Guest AuthorAfter looking closely at how student-athletes move from one school to another, the Florida High School Athletic Association has proposed a significant policy broadening student-athlete eligibility.
It will be better for the student-athletes, better for the parents and — most important of all — better for the cause of sportsmanship and fair play. Over the last two years, both the Legislature and the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) have wrestled with this complex topic.
On the one hand, we need to ensure that students have the option of attending the school that best fits their academic needs while also allowing them to pursue their athletic dreams. On the other hand, there is a compelling interest in placing limits on student movement so flagrant recruiting doesn’t turn a select few schools into athletic powerhouses and shut out everyone else. After all, the primary focus of our children’s high school education should be academics.
For years, our so-called “follow-the-coach” rule limited a student’s ability to participate in athletics after changing his or her school enrollment. If an athlete played for a rival school’s coach while participating on a club team, for example, he had to sit out a year following a change in enrollment to that rival school. The intent was to prevent coaches from using non-school activities to improperly influence star players’ decisions about where to attend school.
However, that benched the student-athlete entirely — not just from playing for that coach, but also from playing on any other varsity team at his new school. After receiving valuable input from coaches, athletic directors and administrators, we developed a new approach.
Under our proposed “previous contact” bylaw, student-athletes making a change in enrollment would still have to sit out a year, but only at the varsity level and only in the sport involving the coach in question. That way, the student-athlete wouldn’t be unduly penalized, but the school could not benefit immediately from bringing in outside talent.
Our proposal, which will be voted on by the FHSAA Representative Assembly next month, also has a provision to help student-athletes who have no choice but to change schools.
If the last grade student-athletes attended at their previous school was the final grade offered there, they could enroll at whichever high school they want — even if it means they would be playing for a coach they met through a non-school activity. This change will substantially reduce the number of students forced to go through an appeals process.
In considering these changes, we wanted to make sure the new approach was something that would work at the school level. That is why, during a series of meetings over the summer, we surveyed high school athletic directors, administrators and coaches about student-athletes’ ability to participate in non-school athletic activities, while maintaining the integrity of interscholastic competition.
Almost three-quarters agreed that enrollment change or club participation rules should be changed, and more than half said the “follow-the-coach” rule should be modified in some manner.
Interestingly, about three out of four said students and parents should not have the right to choose where they attend school based solely on athletic participation — reinforcingthe overwhelming sense among those who work with our children that high school education must focus on the academic growth and development of students.
High school athletics has become a high profile, big-ticket enterprise, with schools competing for opportunities to play in front of college recruiters and national cable audiences. In the end, we hope this new approach will eliminate uncertainty regarding students who change enrollment and the undue influence some adults try to exert on outstandingathletes while at the same time introducing a greater degree of fair play.
After all, that’s what high school athletics is supposed to be all about.
