FHSAA reduces SPC penalties

By JOE SMITH
Published July 26, 2007

St. Petersburg Catholic will be allowed to hold preseason football classics and spring jamborees, effective this season, according to a ruling Wednesday by Florida High School Athletic Association commissioner John Stewart.

It's only the third time in Stewart's four years as commissioner that he reduced a school's penalty for FHSAA violations.

In May 2006, the FHSAA levied SPC's football program with a three-year postseason ban and a $13,000 fine for three counts of recruiting and four counts of illegal practices. The school paid the fine, but appealed the restrictive probation which included no jamborees and spring classics until 2009 season to the FHSAA board of directors twice, getting denied both times.

But in the school's last appeal in May - a 7-6 vote for denial - the board told Stewart he could re-assess the Barons' penalty after associate commissioner Sonny Hester made an oncampus visit to SPC. Hester made the visit Monday, calling it "productive," adding he feels SPC "is headed in the right direction.

The Barons have a new football coach in Tod Creneti, replacing longtime coach Dan Mancuso, who resigned a week before the October appeal. The school also has a new athletic director in John Gerdes, a longtime USF administrator and 1980 SPC graduate. Gerdes took over for Mancuso's wife, Ann Marie, who was asked to step down in the spring.

"We have no control or say over personnel changes at the school," Hester said Monday. "But at the same breath, the decisions that St. Pete Catholic made were showing good faith in wanting to go a different direction."

Stewart agreed, writing in a letter to SPC on Wednesday that "due to the positive measures taken by SPC, and with the authority granted by the FHSAA board of directors, it is the determination of this office that a reduction of the sanction is in order."

Though it was late notice for scheduling a fall classic, typically slated for the last weekend in August, Creneti had little problem finding a matchup for the Barons. Creneti said he has a oral commitment to play at Treasure Coast on Aug. 24.

SPC can appeal again to the FHSAA board of directors next year.

"We'll take it," SPC senior quarterback Kevin Tapp said. "It's not what we totally wanted in the big picture - with the playoffs and everything. But we'll take it."

Joe Smith can be reached at joesmith@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8129.

[Last modified July 25, 2007, 23:13:54]