- December 15, 2025
A state bill could offer more leeway to young athletes and what high schools they attend.
BY MATT MENCARINI | STAFF WRITER
A bill before the Florida House of Representatives could affect the future of high school sports in Ormond Beach and the rest of the state.
But there are differing opinions as to whether the changes that could result from House Bill 1279 are good or bad for student-athletes, schools and high school athletics.
The bill, sponsored by State Rep. Larry Metz, of District 32, is designed to revise the policies of the Florida High School Athletic Association, while also defining student eligibility and adding greater government oversight.
“I’m going to vote for it because I do feel it’s one of those circumstances where the (athletic association) has gotten too big,” said State Rep. Dave Hood, of District 25, which includes Ormond Beach. “A lot of it has to do with creating due process.”
The association says the bill creates a “wide open” atmosphere, though, where students can compete in various sports at various schools without actually attend classes there.
“This makes high school athletes, basically ... a meat market,” said Florida High School Athletic Association Executive Director Dr. Roger Dearing.
The House was set to vote on the bill April 17, but instead temporarily postponed the vote. If it passes, the Senate can add the bill to its special order calendar, or the Senate version of the bill will continue to make its way through committee.
“You have a lot of accusations from an organization that’s overbearing,” Hood said. “There may be some truth, but I don’t ascribe to the sky is falling (rhetoric), from either side. I think it’s an even-handed approach for everyone to know what the rules are.”
Steve Gold, the Seabreeze athletic director, declined to comment on the bill and said he was still reviewing it, as of Tuesday.
The bill would allow high school students to transfer and be eligible to participate in athletics at the school to which they’re transferring, as long as the transfer is made by an atheletic association deadline, which can’t be before the first day of authorized practice.
The bill would also allow high school students to be considered eligible for a sport if the student “becomes a candidate for an athletic team by engaging in a practice prior to enrolling in the school,” which is the part of the legislation Dearing is most concerned about.
Another aspect of the bill limits the athletic association’s ability to punish student-athletes, programs, coaches or schools.
Student-athletes may be declared ineligible if they falsified an enrollment or eligibility document, or if they received a “benefit or any promise of benefit” not generally available to the school’s students or parents.
Contests could not be forfeited for what the bill calls “inadvertent eligibility violations,” only for those violations a “coach or a school administrator should have known of.”
The bill also increases the athletic association’s Board of Directors from 16 to 19, with specific assignments made by the Commissioner of Education, Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Senate President.
It also revises term limits, requires the Commissioner of Education to appoint the executive director, and limits the executive director’s salary and compensation for travel.
