FHSAA’s Board of Directors vote in favor of new reclassification, required district play

The Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) held a virtual emergency Board of Directors meeting on Tuesday afternoon and they met to vote on reclassification and required district play for the 2024-2025 school year and possibly beyond.

The Board of Directors voted 9-4 in favor of reclassification and then voted 9-4 in favor of required district play for the 2024-2025 season. The vote ended the Metro-Suburban-Rural system of the last two years.

FHSAA executive director Craig Damon’s proposal was passed included to go back to seven classifications (7A-1A with a rural division) for team sports. What also was voted on is non-required district play as teams will be put in districts, but not required to play against those district opponents.

A motion was made by Ricky Bell, a citizen-at-large, to make district play required moving forward.

According to a survey read by Damon, 180 of 391 schools favored the Metro-Suburban-Rural current system. Damon read surveys that went against the current Metro-Suburban-Rural series.

Joshua Harrison, the athletic director for Walton County, was a public speaker that came up to speak in front of the board. He brought up concerns of trying to coming up with games after a universal Week 10 bye, would be extremely difficult.

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Harrison spoke in support of the current system and also touched on the proposal of a potential Open Division of 32 teams, saying a member school, Walton, would’ve been included and the Braves would not be within striking distance of the other schools included.

Charlie Marello, principal of Niceville High School, spoke and said that he received emails that were supportive of the Metro-Suburban-Rural system as it created a more competitive balance compared to previous years in 2021.

Marello was stern in mentioning other rural schools were ranked out in front schools like recently crown Class 4S state champion Lakeland, which just defeated Venice 60-48.

Ricky Bell, a citizen-at-large board member, echoed a lot of the same sentiments that Harrison and Marello previously said, also touching on Walton’s position of being forced into an Open Division if it was 32 teams.

South Sumter principal Allen Shirley spoke next stating that he was in full support of mandated district play, in which teams placed in a district together, would be forced to continue playing one another. Shirley also touched on player movement via transferring from county-to-county.

Paul Selvidio, the Chief Financial Officer at Community School of Naples, stated the need for Florida not to copy the same classification systems used by states like Georgia, Texas and to be more unique. Selvidio also touched on schools should have maximum flexibility on scheduling for schools, like players have when it comes to moving/transferring around.

Ryan Smith, athletic director at The Benjamin School, spoke that the South Florida schools are not happy with the current Metro-Suburban-Rural system. Smith also mentioned that if the system stayed the way it is, that the FHSAA would see some South Florida schools opt to go independent rather than return as a member.

Other board members that spoke in favor of Damon’s proposal was Cape Coral athletic director Thomas Kenna and The Master’s Academy athletic director Trevor Berryhill.

-- Andy Villamarzo | villamarzo@scorebooklive.com | @sblivefl