FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 15, 2003


Assembly approves mandatory online eligibility filing effective July 2004

GAINESVILLE – On June 30, 2004 paper eligibility will cease to exist. The Sixth Representative Assembly today unanimously approved a proposal requiring schools to file the annual eligibility report on each prospective student-athlete through iFHSAA, the Association's interactive online database system.

In an interim step toward mandatory electronic filing, the Assembly also approved a proposal calling for the Association's governance elections to be conducted entirely online through iFHSAA, effective next school year.

"Seventy-five percent of our member schools already utilize iFHSAA," said Commissioner Robert W. Hughes. "This move is the next step toward a largely paperless interaction between member schools and the FHSAA Office, greatly helping to reduce expenses for both our member schools and the Association through printing and shipping costs."

In other action, the Assembly rejected three proposals that would have eased the sports-per-season requirement, thereby alleviating many small schools' struggles to add sports programs at a time of budget shortfalls.

The Commissioner's proposal would have required schools to sponsor a varsity program in a minimum of four sanctioned sports, at least two of which must be team sports, in order to be eligible for FHSAA state series competition in any sport. The current policy requires schools to sponsor a varsity program in a minimum of two sanctioned sports – at least one team sport – in each of the three sports seasons. As part of the failed proposal, the total sports programs a school must sponsor overall would have decreased from six to four, while the requirement as to the seasons in which these programs must be conducted would have been eliminated.

The Assembly also took action on nine other proposals with the following results:

• Adopted a proposal to stipulate that the Board of Directors' appointment to fill a vacant seat on the Board, Representative Assembly and Sectional Appeals Committees shall be for the duration of the unexpired term rather than until the next regularly scheduled election of the Association.

• Defeated a proposal to require eligible schools to sponsor a program at any level in a minimum of three sanctioned sports during the school year, rather than a varsity program in a minimum of two sanctioned sports per sports season.

• Defeated a proposal to stipulate that the required two sports per sports season may be either in team sports or individual sports, provided the individual sports team consists of the prescribed number of participants necessary to participate as a team in the given sport.

• Defeated a proposal to require the Association to reclassify a school that has won two consecutive state championships to the next higher classification level for the next classification period.

• Defeated a proposal to exempt from its provisions a student who has completed the highest possible grade at the school attended the previous year or is enrolling at the earliest possible grade at the school to which they have transferred.

• Defeated a proposal to insert that the offending student is ineligble only in the sport in which the contact with the affiliated team occurre and that any such contact that occurred 365 days prior to enrollment in the affiliated school will not be considered prima facie evidence of the violation. The proposal would have deleted reference to "any other person affiliated with" a school as an individual whose organizing or coaching of a team makes it school-affiliated.

• Defeated a proposal to state that students entering the sixth grade for the first time are eligible in the schools in which they first enroll or make themselves candidates for athletic teams by engaging in practice prior to enrollment and to exempt such students from the provisions of Article 11.4.12 of the FHSAA Bylaws.

• Defeated a proposal to prohibit the appeal of any ruling of ineligibility based on the age limit.

• Defeated a proposal to clarify the Commissioner's authority to invoke one or more, or any combination of, the prescribed penalties for rules violations, as well as to permit the Commissioner also to invoke other penalties not prescribed that he or she may find reasonable and appropriate under the circumstances.

The Florida High School Activities Association is the governing body for interscholastic athletic competition in Florida. It has a membership of 668 middle and senior high schools.

The FHSAA Representative Assembly is the legislative authority of the Association. It meets annually to consider proposals to amend the Association’s bylaws, which are submitted by member school representatives, advisory committees, the Board of Directors and the Commissioner. The first day of each year’s meeting is a public hearing at which any individual may address the Assembly in favor of or in opposition to any proposal before it for consideration. The second day of the meeting is reserved for deliberation and voting by delegates.

The 2003 Assembly was comprised of 61 elected and appointed delegates representing member schools, district superintendents, district school boards and the Department of Education. Forty-eight of the delegates were present and participated in the voting process.

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