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Hernando Today

Paradise Lost

Photo by JOE DiCRISTOFALO

NCT Head Coach Jamie Joyner

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By CHRIS BERNHARDT JR.

Hernando Today

Published: November 19, 2008

They gathered in a room in the corridors of the Nature Coast Technical High School gym, a team waiting to learn its fate by a fax instead of a scoreboard.

The news was as bad as possibly expected: the Florida High School Athletic Association forcing the Sharks to vacate their spot in the Class 3A state playoffs.

Instead of preparing for Williston, everyone associated with the Nature Coast program had to come to grips with a grim reality. Somehow in their most meaningless game of the season, the Sharks lost everything.

"It's messed up," said senior defensive linemen D.J. Williams. "There's nothing we can do about it. We just got to keep going on."

Emotional Meeting

Williams, considered an emotional leader of the team, spoke in a low voice, epitomizing the quiet procession of players and coaches as they left the meeting to announce the FHSAA's decision.

"It's heartbreaking," said All-State running back Tevin Drake, a junior. "Just to see a perfect season go down like that, we worked so hard and to see it go into flames like this. It's not a good look.

"But it lets us know everything happens for a reason."

Head Coach Jamie Joyner, his own six-week suspension still up in the air, addressed the team during the meeting.

"It's hard to find the right words," Joyner said. "How do you tell them? Usually I have so much to say. Today I had nothing to say to them. There's nothing you can say to lessen what they're going through right now."

Joyner said he was not shocked by the decision, though the school had hoped its appeal, which included numerous statements by players and coaches, would make a difference.

Instead the Sharks not only lost their opportunity to compete in the state playoffs, but were hit with a $10,400 fine, including $4,800 for 48 counts of regular unsportsmanlike conduct.

Though the referee report from the incident with South Lake claimed both benches cleared, Nature Coast has contended that the majority of its players immediately retreated to the fence line.

That procedure is consistent with a plan put in place after last season's postgame incident with Central High, a plan the school believes was properly executed.

"I don't think justice was done today at all," Principal Tizzy Schoelles said. "Rather than let a crime go unpunished, they condemned the innocent. A lot of our kids did the right thing but not according to the distribution of fines.

"…We have young men of character at Nature Coast, young men I'm proud to be the principal of and I know these young men did not cross that field. I do not know what to tell them."

Schoelles announced that NCT would appeal the decision.

Larry Dodson, father of senior offensive linemen Lane Dodson and chairman of the Nature Coast Boosters, did not hold back on his opinion.

"As a parent I believe that the FHSAA has acted irresponsibly toward the investigation that they were entrusted to conduct," Dodson said. "They accessed fines against children who were with cheerleaders at the fence."

Dodson speculated that the FHSAA held off its decision until now in order to keep the Nature Coast Boosters from filing an injunction to allow Friday's game to be played.

Because the injunction must be filed in Alachua County, where the FHSAA offices are located, Dodson said there is simply not enough time.

Last week the booster club, the fundraising arm of the program, announced that it had sought legal counsel in order to fight any reparations it may have to pay to Central for last Friday's forfeiture.

"The booster club will now re-evaluate its position, look at the assessed fines, look at the liability we believe already exists by the counsel's advice, and move forward as advised by him," Dodson said.

Regardless, nothing can save Nature Coast's season now, leaving little consolation for a team that went 9-0 on the field, rose to 10th in the state poll and seemed primed for a strong playoff push.

"They're undefeated," said Joyner, recalling what he said to his players. "That's how I'll describe them. Nobody beat them. That's something they can hold on to and hold their heads up.

"We had a goal set in January. They stuck to that goal for 11 months and they didn't lose. They accomplished that goal as far as we're concerned."

Sports writer Chris Bernhardt Jr. can be reached at (352) 544-5288 or cbernhardt@hernandotoday.com.

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