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Student allowed to try out for team

But the state high school athletic board says the private schooler can't play volleyball for Centennial Middle.

By JAMAL THALJI
Published August 11, 2005

DADE CITY - Shelby Mander needed more than just her serve and her spike at Tuesday's tryouts for Centennial Middle School's volleyball team.

The 13-year-old needed a big-time lawyer - her dad, top criminal defense lawyer A.R. "Chip" Mander III.

There's no volleyball team at East Pasco Adventist Academy, where Shelby is an eighth-grader. The closest team she can play for: the Centennial Cyclones.

So she registered to play at Centennial Middle. But the Florida High School Athletic Association, which governs interscholastic sports, said no and told the Pasco County School District to say no.

She isn't a student there, the FHSAA said, so she can't play for the school. The only exceptions are for homeschoolers and charter school students.

The score so far: Shelby 1, FHSAA 0.

About 30 minutes before Tuesday's 3 p.m. tryouts, Circuit Judge Lynn Tepper ordered a temporary injunction allowing the 13-year-old to compete for a spot with all the other girls.

"I think it's ridiculous," her father said Wednesday. "There's no reason she shouldn't be able to play."

The Dade City law firm of Greenfelder, Mander, Murphy, Dwyer and Morris filed suit Tuesday against the FHSAA, the school district and Centennial Middle principal Tom Rulison. The suit says they are denying her rights granted by the Florida Legislature, which has recognized school sports as integral to the school experience.

"(State law) specifically requires that organizations like the FHSAA shall not discriminate between public, nonpublic and home school students," wrote attorney Daniel Dwyer. "Nonetheless, the FHSAA has treated Shelby Mander differently for athletic purposes than it treats homeschool students for the same purposes."

The FHSAA's rules are clear, spokesman Jack Watford said, and their lawyers will seek a hearing.

"There is a bylaw that the members of the association adopted decades ago," he said, "that students must be bona fide students of that school to represent that school in interscholastic competition.

"Our bylaws reflect the exemptions made in state law."

Rulison, the school principal, referred all comment to School Board attorney Dennis Alfonso.

Alfonso said the school district is worried about what will happen to the team if Shelby Mander plays but eventually is declared ineligible by the FHSAA.

"We could be forced to forfeit all of our games," Alfonso said.

History is repeating itself for the Mander family. They had to go through the same thing in 1997 to let oldest daughter Morgan try out for Pasco Middle's team - and they prevailed.

Like her youngest sister, Morgan also attended East Pasco Adventist but the state opposed her desire to play public school volleyball. It took an injunction to get her into the tryouts, but a key hearing was never set, the case went nowhere and Morgan finished the season.

She later played on the Zephyrhills High School team that went to the Class 4A Final Four in 1999 and the Tampa Prep team that won the 2A title in 2001. Now 21, she's a senior outside hitter at Saint Leo University.

All three of the Mander daughters - Shelby, Morgan and 18-year-old Gentry, who will start at Stetson University soon - have spent the middle school grades at East Pasco Adventist.

"It's really small," their father said, "and we've just been impressed with the discipline there."

As for Shelby, today is the last day of tryouts under Centennial coach Chris Slavkin. Her mother said she's already making friends and having fun.

Said Deanna Mander: "Isn't that what it's all about?"

[Last modified August 11, 2005, 00:43:15]