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On The Road Again

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By SCOTT PURKS, Tribune correspondent

Published: December 6, 2007

TAMPA - Now that Tampa Catholic has traveled nearly 1,000 miles the past two weeks to reach Saturday's Class 2A state final in Orlando, and Armwood is riding 600 miles round trip to play a Class 4A semifinal in Miami on Friday night, a question has arisen: Is Texas doing it right?

In Texas, all high school playoff games are played at neutral sites to reduce the miles traveled and, perhaps more than anything, to promote fairness.

Which brings up the next question: Is Florida, which isn't exactly a small state, being fair enough to visiting playoff teams, particularly those late in the playoffs?

There have been some infamous incidents of playoff travel in years past, perhaps none more jarring than in 1997 when Robinson traveled to Belle Glades Glades Central for a Class 4A quarterfinal.

"A moment," Robinson coach Mike DePue said, "that is forever burned in my memory."

"Their fans threw chicken bones at us!" DePue said. "We had to walk through this gauntlet of people, who were yelling all kinds of unprintable stuff at us. And then at halftime was when it got really unbelievable.

"We were leading 16-14 and as we walked into the locker room their fans were screaming like maniacs at the officials: 'There's only two ways out of Belle Glade and we know where your car is!' After halftime, and I kid you not, you could see the fear in the officials' eyes. And man, they made terrible call after terrible call.

"Bottom line is we got flat-out hometown hosed losing 35-16."

And if you think it couldn't happen again, DePue said, "You're not being realistic. I guarantee there are places around this state where big-time intimidation still happens."

But what to do?
DePue said having neutral sites throughout the playoffs would be a logistical nightmare, as did Tampa Catholic coach Bob Henriquez, Armwood coach Sean Callahan and Plant coach Bob Weiner.

All of them, however, agreed that having a homefield advantage system is important because it gives teams something to play for during the regular season, and, it feeds hype and tradition, which is "fun."

But inconsistencies, they all said, can crop up in the system by the time you reach the quarter and semifinals.

"When you get down to the later rounds the problem is that the homefield advantage is not based on what you've accomplished," Weiner said. "It's only based on where you happen to fall in the bracket. It's totally random by the time you get to the state semifinal and that, I don't think, is exactly fair."

That is part of the reason states like Texas and Ohio use neutral sites (Ohio has neutral sites for the last four games of its playoff series).

Florida High School Athletic Association officials said there have been no discussions of moving games to neutral sites, but in recent years there have been attempts at making things as equitable as possible for visiting teams.

In the FHSAA "State Series Terms and Conditions" there has been inserted a section (208.03) on "Neutrality" for playoffs, which states: "It is the responsibility of the host school to ensure that an atmosphere of neutrality is maintained in all state series events. Such events are not 'home contests' for the host schools. Special festivities held as part of, or in conjunction with, regular-season home contests (i.e., pregame activities designed to rally support for the home team, such as light shows, or give special recognition to members of the home team) are not permitted during the state series."

Which is why Armwood's announcer, though by no means going overboard, was told by school officials during last Friday's Class 4A quarterfinal game against Plant to tone down cheers for the Hawks.

Besides those FHSAA rules in the "Terms and Conditions," there is an 11-point list of host-school facility requirements, including some safety requirements, locker room access and restrooms.

For the two remaining Hillsborough County teams - TC (11-2) and Armwood (13-0) - things have been, despite any travel (TC went to Clewiston and Homestead the past two weeks), just fine.

"Honestly, we're looking forward to playing at Booker T. Washington in Miami," Callahan said. "For me, I wouldn't want to lose the homefield advantage system. It's tradition and it's fun."

Weiner, DePue and Henriquez said they wouldn't want to lose it either, but maybe some tweaks here and there might be in order to reward homefield advantage all the way through the semifinals.

"Home, away, whatever, it doesn't really matter to the players," Tampa Catholic running back Drew Zink said. "In fact, when we travel it's almost better in a way. You get on that bus, put the headphones on and stay focused."

"In the end, all the fields, goal posts and footballs are the same size," Henriquez said. "Isn't that the most important thing?"

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