FHSAA Shakes Up Football Districts

A long-awaited Florida High School Athletic Association football district realignment was announced on Monday afternoon, and its effects will be felt across all three Highlands County high schools next fall.

Sebring, which along with Avon Park was a member of Class 3A-District 12 this season, will stay in the 3A ranks and will join 3A-District 10 with three other schools, while AP drops a class and joins eight other competitors in 2A-District 4 and Lake Placid moves to 2B-District 6 from 2A-District 5.

The Red Devils, who join Anclote (a new school in Holiday), Crystal River, Eustis, Lake Wales, Pasco of Dade City, South Sumter of Bushnell, Tavares and Wesley Chapel in 2A-D4, are not happy with the change, saying it puts an undue strain on their travel budgets.

"I was shocked when I saw our new district," AP athletic director Mort Jackson. "We figured it out and our mileage cost for next year would be $1,500 - and that's just for mileage. A trip to Crystal River would cost us $900 alone, so we're going to petition the FHSAA to move us to a new district."

Avon Park is in the bottom 10 percent in their classification, so they're allowed to petition for a move to a new district. The Red Devils will choose three to four other districts that have less than eight teams and ask to be moved to one of those.

Jackson said the decision to ask to move has nothing to do with competition.

"We like the teams and our chances in that district," Jackson said. "But when nearly every one of your trips is 100 miles or more, something has to be done, not only for monetary reasons, but for our players."

Of the three other schools in the new 3A-D10, Sebring and Braden River are the only ones that were District 12 foes last season. The district adds Bayshore of Bradenton and Lemon Bay of Englewood, and gone are perennial district powers DeSoto and Hardee (they both moved to 2A-D6), which means Sebring's path to the postseason may have been smoothed out a bit.

Needless to say, Sebring athletic director Terry Quarles was pleased after looking over the proposed moves.

"I like the new district [Sebring] is in. It's a really competitive district and I think it's going to be fun watching the team next year," Quarles said. "I think it is really good for the Blue Streaks."

Quarles said she understands how Jackson is feeling about the proposed changes, and that she'd be taking the same approach had Sebring been asked to compete against such faraway schools.

"I saw where Avon Park wound up in their new district and I was amazed," Quarles said. "I would be on the phone immediately and asked to be moved if I was in Avon Park's shoes."

Lake Placid, Bishop Verot and St. Petersburg Catholic will make the trip together to 2B-D6, joining Cardinal Mooney of Sarasota, Clewiston, Dunbar of Fort Meyers and Gateway Charter of Fort Meyers.

Lake Placid athletic director Cindy Rivers said any change will be different at first, but the Green Dragons will simply change the direction of their travel.

"Ours is a very large district, and we'll be traveling south more than we were," Rivers said, noting the football team uses a chartered bus for away games. "It will probably be the same distance, just a different direction."

Rivers, however, is bracing for further realignments, which will likely put many Dragon teams in the same district as teams like DeSoto and Hardee. And while the proximity will be closer, the competition will be tougher.

"Our class runs from 551 to 1345 (students enrolled)," Rivers said. "We're on the lower end of that, so we're going to be seeing some bigger schools in the future."
FHSAA State Football Series are now posted on fhsaa.org.

Schools will have until noon on Jan. 9 to submit written requests for reassignment to a different classification and/or district if they believe the change is warranted, with the option of playing in its assigned classification or one classification higher.

Stick with Highlands Today for further coverage of how the realignment will affect local teams.

NOTE: Under the new plan, Hardee and DeSoto will move to 2A-D6 with Booker, Cypress Lake of Fort Meyers, Golden Gate of Naples, Immokalee, Island Coast of Cape Coral, LaBelle and Southeast.

NEW FOOTBALL DISTRICTS FOR 2009-10 SEASONS
3A DISTRICT 10
Bayshore (Bradenton)
Braden River (Bradenton)
Sebring
Lemon Bay (Englewood)
2A DISTRICT 4
Anclote (Holiday) [new school]
Avon Park
Crystal River
Eustis
Lake Wales
Pasco (Dade City)
South Sumter (Bushnell)
Tavares
Wesley Chapel
2B DISTRICT 6
Bishop Verot (Fort Myers)
Cardinal Mooney (Sarasota)
Clewiston
Dunbar (Fort Myers)
Gateway Charter (Fort Myers)
Lake Placid
St. Petersburg Catholic