FHSAA adjusts age limit for athletes turning 19

The Florida High School Athletic Association’s representative assembly narrowly voted in favor of altering the age-limit requirement for participating in varsity sports during an online meeting Monday afternoon.

Students who turn 19 years of age in July and August are now eligible for participation beginning with the 2021-22 school year. The previous birthday cut-off date of no earlier than Sept. 1 has been changed to July 1, which coincides with the start of the FHSAA annual planning calendar.

Changes to bylaws require a two-thirds favorable vote by the representative assembly, which Monday approved two other changes during its meeting. The age limit requirement passed by a 38-19 vote, exactly enough to get approved at 66.7%.

Russ Rogers of The Vanguard School in Lake Wales, who presented the amended bylaw, made a case that students who have been held back in school or have experienced difficulties in the classroom have been negatively impacted entering their senior year of high school.

He also voiced concern over the challenges of learning during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and how that could affect “thousands of kids” in public and private schools over the next couple of years.

“Research is now showing that there’s more and more students being diagnosed with learning disabilities, and not just that, but we have kids that are falling behind in [state testing] in third grade and fifth grade,” Rodgers said. “This has always been an issue. Right now, kids [who turn 19 in August] can start school and be ineligible, so then we have to submit [for an appeal].”

Craig Damon, FHSAA associate executive director for eligibility and compliance, said that 51% of appeal cases since the 2017-18 school year have centered around “kids born July 1 or after,” and that 100% of those cases resulted in approval to participate in athletics. Damon said 84% of those appeals resulted in eligibility being restored in full for the entire school year.

Based on the current FHSAA calendar, a student who turns 19 on July 1 of their final year of eligibility would be five weeks shy of their 20th birthday by the time baseball state championship tournaments conclude.

Other bylaw changes include flexibility for the FHSAA to work with member schools when putting in place a state-wide return-to-play plan during “time of an unforeseen pandemic,” such as with the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020.

The group also amended a bylaw brought forth by the officials advisory committee in regard to officiating at track and field events. It is now required that any officials hired by schools to work regular-season meets be registered through the FHSAA to ensure proper knowledge of rules and safety protocols.

The representative assembly voted overwhelmingly against allowing students who attend a private school that is not a FHSAA member to participate in athletics at a member private school or out-of-zone public school. That bylaw proposal failed by a 41-15 vote. Those students are allowed to participate only for public schools they are zoned for.