Live Oak — corey.davis@gaflnews.com



JACKSONVILLE-A day before the high school football season was to begin, Arlington Country Day School (ACD) in Jacksonville dropped a bomb on everyone by withdrawing from the Florida High School Athletic Association.

By dropping out, the none of the school’s sanctioned sports are eligible to win state championships.       

ACD competes in district play with Lafayette in football and Melody Christian in basketball, softball and baseball.

ACD athletic director and boys basketball coach Rex Morgan told the Florida Times Union, “We have officially withdrawn from the FHSAA effective immediately. We enjoyed our relationship with the association, although at times it was strained. There’s no animosity. It’s a congenial break. The FHSAA is compromised of public and private schools and may not be the best fir for every school.”

The move comes while the school was being investigated by the FHSAA for several violations in multiple sports, although the majority of violations were allegedly geared towards the five-time state champion basketball program.

This isn’t the first time the school was being investigated. ACD was fined $1,000 by the FHSAA in 2000 for recruiting violations in multiple sports and fined nearly $30,000 in 2002 for unsuccessfully appealing after being put on restrictive probation in boys basketball.    

According to the Times Union, following a loss in the Class 2A state championship game in 2001, several ACD players were seen throwing their runner-up medals in a trash can. The FHSAA responded by placing the boys basketball program on one year’s probation and restricted them from playing in the postseason tournament the following year. When the school and several players families filed a lawsuit against the FHSAA before the 2001-2002 season attempting to reverse the decision to allow it to play in the postseason tournament, the FHSAA responded by adding two more years to ACD’s penalty, including a hefty fine.                

An anonymous source told the Democrat that several ACD basketball players from out of state and out of the country, were being housed in an apartment paid for by the school, an obvious violation.

The FHSAA was investigating the basketball and baseball teams, which also housed several foreign players as well.

According to the FHSAA, the investigation will now be suspended and would only be reopened if ACD decided to try and rejoin the association.

In lieu of the move, ACD did not show up to its scheduled kickoff classic at Andrew Jackson leaving them blind.

By dropping out of District 2-1B in football, eight other teams including Lafayette must find another opponent to play as well as non district games against Yulee and Baker County.    

Morgan told the Times Union he anticipated the Apaches would likely play an eight game schedule including games against Potters House Christian and other independent schools in Florida and Georgia.

Now schools like Lafayette and Melody Christian will have to fill holes in their schedule.

Lafayette head football coach Joey Pearson was shocked by the move.

“One of our assistant coaches saw the article on the Times Union web site and told me,” Pearso said. “I was very surprised especially to see it so close to the season. Usually thats something you see in the offseason. I’m shocked to see it before the season. ACD was one of the better teams last year.”

As far as replacing its scheduled game Oct 29 in Jacksonville, the Hornets will try to find  someone else to play.

“We will have to advertise on the FHSAA classifieds page and see if we can find someone with the same open date,” Pearson said.

Melody Christian basketball coach Mike Raines will also have to redo part of his schedule as his Wildcats competed in the same district with the Apaches last season.

Although Raines team has been highly successful the last three years, they haven't won their district or advance past the first round of the state playoffs, because of other private schools that recruit kids from all over the country and other countries.

Arlington Country Day brings in kids from North Carolina, Maryland, Puerto Rico and other states as well and houses them in off campus apartments.

"Arlington Country Day is not on our level, we've been very good the last three years winning 73 games, but for my kids it's hard to compete with them in the same district,” Raines said.

"ACD has been to six straight Final Fours and had won five state championships until this season, I can't beat them,” Raines said. “One of my players plays travel ball with some of their kids and they told them about how they all live in a apartment together. It doesn't take a genius to figure what's going on over there, although you can't accuse someone without evidence.”

With ACD out of the way now, Raines team should be able to compete for its first district title now having to compete in District 3-1A against similar programs like them including Eagle’s View, Mandarin Christian, Seacoast Christian, Esprit deCorps and First Coast Christian.