The First Academy’s attempt at an injunction to grant the team entry into this year’s FHSAA football playoffs will run out of time. With the FHSAA’s playoff pairings set to be revealed at noon Thursday, deadlines placed on both parties by the court Wednesday will exceed the FHSAA’s scheduled announcement, an attorney for the TFA players told the Sentinel.
What appeared to be good news for TFA players on Wednesday morning, “spiraled into a mess” by evening said Paul Aloise Jr., an attorney representing TFA’s attempt for an injunction to get the team’s FHSAA playoff ban reversed.
Late Wednesday night, Aloise, an attorney for Heitner Legal of Fort Lauderdale, responded to the Sentinel’s request for information saying he was “heartbroken.”
“What was initially a great victory this morning, spiraled into a mess this evening and I am truly heartbroken for the student-athletes,” Aloise wrote in an email to the Sentinel late Wednesday.
“Judge [Margaret] Schreiber heard my ex parte argument this morning and granted the emergency temporary injunction on the record. From there she asked us to submit a proposed Order for entry, which we (the Petitioners) did prior to 11am this morning,” Aloise wrote. “Since then, the FHSAA attorneys filed a Motion to Dismiss, Abate, or Transfer to Proper Venue, and as a result, the Judge did not sign and enter the Order she orally pronounced on the record this morning.”
Judge Schreiber entered an order directing expedited briefing from both parties, setting a deadline of 5 p.m., Thursday for response from both parties.”
“Which will likely make our Petition for Injunction moot, due to the deadline for the FHSAA to make playoff decisions being [Thursday] at 12:00pm,” Aloise wrote.
The FHSAA will announce its 2025 football playoff pairings at noon Thursday via its YouTube channel.
A group of TFA parents had retained Heitner Legal two weeks ago, and last week the firm officially filed a temporary injunction to lift the FHSAA’s postseason ban on the team. The parents, on behalf of the TFA players, were seeking to overturn the two-year ban imposed after an FHSAA investigation found the program had allowed unenrolled students to participate in program activities.
The plaintiffs asked the court to step in and force the FHSAA to allow the team to participate in the upcoming playoffs, citing, as was stated in a letter from Heitner Legal to the FHSAA:
“The sanctions levied against The First Academy are egregious, arbitrary, and inconsistent with the FHSAA’s own precedents in handling similar violations at other member schools. The findings outlined in your November 1, 2024, letter stem primarily from an audit prompted by anonymous allegations of recruiting and impermissible benefits, yet the substantiated issues largely involve administrative oversights, such as student-athletes participating in off-season activities prior to full enrollment or without complete paperwork on file.
“It is important to note that while several student-athletes did participate in off-season activities prior to full enrollment or without complete paperwork on file, all of those issues were resolved prior to the start of the 2024 fall football season, and there was not a single player who actually played for the team during the 2024 fall football season that was not fully enrolled with complete paperwork on file.”
The firm pointed out that several rulings the FHSAA made against other member schools, specifically Miami Northwestern, Gadsden County and Nease, had far less extreme reprimands and/or penalties.
But time ran out on the proceedings and deadlines placed on further action are too far into the future to have any impact, due to the FHSAA’s Thursday playoff announcement.
Chris Hays can be found on X.com @OS_ChrisHays.
