Dunedin quarterback Argi Radani was ruled eligible to play his final season by the Florida High School Athletic Association during Thursday’s sectional meeting in Bradenton.
Radani, a senior, initially planned to remain a student at Clearwater Academy International, which does not offer 11-man football, but play for the varsity squad at Dunedin. State rules typically allow a student to play for another school if the non-member private school he or she attends has fewer than 125 students and does not offer interscholastic sports.
Radani, who is zoned for Dunedin, participated in offseason workouts with the Falcons starting in July. He decided to enroll at the school in August. Two weeks ago, Dunedin athletic director Marc Allison, prompted by the FHSAA, sidelined Radani as a precaution. Allison was concerned that the FHSAA might rule Radani ineligible if it considered Clearwater Academy's athletic program interscholastic.
"The FHSAA understood that it was just a misinterpretation of a rule," Allison said Thursday after the appeals hearing.
Gibbs athletic director Javan Turner, who is on the FHSAA board of appeals, said an admintrator from Clearwater Academy International attended the meeting and helped sway the decision by speaking on Radani's behalf.
"The board is not in the business to just punish kids," Turner said. "From all accounts, the family did everything right and was not trying to skirt the rules. They were given some misinformation by adults in the matter. It didn't seem right to punish the kid for that."
For the past two seasons, Radani played eight-man football at Clearwater Academy, throwing for a combined 92 touchdowns and leading the program to a state title in 2012. Radani had success with Dunedin in summer leagues and threw for a pair of touchdowns in the preseason jamboree.
Without Radani, the Falcons started 1-1.
"Right now I love the FHSAA," coach Matt LePain said. "They realized that we had done nothing wrong. This was a kid that lived in our zone that just wanted to play football."
LePain said that because Radani missed the first two weeks of the season, he will not start Friday at East Lake (2-0).