OXBRIDGE’S PLAYERS CAN’T PLAY FOOTBALL ELSEWHERE

Oxbridge Academy football players will not be eligible to stay at the school and play football elsewhere, Florida High School Athletic Association spokesman Kyle Niblett confirmed Friday.

Students at some schools can be eligible to play for others when the private school they attend does not offer a sport, but Oxbridge Academy does not meet those qualifications.

The FHSAA handbook specifies these conditions for students to play elsewhere when their school does not offer a sport:

■The private school in which the student is enrolled is not a member of the FHSAA;

■ The private school does not offer the sport in which the student wishes to participate;

■ The private school enrollment consists of 125 students or fewer.

The school shut down the ThunderWolves football program, which came within four points of winning the Class 3A state championship last year, on Wednesday.

Remaining players have started or supported a petition to revive the program. As of Sunday afternoon, the petition had received more than 1,100 signatures.

The football program’s demise has hit the players harder than the loss in the state title game.

“That was not nearly as bad because — don’t get me wrong, it hurt and I cried after we lost that game; I was devastated — but this hurts, but it’s not the same kind of hurt,” one current player said. “In the sense that now I don’t know if I’m going to be able to play with my friends, I don’t know if I’m going to have the opportunity to play for another state title game.

“But at least then I knew that I was going to be given the chance to go back in the locker room in January and start lifting and working toward that goal again.”