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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Florida High School Athletic Association is ready to make a decision about the fate of the sports season and a few will be there to see or hear it.
If the state holds its Board of Directors meeting on Aug. 14, space will be restricted due to social distance restrictions at the Alachua County premises, which allow meetings to be no more than 50 during Phase 2 of the reshuffle process. state.
But unlike its two emergency board meetings last month to vote on the start of the fall sports season and were streamed live on Zoom and YouTube to massive audiences, the FHSAA will not broadcast the next session on Friday.
In a story published by The Orlando Sentinel on Friday night, FHSAA Executive Director George Tomyn defended the decision not to make the board meeting as public as the previous two, saying that this is “standard meeting procedure.”
“I’m not trying to prevent anything,” Tomyn said, according to the Sentinel. “This is how we decided to do things, because this is the usual arrangement for our meetings. Of course, the requirements for social distance mean that we can not meet as many people, but this is our standard meeting procedure. We are an athletics association, not a broadcasting company. ”
It may be standard meeting procedures in normal times, but 2020 is far from normal. The decision not to support a stream of the event has shocked those in the media, coaches, parents and athletic directors.
Two meetings of the FHSAA fall sports task force committee were livestreamed and both board meetings of the board of directors were livestreamed. For a discussion and mood that will determine when the season starts and what it looks like is the interest of the charts.
The decision to pull the plug on the most important meeting of the year did not sit well with FHSAA board member Lauren Otero, who had been vocal in this process over transparency.
“I am disappointed with the decision made by FHSAA staff not to broadcast this meeting publicly. When the two previous meetings drew the presence of 4000-5,000 viewers, it tells me that the discussions / topics that were discussed during our previous meetings are of great importance to the public, “Otero told News4Jax on Friday.
‘When I learned that the meeting would not stream live, I made Mr Tomyn’s request to make the necessary arrangements for the streaming. My request was denied without further explanation. ”
Several athletic directors have expressed interest in attending, but were told that space was extremely limited due to social distance constraints. The FHSAA did not return a message from News4Jax earlier Friday seeking further details about the meeting.
The FHSAA had raised three options for discussion between its various advisory committees. Last week, the Football Coaches Advisory Committee voted for Option 1, which begins the regular season on Week 3 and plays a stretch of nine.
The athletic director’s advisory committee this week was in favor of Option 3, which postponed the start of the regular fall sports season until late Nov. 30. These options are non-binding and are an essential part of the discussion process.
Next week, the FHSAA will receive further input after the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee meets. That committee, referred to as the SMAC, provided a report that weekend board members wrapped up at a second emergency board meeting.
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