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School Population Projections Affect Plant City, Durant

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By DAREK SHARP

dsharp@tampatrib.com

Published: December 24, 2008

PLANT CITY - Remember that innovative new plan for Florida high school football, with larger districts, more meaningful games and more leeway with which to make the playoffs?

Not gonna happen.

Oh, and that whole assumption that Durant and Plant City would be made district rivals once again?

No on that one, too.

Last week's about-face by the Florida High School Athletics Association left things the way they are, at least from a playoff system set-up. The group was expected to reveal a new eight-district alignment for the state's bigger football programs. That would have meant more teams per district; hence every team in the state would have the majority of its games count toward its playoff hopes, as opposed to now with just a handful at most that matter.

But the association took a look at its proposed layout and realized that teams, mostly in the northern part of the state but all over to some degree, would be faced with ridiculous travel demands. Unanimously the association staff nixed the expected changes so, in classes 6A-3A a 16-district set-up remains.

As www.fhsaa.org notes, in some cases schools in Jacksonville would have been forced to make - each season - more than one trip to Pensacola or Niceville, and schools from the Fort Myers/Naples area would have been stuck in a district with teams from Miami and Key West.

The bigger schools from the Tampa Bay area would not have been nearly as inconvenienced on travel.

What did change, however, certainly can be described as a major shakeup. The association assessed the projected school populations for next year, and as a result there was massive realignment. It affected teams all over the state, and Plant City and Durant were no different.

As it stands, the Raiders and Cougars, who were both expected to land in Class 5A (the second biggest) thus naturally making them district foes again, are in separate classes. Plant City stayed in 5A but lost all but one of its district opponents, while Durant dropped all the way from 6A to 4A.

Durant will be appealing this move, as is permitted by the association.

"We are requesting to move up to 5A," Durant Athletic Director Christina Raburn said. She said that the predicted drop in attendance, which the association based around other schools set to open in the area, was overestimated.

In addition, Hillsborough County Athletic Director Lanness Robinson will send a blanket letter of appeal on behalf of certain schools, including Durant.

One can see why Durant might want to avoid its current planned group. In District 4A-10 sits the area's top power, Armwood. Joining the group also are Hillsborough, East Bay, King, Leto and Sickles.

Should the Cougars be granted the shift to 5A, in all likelihood they could find themselves in District 6 with Plant City. Right now Plant City sits in 5A-6 along with the team that won its district last year, Newsome. Replacing their other district rivals East Bay, Brandon and Bloomingdale are three schools that have all been stronger in football recently: Chamberlain, Gaither and Alonso.

Durant could get placed in 5A and still not be grouped with Plant City, since the proposed new District 7 contains Riverview along with Plant, Freedom and Tampa Bay Tech.

Appeals will be accepted through Jan. 9, and final decisions on the new districts should come down in late January.

Of course, Plant City and Durant will still be able to play each year, but the game won't have as much meaning since it won't count towards the playoff race.

Plant City High Athletic Director Trent Hobbs said the school is discussing its options for a possible appeal as well. Plant City's concerns are over the geographical location of the schools in its district.

The proposed new districts can all be viewed on the association's Web site.

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