FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 26, 2004
Board okays commissioner job ad, approves regionals for swimming & diving
GAINESVILLE – The Florida High School Athletic Association Board of Directors today approved the job description and advertisement for the hiring of its next commissioner. Current Commissioner Robert W. Hughes is slated to retire Jan. 15, 2005.
The commissioner search committee will review applications and recommend a list of finalists at the Board's Mar. 29th meeting. The Board will conduct interviews and select Hughes' successor at its June meeting at the Wyndham Westshore Hotel in Tampa. The commissioner-designate will join the staff on Aug. 1 and have a few months to work with Hughes in facilitating a smooth transition.
"The Board has taken a very professional approach in developing a job description and advertisement that will meet a realistic timeline for selecting a new commissioner and providing for a smooth transition," said Hughes. "It represents good planning."
The Board of Directors also approved modifying the FHSAA State Swimming & Diving Series to include a regional meet, modeled on the concept used in track & field. In each classification, the top four qualifiers in each event from each of the four regional meets will advance to the FHSAA Finals state meet – a total of 16 qualifiers per event. At the FHSAA Finals, the prelims will consist of two heats of eight competitors, and the finals will feature the top eight swimmers in each event.
In other action, the Board of Directors:
• Approved a recommendation to direct staff to develop a draft policy to address situations in football in which a contracted game is not played because one of the two schools does not field a team.
• Approved a recommendation to establish the Friday of Week 13 as the deadline for the submission of invitations to serve as hosts for regional golf tournaments. If no invitations are received in a particular region by the deadline, then the district team and individual champions only will advance from the districts comprising the regional complex to the FHSAA Finals.
• Approved a recommendation to reschedule FHSAA State Girls Volleyball Series contests as follows: move district tournament from Week 17 to Week 16; play regional quarterfinal matches on Thursday of Week 17; play regional semifinal matches on Tuesday of Week 18; and play regional final matches at 2 p.m. on Saturday of Week 18. The FHSAA Finals will remain on Week 19.
• Approved a recommendation to reduce the length of the girls volleyball pre-match warm-up period from 25 to 15 minutes.
• Approved the following meeting dates for the 2004-05 school year: Board of Directors, Sept. 26-27, 2004, Nov. 21-22, 2004, Jan. 30-31, 2005, April 2-3, 2005, and June 16-17, 2005;Sectional Appeal Committees, Aug. 18-20, 2004, Sept. 1-3, 2004, Oct. 6-8, 2004, Nov. 3-5, 2004, Dec. 1-3, 2004, Jan. 5-7, 2005, Feb. 2-4, 2005, March 2-4, 2005, and April 6-8, 2005; Representative Assembly, April 11-12, 2005.
• Resolved a tie vote for the Division 10 public school delegate seat on the Representative Assembly in favor of Wilson Edwards, athletic director at Palatka High School.
• Authorized use of a quasi-electronic-paper system for the 2004 FHSAA general election whereby declarations of candidacy and ballots are posted on FHSAA.org for member school representatives to download, print out, complete and fax or mail to the FHSAA office.
• Heard a presentation on emerging sports. Bowling and girls weightlifting began their initial seasons of state series competition this school year. Schools participating in girls and boys water polo will be surveyed on their interest in an invitational state series for the 2004-05 school year. Proposed terms and conditions for the tournament could be presented at the March meeting of the Board of Directors.
The Florida High School Athletic Association is the governing body for interscholastic athletic competition in Florida. It has a membership of 700 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 the 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 Mar. 28-29, 2004 at the FHSAA headquarters in Gainesville.
Contact:
Jack Watford
Director of Communications, FHSAA
(352) 372-9551 ext. 170
jwatford@fhsaa.org
