Land O' Lakes High Forced to Forfeit Games for Recruiting Violations
The FHSAA rules that two sibling student-athletes were illegally recruited, the Pasco Times reports, resulting in a $3,200 fine.
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Land O' Lakes High must forfeit 44 athletic contests, including 23 football games, over two years and pay a fine because of recruiting violations, the Pasco Tribune reports.
The Florida High School Athletic Association ruled Wednesday that two sibling student-athletes were illegally recruited, according to the Tribune. The school self-reported the violations earlier this month, the Tribune reports, which led the FHSAA to reduce the fines from a possible $80,000 ($2,500 per game) to $3,200 ($100 per game).
The Tribune cited a report from FHSAA executive director Roger Dearing, which said the athletes' family "was assisted by a coach and a football booster parent, who helped them to obtain and submit a false address to attend Land O' Lakes High School, though they actually lived outside the district."
Principal Ric Mellin told the Tribune the incident did not involve any current members of the coaching staff, but he would not comment further while the school considers a possible appeal.
One of student-athletes also participated in five boys weightlifting meets last year, while the other played junior varsity volleyball, the Tribune reports. They have been withdrawn from the school.
Read the full story here.
Danielle
8:04 am on Thursday, February 16, 2012
Wow, that is a sad story. I feel so bad for all the other honest athletes because they are the ones being punished. You are only in high school for four years and now they get their sports taken away from them because of a stupid coach who decided to lie and cheat the system. Hopefully, he was immediately fired. LOL does deserve to pay the fines, but I hope they can play the future games sooner than later. I am glad they removed the out of district siblings. "Winners never cheat and cheaters never win!"
Southern4sure
8:46 am on Thursday, February 16, 2012
@Danielle, the coach was not fired but near the end of the football season last year, he was removed as coach over another incident, but still taught his class. He left LOLHS and is coaching football at another local highschool.
LOLHS is a great school however, there is too much emphasis put on football. It is well known in the school that you don't mess with the football athletics or their boosters. I'm not surprised at all by this.
Danielle
9:23 am on Thursday, February 16, 2012
Southern4sure - Thank you for the clarification. To be honest, I would not want him teaching my children or at the school. Once a cheater, always a cheater. We need to teach this generation to be accountable for ALL their actions. By still be allowing to teach and coach at another school, there is no lesson learned. Of course, that is just my opinion, but I believe in morals and ethics, not too many left of us though... Thank you.
Rhonda Thompson
8:57 am on Friday, February 17, 2012
The principal (who's job it is to oversee ALL activities at the school) should be held accountable. It's as if he/she knew about it the entire time and now is being called the "good guy" for acting swiftly. If I'm not mistaken, this Principal hand picked the coach in question. Hmmmm....
Danielle
11:05 am on Friday, February 17, 2012
Rhonda - Very good point! I did not think of that... Interesting, huh?
Kathy "Kat" Lambert
2:20 pm on Thursday, September 13, 2012
The point I noticed is that the violation was "self reported." That's a good thing. A principal is indeed responsible for just about everything that goes on in his own campus. However, sports and all its rules takes a principal's time away from what he should be doing: supporting his instructional staff and seeing to it that student problems such as misbehavior in class are dealt with by his administration proactively.