FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 27, 2009


Board approves reduction in games for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years

GAINESVILLE – The Florida High School Athletic Association Board of Directors in a close vote approved the revision of Policy 6, which put a limit on the number of contests a team can schedule for the next two school years.
 
The Policy, which was approved 9-6 by the Board, cuts the maximum number of contests to be scheduled on the varsity level by 20 percent (except football), and by 40 percent on the sub-varsity level (except football). Stated in the Policy is that this reduction in the maximum number of contests is for two years only and concludes with the 2010-11 school year. The Board of Directors plans on increasing the maximum number of contests back to allowances up through the 2008-09 school year with the beginning of the 2011-12 school year.
 
"It's written in the proposal to have a sunset after two years. That's it. We really mean two years," said Board of Directors President Greg Zornes. "We fully intend to restore what we had until today at the end of the two-year period."
 
The Policy was designed to help reduce costs of operating high school athletic departments in these strained economic times. One of the goals was to reduce the number of contests in all sports so that districts would not be faced with total elimination of some sports all together.
 
"We recognize that we have nothing to compare this to. These are unprecedented times. People are losing their jobs as schools are cutting millions and millions of dollars from their budgets. Our job is to look out for all the schools," Zornes said.
 
Executive Director Dr. Roger Dearing went on to add, "The FHSAA is a state association for all 760 members. We tried to bring in a uniform and systematic approach to a problem. We are hopeful this will ensure the future of all sports at all levels of competition. It will not affect all schools in all ways, but it will help a vast majority of those schools facing the elimination of certain sports."

Three amendments to the Policy were denied. The first concerned reducing varsity and sub-varsity games by the same percentage. The second was to reduce the number of varsity games by 10 percent and sub-varsity by 20 percent. The third was to reduce the number of games for sports with a maximum number of 25 games to 22, sports with a maximum number of 18 games to 16, all other varsity sports by 20 percent, and sub-varsity sports by 40 percent.

One amendment to the Policy was approved; to bring back a recommendation to the Board in June addressing the concern of schools without football.
 
In other action, the Board of Directors:

• Approved the revision of Policies 1-19 of the FHSAA Handbook.
• Denied a recommendation which would increase the team payout amount for football teams participating in the state finals.
• Approved an amendment to Policy 38.6.1.4, which now recognizes Smart Tuition, Inc. as a financial needs assessment company. The Policy amendment was approved pending staff investigation of Smart Tuition, Inc.
• Approved the 2009-10 dates for the Board of Directors meetings, Sectional Appeal Committee meetings, and the 13th Representative Assembly meeting.
• Approved a recommended change to Policy 37 to include accrediting agencies recognized by the Florida Association of Academic Nonpublic Schools (FAANS).
• Moved the items in the Operations Committee to the June Board meeting.

About the FHSAA
The Florida High School Athletic Association is the governing body for interscholastic athletics in Florida.  It has a membership of more than 750 middle and senior high schools, and sponsors postseason competitions to determine the official state high school champions in 30 different sports. The 16-member FHSAA Board of Directors is the executive authority of the Association.

Contact for media:
Cristina Alvarez
Director of Media Relations & Marketing, FHSAA
(352) 372-9551 ext. 190
calvarez@fhsaa.org

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