FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 25, 2005
Swimming & diving finals pushed back 2 weeks
Fall soccer finals delayed yet again; plans for other fall sports playoffs hinge on when schools impacted by Wilma will reopen
GAINESVILLE – The 2005 FHSAA Swimming & Diving Finals state championship meet, originally scheduled for Friday and Saturday, Nov. 4-5 at the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Complex, has been postponed two weeks due to Hurricane Wilma, the FHSAA office announced today.
Meanwhile, the 2005 FHSAA Fall Soccer Finals state tournament, rescheduled last week from Oct. 28-29 to Nov. 4-5, has now been pushed back even further to Nov. 11-12. First-round play-in games, however, still will be played this Friday.
The swimming & diving finals has been tentatively rescheduled for either Friday and Saturday, Nov. 18-19, or Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 19-20. The exact location or locations will be determined in the near future.
"Our first option is to keep the state meet at Fort Lauderdale on these later dates," Commissioner John A. Stewart said. "That, however, will depend on whether the host committee believes that the island's infrastructure will be restored and adequate hotel rooms will be available in the area by that time. If not, we will consider other options such as moving the event to another facility or splitting up the meet by classification to different sites. We're in a wait-and-see mode at this time."
Three FHSAA Finals events have now been postponed because of Wilma. The 2005 FHSAA Golf Finals state tournament, originally scheduled for today and Wednesday, has been pushed back to Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 1-2. But even those dates now are in question.
"Every FHSAA Finals event for the remainder of this fall sports season hinges on two questions," Stewart said. "First, are the host communities and facilities still in a position to host the event? And second, when will the schools impacted by the hurricane be back in session and able to organize their teams for competition?"
Stewart continued: "The FHSAA staff and the host organizations for these events are trying to get the answers to those two questions as quickly as they can. Once we have those answers we'll know what, if anything, we have to do."
For now, by sport, this is what the FHSAA office knows:
BOWLING
The state bowling series, which does not begin until Nov. 7-8 with district tournaments, likely will be unaffected by the hurricane. No delays in district tournaments or the 2005 FHSAA Bowling Finals at Boardwalk Bowl in Orlando are anticipated.
CROSS COUNTRY
All district meets and regional meets will be held this week and next as originally planned with the following exceptions:
• If Districts 3A-6, 3A-8 and 2A-6 cannot hold their meets as planned, they will be rescheduled for Monday, Oct. 31. Coaches meetings will begin at 9:30 a.m., with the girls and boys races to follow at 10 and 10:30 a.m. respectively. Any variations from this date and time schedule must be submitted to the FHSAA office by both the district coordinator and district meet manager for approval.
• Districts 4A-5 and 4A-6 (Region 4A-3 complex), districts 4A-7 and 4A-8 (Region 4A-4 complex), districts 2A-7 and 2A-8 (Region 2A-4 complex), and districts 1A-7 and 1A-8 (Region 1A-4 complex) will not hold their district meets. All teams and individual competitors in those districts, instead, will advance directly to their respective regional meets next week at the site, date and time already scheduled. Both district honors, regional honors and state qualifiers will be determined through competition in these expanded regional meets.
The 2005 FHSAA Cross Country Finals state meet scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 12, at Little Everglades Ranch in Dade City will be held as originally planned.
FOOTBALL
The regulation requiring all district football games be completed by Saturday, Oct. 29, has been waived for the benefit of schools impacted by the hurricane. All district games now must be completed by Saturday, Nov. 5, according to the following guidelines:
• District games take priority over non-district games. Schedules should be adjusted as needed to ensure the completion of district games by the Nov. 5 deadline. Schools needing to adjust their schedules, however, should contact their opponents in both Weeks 10 and 11 before making any unilateral decisions.
• If it becomes necessary for a school to play two games in a week, the school and its opponent may mutually agree to reduce the lengths of quarters to 10 minutes or 8 minutes as permitted by National Federation Football Rule 3-1-3. If the two schools agree to play shortened quarters but cannot agree on their length, 8-minute quarters will be played.
• District tiebreakers required in districts completing their schedules by Saturday, Oct. 29, must be played on Monday, Oct. 31, as originally scheduled. District tiebreakers required in districts completing their schedules by Saturday, Nov. 5, will be played on Monday, Nov. 7.
• Schools that have not completed a 10-game regular season schedule and do not advance to the playoffs will be permitted to play a 10th game on either Nov. 7, 8, 9, 10 or 12.
The 2005 FHSAA Football Championships will begin with regional tournament action on the weekend of Friday, Nov. 11, as originally scheduled.
GOLF
Depending upon course conditions, the availability of lodging and the ability of participating schools to organize and transport their representatives to the site, the 2005 FHSAA Golf Finals state tournament will be played on Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 1-2, as rescheduled. Should any one of these factors become an issue, the tournament will be postponed again to dates yet to be determined.
FALL SOCCER
Six of the eight FHSAA Finals first-round play-in games will be played on Friday. Districts 5 and 8 have yet to complete their district tournaments and hope to do so by Tuesday, Nov. 1. The two remaining play-in games then will be played later next week, most likely on Friday, Nov. 4. The 2005 FHSAA Fall Soccer Finals state tournament will be held on Nov. 11-12 at a site to be determined.
SWIMMING & DIVING
• Three district meets are yet to be completed. Districts 3A-7, 1A-6 and 1A-9 will complete their meets on Tuesday, Nov. 1.
• Regions 3A-1 in Gainesville, 2A-1 in Tallahassee, 2A-3 in Largo and 2A-2 in Vero Beach will be held this week as scheduled. Region 1A-1 in Jacksonville has been rescheduled from Thursday, Oct. 27, to Friday, Nov. 4. Region 1A-2 in Orlando has been rescheduled from Saturday, Oct. 29, to Saturday, Nov. 5. Regions 3A-2, 3A-4, 2A-4, 1A-3 and 1A-4 will be rescheduled to dates yet to be determined.
• The 2005 FHSAA Swimming & Diving Finals will be held on Nov. 18-19 or Nov. 19-20.
GIRLS VOLLEYBALL
The regional tournament contingency plan announced last week has been revised as follows:
• If either participating school in a regional tournament quarterfinal match is closed on Wednesday, Oct. 26, or Thursday, Oct. 27, the quarterfinal match will be rescheduled for Saturday, Oct. 29. The corresponding regional semifinal match then will be rescheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 1.
• If either participating school in a regional tournament quarterfinal match is closed until Monday, Oct. 31, the quarterfinal match will be rescheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 1. The corresponding regional semifinal and final matches then will be played Thursday, Nov. 3, and Saturday, Nov. 5, respectively.
• If either participating school in a regional tournament quarterfinal match is closed until Friday, Nov. 4, the four teams in that half of the regional tournament bracket will play both quarterfinal matches and the semifinal match on Saturday, Nov. 5, at a central site designated by the FHSAA office. Quarterfinal matches will be played at noon and 2 p.m., with the host school playing in the 2 p.m. match. The semifinal match involving the two quarterfinal winners will be played at 7 p.m. The regional championship match then will be played on Monday, Nov. 7.
Other situations will be handled on a case-by-case basis.
About the FHSAA
Headquartered in Gainesville, the Florida High School Athletic Association is the governing body for interscholastic athletic competition in Florida. It has a membership of more than 720 middle and senior public and private high schools. More than 175,000 student-athletes annually participate in one or more of the FHSAA’s 28 championship sports programs. More information is available at www.fhsaa.org.
Contact:
Jack Watford
Director of Communications, FHSAA
(352) 372-9551 ext. 170
jwatford@fhsaa.org
