Auggie Sanchez had about 25 players on the field for spring practice at Northeast High. By June, eight were gone. Most of them were starters, picked off by other programs.
Florida says it has a fix for the kind of roster raiding that hollowed out the Vikings. Sanchez doubts it will work.
“The FHSAA still has to enforce it,” said Sanchez, a former University of South Florida linebacker who is in his second season coaching his alma mater. “FHSAA needs to make it where if you transfer, you sit out.”
The crackdown became law inside Senate Bill 538, the coaching-pay measure Gov. Ron DeSantis signed in May. The transfer language was written to close a loophole that let homeschool, virtual and some charter and private students suit up for powerhouse programs nowhere near where they live.
Starting this week, those nontraditional athletes must play for a school in the county where they reside. Any student can transfer only once a year for sports, with exceptions for cases such as military moves. Public schools can charge non-enrolled athletes up to $400. The Florida High School Athletic Association must rule on a player’s eligibility within 14 days of a request.
At its June 9 meeting, the FHSAA board began writing the law into its bylaws. Athletes who transferred before spring practice this year were grandfathered in, including nontraditional freshmen, who can finish out their careers where they are. The board set three routes to eligibility: meeting the residency rule, a transfer ordered by the district superintendent, or a move within the first 20 days of the school year.
“Now stronger measures are in place to mitigate efforts to abuse the system,” FHSAA Executive Director Craig Damon said in a statement.
What the board did not do was set penalties for coaches, players or administrators who break the rules. For Sanchez, that is the whole problem. He wants counties to write their own rules and a mandatory year on the bench for anyone who transfers.
He also thinks the law protects the programs that least need help.
“The rich will stay rich and the poor will go extinct,” he said.
Sanchez sees the cost in his own locker room. Most of the eight he lost were starters with good numbers, he said, chasing a college future that almost never comes. By his count, about 1.7% of high school players reach major college football. Many will spend their senior years splitting snaps on loaded rosters.
“Majority will never play college and now they join super teams and barely play high school,” he said.
SB 538 moved alongside the Teddy Bridgewater Act, a separate law that lets coaches spend up to $15,000 of their own money on players’ meals, rides and recovery. Even that has limits. At the June meeting, board members noted the recurring Uber payments that got Bridgewater suspended would still break the rules.
Sanchez has heard enough talk. He is bracing for more departures.
“I hope we don’t lose anymore,” he said.
Quick hits
Julian Allen named Northside Christian boys basketball coach
Northside Christian School has hired Julian Allen as its boys basketball coach, turning to a player-development specialist to replace the NBA champion who took the Mustangs to the state final four.
Allen follows Marreese Speights, who left after one season to become head coach at Polk State College. Speights, a former University of Florida standout and 10-year NBA veteran, guided Northside Christian to the Class 2A state semifinals before taking the college job in Winter Haven in May.
Allen arrives from IMG Academy in Bradenton, where the school says he was an assistant coach with the academy’s national team. Before that, he spent six seasons as head coach at Admiral Farragut Academy, leading a program built largely around international players.
A Baltimore native, Allen is known for his work in player development. He runs his own training business and has worked with NBA pre-draft prospects, including Duke’s Isaiah Evans, UConn’s James Bouknight, Pitt’s Carlton Carrington and Arkansas’ Anthony Black, according to the school.
“Coach Allen is one of the best player development guys in the state,” said Ryan Chlebek, an assistant coach at Florida Gulf Coast University. “His ability to simplify the game, connect and teach his perspective is what separates him.”
Northside Christian framed the hire around its mission as much as its record, pointing to Allen’s fit with the program’s emphasis on character and faith.
Speights leaves after one of the best seasons in recent program history. The St. Petersburg native won an NBA title with the Golden State Warriors in 2015 and helped Florida capture a national championship in 2007. Polk State is his first head coaching job at the college level.
Pinellas County NFL stars cash in
Four players who grew up in Pinellas County signed new NFL contracts this offseason. The local map splits in two: a pair of East Lake Eagles up north, a pair of Lakewood Spartans down in St. Petersburg.
The biggest deal went to Justin Strnad, an East Lake graduate from Palm Harbor, who re-signed with Denver on a three-year contract worth $18 million with $10 million guaranteed. Strnad, a 2020 fifth-round pick out of Wake Forest, spent years on special teams before working his way into the Broncos’ defense. He started eight games in each of the past two seasons.
His old high school produced another deal days earlier. The Los Angeles Rams re-signed tight end Tyler Higbee to a two-year contract worth up to $8 million. Higbee played at East Lake under coach Bob Hudson, the same coach Strnad would play for a few years later. He is entering his 11th season and is the longest-tenured player on the roster, with franchise records for a Rams tight end in catches, yards and touchdowns.
The St. Petersburg deals came later in the spring, and both went to former Lakewood teammates.
Dallas signed wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling to a one-year deal. The two-time Super Bowl champion has played for eight teams but keeps finding work because of his speed. He led the NFL in yards per catch in 2020.
Seattle added edge rusher Dante Fowler Jr. on a one-year contract worth up to $5 million. The No. 3 overall pick in the 2015 draft, Fowler has 58.5 career sacks and a Super Bowl appearance with the Rams. He picked Seattle after a long phone call with former teammate DeMarcus Lawrence.
Fowler and Valdes-Scantling came up together on Lakewood’s 2011 team, which also sent offensive lineman Isaiah Wynn to the NFL.