Wednesday's $10,400 fine levied against Nature Coast's football program is one of the more significant penalties handed down by the Florida High School Athletic Association in recent years, but hardly the stiffest.
That distinction belongs to Bradenton Prep, fined $38,000 this past summer for infractions ranging from recruiting to principal Susan Hedgecock providing housing for an athlete. Bradenton Prep has since withdrawn from the FHSAA.
In January, Orlando West Oaks Academy was fined a then-record $26,550 for, among other things, using an academically ineligible athlete and a placekicker not enrolled at the school.
In the public school sector, Miami Senior High's boys basketball team was stripped of the 1997 Class 6A state title and fined nearly $8,000 after the FHSAA concluded five players (three starters) received housing assistance that season. According to the Miami New Times, 11 of Miami's 12 players were from out of the school's designated zone.
Locally, Armwood and Hillsborough each were fined the maximum $2,500 by the FHSAA in 1995 for recruiting in football. Armwood was fined an additional $562 for investigative fees.
In 2006, Nature Coast was fined $1,250 and placed on three years' probation after coaches were found guilty of four counts of recruiting in three sports.
A melee at the Freedom-Tampa Bay Tech game last year resulted in 10 total player suspensions (six weeks) and the suspension of an assistant coach, as well as fines.
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