 school years. Schools will have an opportunity to submit a request for a change in their basic district assignments. Under no circumstances, however, will a school's classification be changed.

The new plan is a dramatic departure from current practice in which each sport is classified separately and on an annual basis.

"In traveling around the state and meeting with athletic directors and coaches groups, I repeatedly was asked to consider recommending a classification policy that would ensure consistency in the classification and district assignments for team sports," said Hughes. "No one questioned that the way we have been classifying schools is probably the most fair from sport to sport. There, however, was a big price to pay for that fairness."

Hughes added, "Schools found themselves in different classifications and districts in each sport and, in some cases, found themselves in different classifications and districts in similar sports such as girls basketball and boys basketball. It made for difficult scheduling. More importantly, it made it impossible to develop any rivalries with district opponents because they weren't the same in all sports."

The classification plan for individual sports will be presented at the Board of Director's March meeting.

In other business, the Board of Directors:

• Approved the purchase of three acres of land adjacent to Interstate 75 in Gainesville on which to construct a new office building, as well as the sale of the existing downtown office building for $1.5 million. The new building will be constructed solely using proceeds of the sale of the existing building. Said Hughes, "The Association will not incur any debt and the member schools will not be asked to pay any additional fees to help cover the costs of this project."

• Adopted a new procedure proposed by Board member Sonny Hester of Jesuit High School (Tampa) for scheduling mandatory district contests and planning district tournaments in those sports. The FHSAA Office will set dates on which district tournament planning & scheduling meetings will be conducted. The FHSAA representative and/or athletic director of each school in the district will be required to attend each of these meetings, schedule mandatory district contests and make arrangements for the district tournaments. Districts spread across a large geographic area, by permission of the Commissioner, will be permitted to conduct these meetings via conference call. Schools that are not represented at these meetings will be assessed a $100 penalty.

• Referred to the sports advisory committees the Commissioner's recommendation that the girls soccer season begin and end one week earlier so that the FHSAA Florida Girls Soccer Finals are not held on the same weekend as the state finals in boys soccer and wrestling. The season will remain unchanged for the 2000-01 and 2002-03 school years. Said Hughes, "Scheduling the girls and boys state finals on the same weekend made sense when we were playing the tournaments together at the same site. That's not the case anymore. Consequently, if a school is fortunate enough to qualify both its girls and boys teams to the soccer finals, its supporters will have to make a choice as to which team they will follow. And what if a brother and sister play on the soccer teams? Their parents will have a really tough decision to make. Also, I really think that it is important that we do everything we can to maximize media coverage of our state finals events. Currently, we have three state finals on the same weekend. Therefore, the media must choose which of the events they are going to staff. In a lot of cases, it’s the girls who get shorted. Hopefully, the advisory committees will see our concerns and support our recommendation."

• Appointed the following member school representatives to fill vacant delegate seats on the 2001 FHSAA Representative Assembly, which meets April 9-10 in Gainesville: Cheri Landry, Hamilton County (Jasper); Mike Gates, Roulhac Middle (Chipley); Charles Hall, Gainesville; Mike Blasewitz, Edgewater (Orlando); Joshua Eggold, St. John Lutheran (Ocala); Jack Cole, Mount Dora Bible; Wayne Shimko, Lakeland Christian; Heather Siler-Dobbs, Osceola Middle (Okeechobee); James Colzie, South Miami; Mark Marsala, St. John Neumann (Naples); Peter Hensley, Master's Academy (Fort Lauderdale).

• Appointed the following member school representatives to serve as at-large delegates to the 2001 FHSAA Representative Assembly: Joanne Roberts, Ridgeview (Orange Park); Inez Henry, Rickards (Tallahassee); Nancy Velez, Mount Dora; Andrew Jenkins, Jones (Orlando); Bonita Holland, Rockledge; Richard Blake, Cocoa; Ellen Van Arsdale, Dwyer (Palm Beach Gardens); Tracie Lattimer, Dillard (Fort Lauderdale).

• Heard four appeals filed by member schools on behalf of students seeking reinstatement of eligibility who were initially denied relief by the Association's Sectional Appeals Committees. The Board of Directors approved the eligibility of student Krista Willard of Lake Region (Eagle Lake). Eligibility was not granted to students Jarod Zachary Ridenour of Trenton, Amare Stoudemire of West Orange (Winter Garden) and Camille L. Leach of Okeechobee.

The Florida High School Activities Association is the governing body for interscholastic athletic competition in Florida. It has a membership of 640 middle, junior and senior high schools.

The FHSAA Board of Directors is the executive authority of the Association, establishing guidelines, regulations, policies and procedures within the framework of the Association's bylaws. The Board of Directors also has sole authority over all terms and conditions of participation and competition in the FHSAA state championship series. The Board of Directors meets five times annually. Its next meeting is March 25-26 in Gainesville.

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