The Florida High School Athletics Association had said Clearwater would be fined $250 because Coit and his players never showed up at the mandatory postgame news conference after a loss in the Class 5A state semifinals. Now, it is saying it suffered a "complete breakdown" that night and Clearwater never was directed to the interviews.
"It wasn't their fault, it was ours," said Jack Watford, the FHSAA's director of communications.
According to Watford, the FHSAA's student sports information directors (similar to an intern) were supposed to bring Clearwater to the interview room but instead left the Lakeland Center immediately after the Tornadoes' 51-42 loss to Lake Howell.
Coit said he did an interview with a television station outside the Clearwater lockerroom and left with his team when no one from the FHSAA came to direct him upstairs.
By the time reporters asked FHSAA Assistant Director of Communications Robert K. Hernberger Jr. if Coit was being brought in for interviews, the Tornadoes were gone.
Hernberger, who assumed Coit had skipped the interviews, said the school would be fined $250.
But last week, Watford said the FHSAA e-mailed the school an explanation, and Coit said he received a letter of apology.
