Assigned to a geographically implausible football district for the next two years, Tampa Catholic is seeking relief through an FHSAA provision.
Crusaders athletic director Freddie Langiotti said the school has appealed its newest district assignment, which places it in 4A-6 with six other schools from well outside the bay area. The nearest school to TC, Sarasota Booker, is a 114-mile round-trip journey.
Langiotti said the school has cited Section 12.2.6 of the FHSAA Handbook, which says the executive director may move a school down one classification "if the school is geographically isolated from other schools in the classification to which it would be assigned."
Additionally, the school's student population must be within 10 percent of the dividing line between the classification to which it originally was assigned and the one to which it is moving. TC's population as reported to the FHSAA for the fall of 2012 was 674. The dividing line between Class 3A and 4A is 636-637.
Should TC's appeal be granted, the Crusaders almost certainly would move to 3A-4, which features only three schools: Berkeley Prep, Bishop McLaughlin and Lakeland Christian.