FHSAA Board Cuts Number Of High School Games Allowed

April 28, 2009

Most varsity sports in Florida will see a 20 percent reduction in games next year, and junior varsity games will be cut by 40 percent.

Varsity football was the one sport spared by cuts announced Monday by the Florida Highs School Athletic Association, with the schedule the next two years remaining at 10 games per year.

Baseball, basketball, softball and volley ball will be cut from 25 games to 20 allowed per year. At the JV level, those sports will be cut from 25 maximum games per year to just 15. Junior varsity football teams will be allowed to play six games rather than eight, while varsity football teams will remain at 10 games per year.

The maximum number of games in other sports, such as track and field, golf and cross country, were also cut.

The FHSAA says the reductions will be in effect for two years, and the organization intends to restore full athletic schedules after that 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, according to a FHSAA press release.

“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,” said FHSAA Board President Greg Zornes.

The changes were approved by the FHSAA Board by a 9-6 vote. The only representative from the Panhandle on the FHSAA Board, Gulf County School Superintedent Tim Wilder, voted in favor of the reduction.

The chart below shows the changes per sport.

Comments

Comments are closed.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News, Sports, TOP sports