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MIAMI – Coaches and student-athletes in South Florida felt a slight relief Thursday night when the Florida High School Athletics Association board of directors voted 11-3 to allow school athletics to begin on August 24 , and not on Monday as previously planned. .
Dissenting votes were from Bobby Johns, the athletic director of Wewahitchka High School in Gulf County, Richard Finlayson, the principal of Aucilla Christian Academy in Jefferson County, and Randy McDaniel, from Village Charter Schools.
The FHSAA vote set August 24 as a target date that will be re-evaluated after FHSAA staff submit a proposal before August 17. The FHSAA is preparing to publish the dates of each sport. At this time, the FHSAA does not allow practices or tests for fall sports. Conditioning may continue if the district allows it.
“My head is kind of spinning right now because I’m a little worried about my kids,” said Roland Smith Jr., head football coach for Miami Central Senior High School in West Little River.
Smith said the anguish over how the FHSAA decision could affect the future of his students often comes with tears. Coaches like Smith say they are concerned about students who are no longer out of reach of street gangs that offer fast and dirty money opportunities. Smith knows that public school sports programs save lives. One saved his.
“I can remember when I was in high school playing soccer at Miami Northwestern going home to those projects and my exit was trying to get a sports scholarship and I earned it,” Smith said.
While the coronavirus pandemic turns South Florida into a hot spot, Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho had said he was “deeply disturbed” by the decision to start Monday. He said he considered the FHSAA’s decision to be very unfair because it could create “significant inequities” for student-athletes. The district has threatened to walk away from the FHSAA all together.
Carvalho said schools will not reopen until the Miami-Dade test positivity rate is below 10%. Runcie will not reopen schools in the fall. If school districts allow school teams to compete after August 24, teams will play fewer games. Students also fear being disadvantaged and may not even be able to see the field or courts enough to play in state playoff tournaments.
“It’s kind of frustrating because some of my teammates, some of my boys always work hard until their senior year, so knowing that this pandemic is holding them back is a sad thing,” said Amari Daniels, a Central Miami runner.
Daniels has been offered scholarships for several D-1 schools. He knows he is among the minority of students who have that opportunity, so he is concerned about the future of his teammates. He said he fears Jeron Scharoun Jr. won’t have a chance to play this year and that college recruiters won’t be able to see how talented he is.
“It is big business. Last year I was getting my feet wet, ”said Scharoun, an offensive lineman. “This past year, I was planning to have a lot of schools and try to go to college.”
Scharoun is not alone. Many Miami Central students focus on athletics as their ticket to becoming the first in their family to obtain a college education.
“Everyone needs offers. Everyone needs a place to go. Everyone needs a school to go, ”said Laurence Seymore, an offensive lineman. “It is important to all of us.”
Demetrius Jackson, the head coach of the American Senior High School in Hialeah, said his team has a senior who has a scholarship offer and there are 13 others who have not. Jackson said he is not ready to take them to the field.
Ahead of Thursday night’s vote, Jackson blamed the FHSAA’s lack of leadership for jeopardizing students’ opportunities to receive life-changing scholarships. He said the FHSAA was putting pressure on school coaches and administrators to make impossible decisions.
“What if one of my players takes it to their mothers or fathers who have underlying health problems and die?” Jackson said. “What happens if one of my players or coaches dies?”
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