FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 25, 2003


Wuerffel, Austin headline FHSAA Hall of Fame’s 2003 induction class

GAINESVILLE – Danny Wuerffel, who led his teams to a state championship at Fort Walton Beach High School and a national championship at the University of Florida; and Al Austin, who has recorded more victories than any other high school girls basketball coach in Florida, head the list of six individuals selected for induction this year into the Florida High School Activities Association Hall of Fame.

Joining Wuerffel and Austin in the Class of 2003 are Miami Southridge track & field coach Sammie Burley, Largo High School cross country coach Brent Haley, Pinellas County Schools athletic director Bobby Hosack, and football coaching legend Al Werneke.

This is the 12th group to be inducted into the FHSAA Hall of Fame, the state’s high school athletic hall of fame. Founded during the 1990-91 school year to recognize and preserve the heritage of high school activities in Florida, the FHSAA Hall of Fame keeps alive the tradition and spirit of high school athletics, and honors each year those persons who through distinguished achievement have excelled in one or more high school programs sponsored by the Association and its member schools. This year’s eight inductees bring to 75 the number of deserving individuals who have been enshrined in the FHSAA Hall of Fame. They include student-athletes, coaches, administrators, contest officials and other contributors, such as sports writers, who have raised the level of awareness of high school activities through their efforts, achievements and dedication. The 2003 FHSAA Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Awards Banquet will be held June 12 at the Wyndham Westshore Hotel in Tampa.

Wuerffel, 28, was a two-sport athlete at Fort Walton Beach High School from 1989 through 1991, but it was his exploits on the football field that made him a household name in Florida. A winner on every level – high school, college and pro – Wuerffel led Fort Walton Beach High School to the Class 3A state championship in 1991; the University of Florida to the 1996 national championship; and the NFL Europe’s Rhein Fire to the 2000 World Bowl championship. In 1996, he won the Heisman Trophy, the highest honor that can be bestowed on a college football player. He currently plays for the Washington Redskins in the NFL. At Fort Walton Beach, Wuerrfel completed 323 of 521 passes (a 62 percent completion rate) for 5,442 yards and 49 touchdowns against only 13 interceptions. He was 22-2 as a starting quarterback for the Vikings, including a perfect 14-0 record in his senior year. Wuerffel joins football great Emmitt Smith as the only individuals chosen for induction into the Hall of Fame on the basis of their accomplishments as student-athletes.

Austin, 63, has amassed 695 wins against just 56 losses in his 25 years as head girls basketball coach at Jacksonville’s Ribault High School. In March, his Lady Trojans won their fifth consecutive state championship – a first in Florida high school girls basketball history. Under Austin’s leadership, Ribault has made 13 appearances in the FHSAA Finals, has won a total of eight state titles and, from January 2000 through January 2003, won 101 consecutive games. In 2002, Austin was named National Coach of the Year by USA Today and Student Sports Magazine. He has been named the Florida Dairy Farmer’s State Coach of the Year four times and was inducted into the Florida Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2000.

• Sammie Burley. Burley, 53, has led Miami Southridge’s Spartans to four state girls track & field championships, including last year’s Class 4A crown. The Spartans have finished as state runners-up an additional four times under Burley’s guidance. Through the 2002 season, he had accumulated a record of 509 wins and six losses in dual team meets, and had won an additional 169 invitational meet titles, in 22 years as a head coach. Burley was named Class 4A Coach of the Year in 1998, 2000 and 2002 by the Florida Dairy Farmers Association.

• Brent Haley. Haley, 62, produced 10 state championship cross country teams at Largo High School from the 1970 through 1987 seasons. His teams finished state runners-up an additional six times. Haley also coached 12 student-athletes to individual state championships in the sports of cross country and track & field. He retired from coaching in 1987 until he was lured out of retirement in 2002 to be an assistant track & field coach at Largo. This June, he will officially retire from the Pinellas County school system, ending a 40-year career as a teacher at Largo.

• Bobby Hosack. Hosack, 62, will retire in June as Director of Student Activities for Pinellas County Schools after 19 years of overseeing the athletic programs in all high schools and middle schools in the state’s seventh largest school district. During his tenure, he has championed girls athletic programs in the county and was a leader in establishing one of the state’s first interscholastic flag football programs. This fall, the FHSAA will hold its Inaugural FHSAA Flag Football Finals state championship tournament at Clearwater High School in Pinellas County. Hosack has contributed in many ways to the FHSAA’s statewide efforts. He served as tournament manager for five FHSAA Wrestling Finals state tournaments, the now-defunct FHSAA state decathlon/heptathlon meets, and the one-time experimental FHSAA Great Eight track & field meet which brought together the individual champions from the Association’s state meets. A charter member of the Florida Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (FIAAA), Hosack was named Athletic Administrator of the Year by the organization in 1990.

• Al Werneke. Werneke, who died in 1997 at the age of 66, coached teams to back-to-back state football championships at Glades Central High School (Belle Glade) in 1971 and 1972 and at Titusville High School in 1982 and 1983. He retired from coaching in 1993 after amassing a record of 257 wins, 93 losses and five ties in 33 years as a head coach, which was fourth-best in Florida at the time. He was selected to coach in the Florida Athletic Coaches Association (FACA) North-South All-Star Game four times, and was the head coach of the winning Florida squad in the 1986 Florida-Georgia All-Star Game. Werneke was inducted into the FACA Hall of Fame in 1994.

Two separate committees comprised of active and retired administrators, coaches, officials and news media representatives evaluated the nominations of the six individuals selected for induction to the FHSAA Hall of Fame this year. A seven-member screening committee first reviewed all nominations received and determined which nominees were viable candidates for induction into the Hall of Fame. The nominations of those candidates then were forwarded to a 16-member selection committee, which rated the nomination of each candidate to determine the candidates who would be inducted.

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.

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