FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 28, 2009
Board votes to restructure competitive cheerleading, baseball state series
GAINESVILLE - The Florida High School Athletic Association Board of Directors voted today to restructure the state series format for both competitive cheerleading and baseball.
The Board authorized the FHSAA staff to devise a qualifying round before the state finals for competitive cheerleading, and also approved the creation of divisions based on school enrollment. Schools still will have the option to compete as a tumbling squad, non-tumbling squad or a co-ed squad.
“These changes will create more opportunities for competition in competitive cheerleading,” said Executive Director Roger Dearing. “The creation of the divisions will level the playing field by allowing schools of similar size to compete against each other.”
The Board also voted to discontinue the best-two-of-three game format for the region final in baseball. The two-year experimental period expired at the conclusion of the 2008-09 season.
“During the two-year trial, we received feedback from some of the participating schools that the experiment, while good for competition, was not being supported by spectator attendance,” said Dearing. “The format also created extended travel for many schools, which became a budget concern.”
In other action, the Board of Directors:
• Approved the final budgets for the 2009-10 school year for the FHSAA and the FHSAA Land Corporation.
• Approved a modification to Policy 36 to require head coaches in varsity sports to certify they have reviewed the FHSAA “Policy on Athletic Recruiting,” will comply with all provisions of the policy, and will review the provisions of the policy with their coaching staffs and players electronically in a process facilitated by the FHSAA (e.g., video rules presentations).
• Approved a recommendation of the Track & Field Advisory Committee to reverse the seeding order in the preliminaries of the long jump, triple jump, discus throw and shot put at the state finals.
• Approved a recommendation of the Tennis Advisory Committee to begin practice one week earlier in January.
• Approved a potential settlement of Cook v. FHSAA.
• Approved the following appointments to the PLAC: Colleen Croft, Gainesville area, parent representative; Eryn Croft, Gainesville High School, student-athlete representative.
• Approved the appointment of Daniel Sims, principal of Cottondale High School, to the Division 3 Public School Seat on the Representative Assembly.
• Endorsed the National Center for Sports Safety’s Prepare Course as an approved sports safety course to be used in conjunction with school district in-service coaching certification classes.
• Endorsed an amendment to Bylaw 9.5.2 to state “A student who repeats grade 6, 7 or 8 is ineligible to participate during the year of repeating the grade.”
• Endorsed the concept of an addition of a girls and boys adapted division to each track & field classification to allow students with permanent physical disabilities to participate in the state series without changing the existing scoring protocol and procedures.
• Requested staff to review Bylaws 3.2.6 and 3.11 regarding approved non-member school status for a recommendation to the 2009-10 Representative Assembly.
• Denied a recommendation of the Softball Advisory Committee to condense the FHSAA Softball Finals to a four-day format (Wednesday-Saturday) instead of the current six-day format, to advance eight teams to the finals using single elimination and to eliminate the region final.
• Denied endorsement of an amendment to Bylaw 9.2.4 to allow student eligibility by sport, and noted that the Board supported the current language.
• Heard a discussion on contest officials and the difference in mileage charges made to public and private schools in Duval County.
• Heard a discussion of the Executive Director’s performance evaluation form.
• Heard an update on the C2C Schools program.
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
Coordinator of Media and Marketing, FHSAA
(352) 372-9551 ext. 170
calvarez@fhsaa.org
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