Want to know why the Florida legislature is blowing up high school athletics? Warning it will make you ill.

From the Ledger's editorial board

A bill to undercut residency requirements for players on high school sport teams passed the Florida House of Representatives on Friday 78-34.

Filed by Rep. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, House Bill 1403 can be seen as nothing other than retribution for the Florida High School Athletic Association ruling ineligible five members of the nationally recognized Lakeland High School Dreadnaught football team this school year. Additionally, the Athletic Association ruled that Lakeland High must forfeit its full 2010 season for using two ineligible players.

Lakeland High School has an enviable-and-deserved record of district, state and national football championships. It does not need residential trickery to continue its success.

A Senate bill is similar to Stargel's House bill. SB 1704 sat idle through most of February, but is back in the game, running at full speed toward a final vote. If the bill, filed by Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville, passes, several substantial differences will have to be reconciled in a conference committee between the two legislative bodies.

Stargel calls HB 1403 a "measured" response to the ineligibility rulings, reported Ledger Tallahassee Bureau Chief Lloyd Dunkelberger in an article Tuesday.

"It is going to make sure that the children are not being punished for the behavior of the adults around them," Stargel says. "We're putting the burden on the adults."

RESPONSIBILITY

Stargel paints a picture of kiddies scampering across a recreational field with glee, oblivious to arrangements their parents or guardians may have made.

The reality is that these young adults play before hundreds of students, family and alumni, with their every movement shown by a massive stadium television screen. The Dreadnaughts have played in high-profile games shown on national cable television.

Most of the advanced players are old enough to obtain a driver's license, and follow the rules of the road and be held accountable in court for failing to follow traffic laws. A person of such an age charged of a substantial crime would be tried as an adult, not as a child.

Failing to hold young-adult players responsible for knowing residency and other eligibility rules — and following them and being forthright about their actions — is an unforgivably poor lesson for the state of Florida to teach high school athletes through Stargel's bill.

HB 1403 is a shameful effort to put sports first and education second. As if the prospect of enshrining such a backward priority in law weren't enough, athletic directors for school districts across Florida say it will wreak havoc with sports.

OPPOSITION MUZZLED

Don Bridges, director of athletics for the Polk County School District, traveled to Tallahassee on Monday for a hearing on the bill before the House Education Committee. He was one of 20 athletic directors present and opposed.

He said HB 1403 would encourage recruiting and complicate the tracking of player transfers.

"Every school district in this state and every athletic director is opposed. This bill is just going to start up recruiting," he said.

Florida High School Athletic Association Executive Director Roger Dearing said, "It's a solution to a perceived problem that doesn't exist." He added, "It actually turns transfers and the opportunity for recruiting upside down in Florida."

The Education Committee denied itself the opportunity to hear of such problems and of the athletic directors' disapproval, because the committee's Republican majority limited debate on the bill. This is another example of how education — whether on high school campuses or in the chambers of the Capitol — has taken a back seat to Stargel's bill.

A Democrat on the committee objected. Rep. Luis Garcia of Miami Beach said the limitation was "comparable to what you see in Third World countries."

"The Cuban government would be proud to see what is happening here," Garcia said. "It is not a democracy."

None of this bodes well for the state's high schools, or the development and education of its student athletes.

The residents of Florida can hope that the Senate bill will hold sway in conference if passed. Defeat or abandonment of the Senate bill would be better, but don't count on it.

http://www.theledger.com/article/20120304/EDIT01/120309825/0/news00?p=3&tc=pg