FHSAA tables proposal to keep middle school athletes off varsity teams

 Merritt Island athletic director Jeff McLean's proposal to ban middle school athletes from competing on varsity teams was tabled for further discussion.    

Florida High School Athletic Association board members unanimously voted to table McLean's proposal at the Monday meeting. By Tuesday, it was only a formality to make the decision publicly at its annual summer Board of Directors meeting.     

McLean proposed by the 2022-2023 school year eliminating sixth, seventh and eighth grade athletes from competing in varsity sports and only allowing students in ninth-twelfth to compete in varsity sports. The proposal is now being kick backed to the Athletic Director Advisory Committee for further discussion.    

“This was not a knee-jerk reaction I promise, this goes back to 1971 when I was in ninth grade,” McLean stated. “Our bylaws say only senior high athletes can compete for state titles, your GPA is only ninth through twelfth as well, public and private schools are in the same situations.” 

McLean emphasized this issue goes beyond his county, it’s a statewide issue.

“We don’t have any schools 7-12 in our county except private schools,” McLean said. “But over years I have heard plenty of people in my area ask me why can’t my sixth or seventh grader play varsity sports but our neighbor who attends a different school can.” 

FHSAA by laws only allow middle schoolers in sixth through eighth grade to compete in varsity sports if their middle school is also a part of the high school like at Oak Hall, P.K. Yonge, Saint Francis and many Class 1A schools in the area such as Fort White, Chiefland, Williston, Lafayette, Hawthorne and Trenton.  

Getting rid of middle school athletes would have been detrimental to nearly every athletic program in the area.

“It would definitely hurt us, we dress three middle school players,” Oak Hall football coach RJ Fuhr said. “As it is now, the young players are allowed to play six quarters a week now, playing four quarters in a middle school game and two on varsity.”

Fuhr was furious about the proposal and vocal on social media about it.

”For a lot of us we need the middle schoolers to fill our 24-25 man roster, this would definitely affect nearly every sport at Oak Hall in some form or capacity,” Fuhr said.

“Girls lacrosse, girls soccer, girls and boys tennis, boys lacrosse, girls and boys track and field, girls and boys cross country and baseball all would be affected, boys basketball would be the only one not really affected. We have a middle schooler, Dakota Bower, who played in the state doubles tournament recently.”

Oak Hall girls soccer finished 13-6-2 this past winter and advanced to the second round of the state playoffs before losing to Tallahassee Maclay. Eight of the 22 girls on the roster were middle schoolers, without whom the Eagles may not have fielded a team.

Same can be said for girls lacrosse at Oak Hall, which fielded 25 players, including 10 middle schoolers.

Trenton (20-1), which just won its second consecutive softball state title, relied on several middle schoolers. Starting second baseman Addison Allaire caught the last out of the Class 1A state title game for the Tigers to secure the 5-4 win over Jay. Allaire is expected to be the ace of the pitching staff next year as a seventh grader.

Branford (15-5), which lost to Trenton in the Class 1A state semifinals, relied on five eight graders this season, including its ace pitcher Laila Arnold, who finished 14-3 with 2.18 ERA.

Fuhr wasn’t the only area coach concerned about the proposal.

“We had four middle schoolers (sixth-eighth grade) on our team this year, I think it depends on the sport, it's hard to blanket a rule for all sports, for our female sports it would have been devastating. We rely on middle schoolers to fill our rosters,” P.K. Yonge girls soccer Rebecca Schackow said.

“For a lot of us we don’t have the numbers to fill teams and I think that goes for the same at Oak Hall and Saint Francis, we all rely on middle schoolers to fill our rosters and also develop them as well. I would never play our middle schoolers against a bigger, older team, but I would certainly play them against an inexperienced or young team. “

Despite fielding a successful program, Schackow is dependent on her middle school athletes to fill her roster.

“We only field a varsity team, we can’t field a middle school or junior varsity team because there are not girls coming out,” Schackow said. “I think that is across the board, like in golf and softball, without those young kids many wouldn’t be able to field teams either.”