Florida’s system for regulating high school sports has become a perennial issue in the state Legislature. This year some key lawmakers are looking at it from a new angle: Is the organization that governs high school athletics in the state prepared for a system in which students increasingly choose magnet programs, career academies, charters and other options outside their zoned schools?
The Florida High School Athletic Association has a strict anti-recruiting policy, which it says is intended to ensure fair competition and protect student athletes from “unscrupulous” coaches.
The policy can sideline students who change schools for athletic reasons. The governing body counts charter, private and virtual schools among its members, and it allows students to remain eligible for varsity sports if they leave their zoned school for academic reasons. Sports can’t enter into the equation.
Rep. Erik Fresen, R-Miami, told the House Education Committee on Wednesday that he was concerned students enrolling in choice programs could fall into a “gray area,” where the association could flag their moves to schools outside their neighborhood zones as recruiting violations, “as opposed to a more holistic decision by the parent.”
That, he said, was not a criticism of the association, but he wanted to know if it would be prepared to “readily respond to that ever-changing market in the education world.”
“I think that of two things is going to happen. Either they adapt, or we’re going to start seeing a lot of violations” that may not be cut-and-dry cases of recruiting, he said. “I think that conversation, if we could ever have it with the association itself, would be a good conversation to have.”
It’s mostly an issue for students moving from eighth to ninth grade, Rep. Manny Diaz, R-Hialeah, said. Students can be barred from competing in varsity sports if they play for traveling teams or in summer leagues with coaches who also happen to coach at the high school where they later choose to enroll.
“I think eligibility as a whole has to be looked at,” he said. “I would reiterate that we need to modernize with the times.”
