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Team Withdraws From District

By EDDIE DANIELS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 11, 2007

LAND O' LAKES - The Bishop McLaughlin football program has withdrawn from Class 1B-District 6 and will play as an independent, according to a letter from athletic director Mike Zelenka and football coach Marty Williams.

"We're a young school," Williams said. "Enrollment didn't increase like we thought it would for whatever reason. We kind of looked at the games that we played, where were we going with the results of those games and felt like it was a good time to revamp ourselves. We're a young enough program where we could do so."

The Hurricanes, which went 7-20 in varsity play the past three seasons, leaves a district that includes Bradenton Prep, Calvary Christian, Cambridge, Keswick Christian and Sarasota Out-of-Door.

Following a 5-5 campaign in 2006, Bishop McLaughlin fought through the graduation of 11 seniors, injuries and several transfers to go 1-8 this season. The team had just four seniors this year.

In their inaugural season, the Hurricanes compiled a 1-7 record.

Part of the process of withdrawing from district play is to let the FHSAA know of their intentions, which they didn't do. According to Williams, there likely will be a fine levied against the school.

The Bishop McLaughlin administration attempted to reach each team in the district to inform them of their intent.

In the letter, the administration and athletic department expressed feelings of excitement "about the opportunity for its football team to build while playing an independent schedule. We feel that the time out of a district will not only allow our team to grow in numbers, but also allow us to truly establish a program - complete with a junior varsity and offseason conditioning aspects."

The program, which will remain a varsity program, has set a timetable of the 2011-2012 school year, if not before, to return to district play.

"Our goal is to get back to the district play; we just don't have a core of kids right now that we can say will be there every year," Williams said. "We want to put ourselves in the position where the program's going forward."

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