FHSAA votes to rescind shortened-schedule plan

In a brief meeting high on attendance and passionate dialogue, the Florida High School Athletic Association's board of directors voted unanimously this afternoon to rescind a previous decision to trim contest schedules in all its sanctioned sports except football.

The 15-0 vote, held before a gallery of dozens at the FHSAA headquarters in north Gainesville, came in the wake of a lawsuit filed by a gender-equity group that argued the trimmed schedules violated federal Title IX guidelines, essentially because football was excluded.

Coincidentally, a hearing on the gender-equity group's motion for preliminary injunction against the FHSAA is set for Friday in a federal courtroom in Jacksonville. On Tuesday, the United States Department of Justice filed an amicus brief on behalf of the plaintiffs against the FHSAA.

The original FHSAA decision, intended to help alleviate the state's educational budget crunch, would've trimmed varsity schedules in all sports (except football and cheerleading) by 20 percent and reduced junior varsity schedules by 40 percent.

At today's meeting, FHSAA executive director Roger Dearing said the costs of going to court over the issue would've negated any money saved by the trimmed schedules.

"I'm a native Floridian," Dearing said. "There's an old saying that says the juice is not worth the squeeze."

That reaction itself concerned Title IX attorney Nancy Hogshead-Makar, an FHSAA Hall of Fame member and Olympic swimming gold medalist representing the plaintiffs. She said she hoped the issue would serve as a "teach-able moment" to FHSAA officials, but seemed uncertain if it was.

"I'm very happy that it was a unanimous decision," said Hogshead-Makar, who briefly addressed the board before the vote. "On the other hand it does worry me in the fact that the (FHSAA) doesn't recognize how this is a violation of law."

"Nobody said, 'Oh we're sorry,' or 'We see the light now,' or 'This was a violation of gender equity.' The only thing that has made a difference for them is a lawsuit."

Addressing reporters afterward, Dearing said the FHSAA's intention all along was not to discriminate, but simply assist the state with the financial crisis, and devise a uniform cost-cutting solution so no sport would be eliminated.

With the abolition of the trimmed schedules, the onus of budget cutting now rests upon individual school districts. Hillsborough County assistant athletic director Jennifer Burchill said future athletic budget cuts in Hillsborough will rest with the superintendent.

Could losing sports be a possibility?

"I think you always have that in the back of your mind based upon what goes on with the economy and what goes on with our funding," said Burchill, who attended the meeting. "Every aspect of the economy is feeling pinches and the question is just going to be where is that pinch going to come from?"

Comments

[Tim]

The state just handled this all wrong. The indiviual superintendents didn't want to look bad my cutting games in their county, so they wanted the state to do it instead. The counties can control their number of games but instead of a superintendent looking bad they wanted an easier way out....I learned THROUGH SPORTS that there is never an easy way out....perhaps they should have learned something FROM SPORTS and this wouldn't have come to this. I am happy. The state finally has to lose a little of it's edge. I remember a meeting where someone mentioned a possible lawsuit before this was passed and was told by an FHSAA board member, when threatened with the possibilty of a lawsuit, "We aren't worried about that. We don't lose lawsuits."

SMUG PUNK. Think again!