A look at key dates for the high school football season
•August 10 Start of the season
•AUG. 27-28: Preseason classics
•SEPT. 3-4: Start of regular season
•NOV. 20: Playoffs start
•DEC. 11-12: Finals for lower four classes
•DEC. 18-19: Finals for upper four classes
U.S. Department of Justice files a brief against FHSAA schedule cuts
Buddy Collings Sentinel Staff Writer
The parents of female athletes and the legal team who filed suit against the Florida High School Athletic Association now has the heaviest of hitters on their side.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a brief in Federal Court Tuesday afternoon stating its support of the group Florida Parents for Athletic Equity in its quest to gain an injunction against the FHSAA’s plan to reduce varsity schedules by 20 percent and JV and freshman schedules by 40 percent in all sports except football and competitive cheerleading for the next two school years. The brief also stated opposition to the FHSAA’s motion to dismiss the case, which was filed by the association’s lawyers last week.
The FHSAA’s 16-person board of directors is scheduled to meet at 1 p.m. Wednesday in Gainesville to consider rescinding the controversial reductions, which were approved by a 9-6 vote in April.
Nancy Hogshead-Makar, the Jacksonville law professor and former Olympic swimming gold medalist who leads the legal team that filed suit, reiterated Tuesday that she plans to proceed with the court case even if the FHSAA rescinds the schedule cuts. She said the reductions violate Title IX and other gender equity regulations because football’s regular season was untouched.
Hogshead-Makar said she would be willing to agree to a settlement if the FHSAA votes to reverse field on the reductions and agrees to allay her other gender equity concerns.
A hearing on the request for a preliminary injunction against the amended policy on sports season is set for Friday in Jacksonville.
The Department of Justice brief states “This case involves serious allegations of intentional discrimination against female student athletes by the Defendant Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. §§ 1681 et seq., and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, two federal laws enforced by the United States. Plaintiffs’ allegations include the following. FHSAA has mandated 20% varsity and 40% sub-varsity reductions in the number of games permitted for all sports except football and cheerleading in the two coming school years. By exempting football, FHSAA has privileged the most popular sport for boys, involving 36,101 boys. Though FHSAA also exempted cheerleading, this activity involves only 4,310 girls and 201 boys and may not even qualify as a sport under Title IX’s criteria.”
Link to story below
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/highschool/var-fhsaa-federal-lawsuit-07142009,0,4158825.story
FHSAA: Football is co-ed sport
A motion in a lawsuit on gender equity cites girls playing the sport.
By Paul Pinkham Jacksonville Times Union
Story updated at 7:37 AM on Tuesday, Jul. 7, 2009
Lawyers for the agency that regulates high school athletics in Florida have asked a judge to dismiss a gender equity lawsuit against it on grounds that football is a coed sport.
They cite to the judge that at least three girls statewide play football and said that means a decision by the Florida High School Athletic Association to reduce all sports schedules except football and cheerleading doesn’t discriminate.
“On a sport-by-sport basis, male athletes will be affected by [the] revised policy … in the same manner as similarly situated female athletes,” their motion said.
The association was responding to a lawsuit filed by the parents of six girls, four from Northeast Florida, who said the budget-cutting policy change disparately treats female athletes under Title IX, a 1972 federal law that requires equity in school sports.
“This is an attempt to exclude football from the analysis, which they can’t do,” said Nancy Hogshead-Makar, the parents’ attorney. “There have been numerous attempts in all three branches of government to try to take football out of the mix of Title IX. They have failed every single time.”
The association’s motion to dismiss was filed last week despite a specially called July 15 meeting of its board to reconsider the policy. That meeting was prompted by fear of costly litigation, association officials said.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan scheduled a July 17 hearing to consider the parents’ request for an emergency halt to the policy change before athletic directors begin implementing it for the 2009-10 school year.
Both the association’s lawyers declined comment Monday. Their motion said the policy change doesn’t distinguish between sports based on gender. For instance, male and female soccer players both face the same schedule cuts, the motion said.
“The more appropriate analysis is whether males and females are given an equal opportunity to play a particular sport,” it said.
But Hogshead-Makar said the motion to dismiss fails to point out that school districts can opt to make contact sports, such as football, all male.
Link http://www.jacksonville.com/sports/high_school/2009-07-07/story/fhsaa_football_is_co-ed_sport
Football heats up summer
INSIDE HIGH SCHOOLS July 1, 2009 Orlando Sentinel
Move over, basketball. You’ve got to share the summer spotlight with football now.ESPN is bringing football to the forefront in July at Disney’s Wide World of Sports, which heretofore has been prime time for hoops stars to audition for college coaches.Under Armour girls fast-pitch softball All-American weekend (July 19-21), which came to Disney last summer.the Braves. “We’re lifting and running four days a week. For the kids to go out and play pitch-and-catch and cover guys, that’s fun.”
Champion Gridiron Kings, set for July 23-25, will showcase some of the nation’s top skill position prospects in an event that includes individual and 7-on-7 passing competitions. It becomes a cornerstone in the newly named ESPN Rise Games week (July 19-25), which will also feature the established AAU 17-and-under boys basketball Super Showcase (July 20-25) and the
The one Floridian among the first 18 backs, receivers and linebackers announced as Gridiron King invitees is Jaylen Watkins, a Cape Coral wide receiver rated the nation’s No.25 rising senior prospect by Sporting News.
The 6-foot, 175-pound Watkins orally committed to Florida in April.
“It’s an honor to be picked,” Watkins said in a phone interview.
“It’s fun to be able to come and meet new people, a lot of top players from different states. Nowadays, you can consider football a year-round thing.”
That’s for sure.
Old-timers remember when summer football involved running, lifting weights, and then running some more.
Florida High School Athletic Association rules said a ball wasn’t even allowed in the workout. June and July were about paying the price.
But with deregulation of the summer by the FHSAA, the ensuing rapid proliferation of summer passing leagues, and ever-increasing commercialization of showcase camps, football athletes are getting in on the fun in the sun.
“I like the fact that the kids can get out and compete against somebody else now,” said Phil Ziglar, who played for Boone in the 1960s and is in his 20th year coaching
Boone was one of the teams that participated in a once-a-week Orange County Police Athletic League 7-on-7 league hosted by First Academy in June.
Link:orlandosentinel.com/sports/highschool/orlsportshscollings01070109jul01,0,3960011.column
