Lake Highland Prep going national
Highlanders leaving FHSAA competition for U.S. Schedule in ’20-21
The goal for the Lake Highland Prep wrestling team has been the same since Mike Palazzo took over: be the best team in the country.
The Highlanders have gotten close to that target, finishing in the top 10 in the country for five consecutive seasons.
Now Lake Highland wrestling is taking the next step toward its objective, surrendering its chance to rack up more Florida state championships to instead take on a truly national schedule starting with its 2020-21 season.
The move means that LHP, which has dominated Class 1A in the past nine years, will not be competing in Florida High School Athletic Association district, region and state tournaments. Its wrestlers will not vie for individual weight class state championships.
“We want to be the best team in the country and this is probably the best path for us to chase the ultimate goal,” Lake Highland wrestling coach Mike Palazzo said. “That’s the biggest reason for this decision.”
Lake Highland will remain an FHSAA member school with only its wrestling program switching to an independent status.
The Highlanders have won 11 state wrestling team titles since 2012. That includes eight Individual Bracket Tournament titles and all three state duals championships that have been contested since the FHSAA added that as a second state series for the sport.
The program holds the FHSAA record for more team points scored in a state tournament (333 in 2018) and most individual state champions in one season (nine in 2016).
Lake Highland is the only Florida school to have had eight or more individual state champions in a single season and it has done that three times, including the 2019 state tournament in March.
“The state tournament is tough, it’s prestigious and our decision isn’t a knock on it,” Palazzo said. “It was not the easiest decision because there’s a lot of fun competing at the state level and our kids take a lot of pride in it.”
In exchange for missing out on state competition, Lake Highland will compete in the Prep Nationals and contend for a national title. That tournament has a qualifying process and it means the Highlanders season will now end February while state tournament wrestling continues into March.
“Prep Nationals is a new challenge that will open a clear path to a national title and even more national exposure,” Palazzo said.
He sees the move as a positive for the growth of talent in the state.
“We can become better ambassadors to the Florida mission itself,” Palazzo said.
Last season, the Highlanders competed at national events in
Ohio, Delaware, California and Illinois in some of the toughest tournaments available. To compete in that many or more out-ofstate tournaments the Highlanders had to opt out of FHSAA competition.
In March, schools were reminded of a rule on its books to allow teams to travel out-of-state only one time per season to states outside of those that border Florida (Georgia and Alabama) if they wish to participate in the state series.
Being part of the FHSAA state series also meant being committed to competing in the state duals playoff rounds throughout the month of January.
“It’s about the limitations about how often we are able to have flexibility of scheduling and on different levels,” Palazzo said.
“We needed to do this to be able to continue the type of schedule that we want to have.”
“If the rules were more conducive to our program we would come back. The FHSAA has been sympathetic and they understand.”
Despite not competing in the state playoffs, Lake Highland can still participate in tournaments in Florida throughout the season as an FHSAA member school.
“Our schedule will be similar to what it is now,” Palazzo said. “We will still compete in the state and have guys wrestle in events in Florida.”
“We are still a national high school federation team and can still compete in those tournaments if there’s a spot and the director allows it. We will probably wrestle locally more than before.” The move is similar to the ones made by Montverde Academy, a Lake County boarding school that retained FHSAA membership while opting out of state playoffs for its powerhouse programs.
The Eagles dropped out of state series play for the 2003-04 boys basketball season and quickly became a national juggernaut with six national No. 1 finishes since 2006-07.
Montverde has since made the same move in boys soccer, which claimed a string of national championships since 2011, and other sports including girls soccer, baseball, tennis and girls basketball.