Girls basketball finals, gun show share venue

LAKELAND — As spectators entered the RP Funding Center for the girls basketball high school state finals, gun owners openly carrying assault rifles and shotguns roamed the same halls.

At the site of the Florida High School Athletic Association’s state tournament, the RP Funding Center concurrently held a gun show in the same facility. The event came less than three weeks after a mass shooting claimed the lives of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Nova High School — located 24 miles from where the Parkland shooting took place — was competing in the Class 8A state championship on Saturday afternoon. Head coach Jason Hively said he was stunned when he saw someone with a “big rifle” walking in the parking lot as the team bus pulled into the facility.

“It caught me off-guard,” Hively said. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Whatever your feeling is on the Second Amendment, I don’t think the two mesh here.”

“I think Douglas — was a little after Stoneman to be honest, I disappointed to see it. If you’re holding an athletic event for kids to promote sportsmanship, personally I don’t think it’s a good look for parents, kids and fans to walk into a venue that’s being shared with people carrying assault rifles. I don’t think [a gun show] should be held at the same time you’re holding a state tournament.”

The gun show was scheduled through the RP Funding Center, leaving the athletic association with “few options.”

FHSAA executive director George Tomyn was in Kissimmee on Saturday afternoon for the state wrestling finals, but spoke on the phone with the South Florida Sun Sentinel regarding the issue.

“It’s unfortunate, but our contractual agreement has nothing to do with that,” said Tomyn, who’s in his first year as the organization’s executive director. “We attempt to stay as neutral as possible on politically charged events.

“We put on great high school events — that’s our job. It’s unfortunate when the other stuff gets mixed into it.”

When asked if the FHSAA would hold state events in the future taking place at the same time and location as gun shows, Tomyn didn’t have a definitive answer.

“I haven’t spoken with any board members yet about it,” Tomyn said. “That topic is not on our agenda [as of now].”

In addition to the gun show and basketball tournament, the Nex Star Dance Competition also took place at the facility Saturday.

The FHSAA has held its boys and girls basketball state tournament at the RP Funding Center — formerly known as the Lakeland Center — since 1994. Tomyn said the tournament is slated to return to Lakeland next year, but didn’t have the exact details of the contract. In a separate prepared statement, the FHSAA said it worked with the RP Funding Center to reevaluate security measures to maintain safety during the event. The two sides made arrangements for an “increased presence of law enforcement” on Saturday.

Florida Gun Shows was slated to have an event in Fort Lauderdale on Mar. 17-18, but the show was canceled following the Parkland shooting.

wdusenbury@sun-sentinel .com; On Twitter @dusereport