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FHSAA Warns Legislation Will Create High School Free Agents

The association that dictates rules for Florida’s middle and high school athletes is fighting what it says is a power grab by legislators that will lessen the oversight of mid-season transfers and allow some schools to become recruiting giants.

The Florida High School Athletic Association is objecting to measures (HB 1279, SB 1164) by Rep. Larry Metz, R-Yalaha, and Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, that could restrict their investigations into student-athlete transfers, limit the amount of fines and fees member schools pay, and revamp the makeup of the association’s board.

FHSAA Executive Director Roger Dearing, during a media teleconference on Tuesday, claimed the legislation would essentially allow middle and high school student-athletes to become “free agents.”

“This legislation opens the door for nefarious people who might want to circumvent rules in order to do what they may think is getting students scholarships to college, or even open the door to professional athletics,” Dearing said.

The measure by Metz also further expands the state law that allows students to play for the school of choice if the public or charter school they attend does not offer the sport.

Stargel’s companion proposal adds more legislative oversight to the FHSAA board by having the House and Senate each make four appointments to the board, with the Commissioner of Education getting to name three.

While the board would be expanded from 16 to 25, the majority of appointments would come from Tallahassee.

Currently, FHSAA member schools select 13 board members, with the three others coming from the Department of Education.

The proposals also call for replacing Dearing by having the commissioner of education name the FHSAA executive director rather than the association’s board.

Dearing said his job being on the line was less a concern than keeping the playing field level for students and schools as they compete across the state if each school district is given powers to self-regulate transfers.

Stargel, in a release from Access for Student Athletes Coalition sent out prior to the teleconference, denied her proposal will allow illegal recruiting or create student-athlete “free agency.”

“This proposal would not prevent the FHSAA from fulfilling their primary role,” Stargel stated. “However, it would help combat their predisposition to consider students as guilty until proven innocent, and would establish true due process and rights for student athletes, which the current system of conducting investigations clearly lacks.”

The coalition, which contends the FHSAA displays overreaching and arbitrary authority when conducting investigations on student eligibility, is an initiative launched by the Naples-based conservative-policy think tank Floridians for Government Accountability, Inc. The think tank is run by former Maine legislator Tarren Bragdon.

The FHSAA doesn’t directly receive state funding, but in addition to relying upon corporate donations for funding draws public dollars through membership fees from public schools.

FHSAA Chief Financial Officer Linda Roberston said the expected reduction in revenue by capping fines and fees could hinder the non-profit association’s ability to promote and run championship events at professional fields, along with training and certification for coaches and officials.

“The quality of our events will certainly suffer,” Robertson said.

“Mike Alstott, the football coach at Northside Christian High in St. Petersburg, said an athlete shouldn’t be allowed to play for one school in the fall for football, another in the winter for basketball and a third in the spring for baseball.

“This could really change the playing field, to not be fair,” said Alstott, a former Tampa Bay Buccaneer fullback.

The high school student-athlete proposal follows a law enacted a year ago that pushed back on the FHSAA for clamping down on mid-school year transfers and students following coaches to new schools.

The law, sponsored by Stargel – then a member of the House – allows students-athletes to change schools at any time without having to sit out a year as was the prior rule after the first 20 days of a school year. Meanwhile it is up to the school districts to self-police themselves for recruiting violations by coaches, parents and alumni.

The FHSAA initially fought the law, noting that none of its member high schools had requested the change.

Months before the bill was introduced, the FHSAA imposed more than $62,500 in fines against the Lakeland High Dreadnaughts after seven of its athletes, including five from the school’s perennial football powerhouse, were found ineligible to play for infractions ranging from falsifying addresses, failing to make a full and complete move before enrolling, and receiving impermissible benefits that included free rent.

Stargel argued that the bill serves Florida’s student-athletes, while regulating FHSAA investigators.

By The News Service of Florida