The Florida High School Athletic Association handed down sanctions on the Pahokee football program Monday for using an ineligible player last season, and they were severe.
Pahokee will have to give up the state football championship it won last month after using an ineligible player. The school also was fined $1,400. (Photo by Allen Eyestone)
The Blue Devils, who beat Baker 34-21 to win the Class 1A state state championship Dec. 8 and finished unbeaten, must forfeit all 14 games in which the ineligible player competed.
Pahokee also must pay a $1,400 fine – $100 per contest – with $400 of that due immediately. The remainder will be set aside until June 1.
The school also was reprimanded, and will receive an official letter of censure regarding the violations.
The FHSAA issued its official ruling Monday, four days after notifying the school of potential sanctions.
“The FHSAA appreciates the cooperation of everyone involved to ensure all student-athletes in our state receive equal and fair opportunities,” spokesman Kyle Niblett said Monday.
According to the FHSAA, the player entered 9th grade in August 2012, making the 2016-17 school year his fifth year. The player is a student at Everglades Preparatory Academy, which is a charter school in Pahokee.
He was participating for the Pahokee football team as a non-traditional student.
The school was notified of allegations relating to the ineligible player Jan. 5, and immediately began an investigation. Administrators self-reported their findings to the FHSAA.
Pahokee was found to be in violation of an FHSAA bylaw that states that a high school student has four consecutive years of eligibility beginning with the school year he/she begins ninth grade for the first time.
Principal Michael Aronson said Thursday that a data-entry error resulted in an extra year of play for the athlete.
“We had no idea,” Aronson said. Aronson said the player was not flagged as ineligible by the state’s computer system when his information was entered into a database prior to the season. “We thought we had dotted every I and crossed every T, because we knew going into the season that we had a team that could win a state title. We were very careful with what we did.”
Aronson also said Thursday the school would appeal once a formal ruling was handed down.
The school now has 10 days.
If the school’s planned appeal is denied, then the state championship will stay vacant.
Being stripped of the title would be a stunning and disappointing addendum to the Blue Devils’ feel-good 2016 season, which was the culmination of the program’s return to glory after years of struggle that saw school officials make the painful decision to drop down from Class 3A — where private schools like Oxbridge Academy and American Heritage had come to dominate their district — to Class 1A, and to designate itself as a “rural” program.
