Rick Pedone

Sports Editor

What a great weekend it was for a couple of local athletes when Osceola High’s Tynia Gaither and Harmony’s Chris Bolinger won state track and field championships at Winter Park.

Gaither, one of the greatest female prep track athletes in the state, perhaps the nation, earned gold medals in the 100 meters and 200 meters dashes at the Class 4A state meet Saturday.

Bolinger, who only took up the sport last year, won the Class 3A state discus championship May 7 on his last throw, setting a  school record in the process.

The athletes will proudly show those gold medals to family and friends, maybe one day to their children and grandchildren.

Juxtapose that joyous scenario for this one: the Winter Springs softball team, one of the best in Class 6A, almost sat home this week instead of playing for a state championship because of some nitpicking by the Florida High School Athletic Association that nearly denied the team its rightful spot at the state softball tournament in Clermont.

One of Winter Springs’ players, suspended for two games because of an incident during the regional playoffs, sat on the bench wearing a team jersey during the regional final victory over Jacksonville Fletcher. The team’s coach was unaware of some obscure rules that, for whatever reason, demand that suspended players not be permitted to wear the team jersey and sit in the dugout during the suspension.

An injunction filed by several of the Winter Springs players was granted by a circuit court judge Wednesday, permitting the team to participate at the state tournament. The FHSAA tried to have the injunction lifted at a court hearing Friday morning.

Why does it seem that the FHSAA, an organization that owes its existence to high school athletes, too often goes out of its way to throw up irrelevant roadblocks that punish those students?

Who cares if some kid, who has to be crushed because she can’t be out there playing for her school, is cheering for her teammates from the bench while suspended? What possible disadvantage is that to the opposing team?

Perhaps the FHSAA believes that suspended players on the bench can interfere by harassing the officials or the opposing team, but they could easily do the same thing by simply buying a ticket and sitting in the bleachers.

Whatever the reason, the punishment for this transgression – disqualifying the entire team from a state tournament – is not proportional to the crime.

Fine the coach for not knowing the rule. Fine the school.

But don’t punish a bunch of kids who did nothing more than devote years of their lives to developing skills that they hoped one day might result in earning their school a state championship.

Even the Fletcher principal, Dane Gilbert, was appalled by the extent of the penalty against the Bears softball team. In a letter to the Winter Springs parents, Gilbert explained that, as the host school, Fletcher was required to report FHSAA violations to the district athletic director.

Gilbert said he would have ignored the situation had he known of the result.

Several times each year, aggrieved parties file court injunctions against the FHSAA for what they believe to be unfair penalties for minor oversights, usually about recruiting or student eligibility.

How much time and money does the FHSAA spend on these lawsuits? Aren’t there better places to spend this money?

The FHSAA performs a valuable service and for the most part does an excellent job supervising prep sports.

It could, however, benefit from tearing about 10 pages of arcane rules from its bylaws, and in their place employ a little more common sense.

At some point, many of the state’s athletes, and their parents, are going to wonder whether it is worth the hassle to play high school sports.

Exposure tournaments and travel ball teams give athletes opportunities to impress college scouts; they don’t need prep sports anymore.

At this rate, the FHSAA may eventually enforce itself right out of business.