Schools told to report Oxbridge players who enroll

Following Oxbridge Academy’s decision to shut down its football program last week — leaving a number of talented players looking for new teams — the Palm Beach County School District is attempting to monitor the anticipated flow of transfers out of the West Palm Beach private school.

On Tuesday, County Athletics Manager Valerie Miyares emailed all area athletic directors, mandating they alert her if an Oxbridge Academy player attempts to enroll at their respective school.

“Please communicate this with your [data processor] or whichever personnel enrolls the students at your schools,” Miyares said in an email obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

“Any students enrolling who list Oxbridge Academy as their previous school, please have your [data processor] or other person(s) that handles enrollment, to alert you as the AD. When you receive an alert, please call me. If you have questions related to this, please feel free to call me.”

Miyares told the Sun Sentinel that “it’s more so us doing our due diligence to make sure we’re in compliance.”

The defending Class 3A state runner-up, Oxbridge Academy announced last week it would be shutting down its football program due to low numbers. The ThunderWolves graduated 15 of their 41 players from last year’s team and found itself in a precarious position during spring practice with a roster in the low 20.

Eight players transferred out of Oxbridge Academy prior to the school’s announcement. While only one player has publicly announced his decision to transfer since the decision (wide receiver Jordan Cash to Broward County’s Chaminade-Madonna), a number of athletes have been scouting area schools as potential landing spots, multiple sources have said.

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