GAINESVILLE – As the academic school year winds down and the spring sports finish, the race for the 2015-2016 FHSAA Floyd E. Lay Sunshine Cup All-Sports Awards has come to a close.
Bolles (Jacksonville) swept the top overall, boys and girls awards in the 4A (private) class. American Heritage (Plantation), Coral Springs Charter and Maclay (Tallahassee) each fought their way to the top in winning the overall of their respective classifications.
Winter Park, St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale), Fort Myers, P. K. Yonge (Gainesville), Grandview Prep (Boca Raton) and South Walton (Santa Rosa Beach) all maintained their lead to win the overall awards for their classifications as well.
Winter Park maintained their lead in the class 8A standings thanks to the girls track & field team, boys water polo teams for advancing to the State Semifinals. The Wildcats took home the girls award as well. Cypress Bay maintained their lead in the 8A boys standings to win the award.
St. Thomas Aquinas’s boys lacrosse, water polo, and track & field teams helped the Raiders win the 7A overall and boys awards. The boys lacrosse team won a state title while the water polo and track and field teams had high ranking finishes. The softball and the boys water polo were also state finalists. Niceville topped St. Thomas Aquinas to win the 7A girls award.
Fort Myers maintained their lead in the 6A overall standings despite a surge by Belen Jesuit (Miami). The Green Wave won both the overall and the girls awards. Belen Jesuit won the 6A boys award thanks to an appearance in the state series by the baseball team and a state title from the boys water polo team.
American Heritage’s softball team won the state title and helped their school take the 5A overall and girls award. The Patriots tied with Bishop Moore in points for the girls award, but American Heritage came out on top with the established tiebreaker for: (2) two State Championships to Bishop Moore’s (1) one. Jesuit won the boys 5A award with help from the boys water polo team who won the state title.
Bolles swept all three 4A (private) awards for the second year in a row. The Bulldogs’ baseball team and girls track and field team helped their school win by almost 100 points.
Coral Springs Charter overtook Lincoln Park to win both the overall and girls 4A (public) awards. This is the third girls award that Coral Springs has won. LaBelle earned 6 points in the spring to edge out Washington (Miami) and win the boys award.
Maclay’s boys lacrosse team advanced to the third round play-in game and their baseball advanced to the State Semifinals. This helped propel Maclay into first place for the overall and boys 3A (private) awards. Community (Naples) edged out Circle Christian (Winter Park) by four points to win the girls award.
P.K. Yonge maintained their lead over FAMU (Tallahassee) to win the Class 3A/2A Girls (Public) overall award for the second year in a row. They also won the girls award, but SLAM Academy (Miami) took home the boys award for the second year.
Grandview Prep won the 2A (private) with help from the softball team that advanced to the State Championship. Lake Worth Christian won the girls award despite a surge by Grandview Prep. Trinity Christian (Lake Worth) won the boys award after their baseball team took home the 2A State Title.
South Walton maintained their lead in both the overall and girls 1A standings to win both awards. Trenton overtook Chipley to win the boys award.
For the 2015-16 school year, the 704 member senior high schools have been divided into eight classifications for administrative purposes based on the enrollments submitted to the FHSAA Office in October 2014, which were used to discern the classifications as they are drawn up now.
In accordance with a Board mandate at its November 2002 meeting and a restructuring prior to the 2011-12 school year with the addition of the rural classification, Classes 2A, 3A and 4A are further subdivided into public and private categories. Due to a lack of eligible schools for this year, class 2A and 3A Public schools were combined into one category. An All Sports award will be presented for each of these 10 categories in overall, girls and boys divisions at the conclusion of the 2015-16 school year.
Points are awarded to a school based on its finish in FHSAA State Series competition in each sport in the classification in which it has been assigned to compete. The top 16 places are scored. In all sports with team scores, points are awarded as follows: 20 for the state champion, 12 for the state runner-up, 9 for the state semifinalists, 6 for 5-8th places, and 3 for 9-16th places.
Schools get a 2-point bonus for winning a district or regional championship, and points are deducted for unsporting conduct: 0.25 points for Level 1 student-athlete ejection/unsporting conduct incident; 0.5 for Level 2 student-athlete ejection/unsporting conduct incident; 1.0 for Level 3 student-athlete ejection/unsporting conduct incident; 2.5 for Level 4 student-athlete ejection/unsporting conduct incident; 1.0 for Level 1 coach ejection/unsporting conduct incident, plus addition 0.5 points deducted for each $50 amount above initial fine; 1.5 for Level 2 coach ejection/unsporting conduct incident, plus addition 0.5 points deducted for each $50 amount above initial fine; 2.0 for Level 3 coach ejection/unsporting conduct incident, plus addition 0.5 points deducted for each $50 amount above initial fine; and approximately 1.5-3.0 additional points deducted for a school or team-based violation (e.g., bench-clearing brawl, coach takes team off the field, etc.).
In the event of a tie for the award in either the overall, girls or boys divisions at the end of the school year, the following tiebreakers will be used: (1) number of state team championships won; (2) number of state team runners-up finishes; (3) number of regional team championships won; (4) number of regional team runners-up finishes; (5) number of district team championships won; and (6) number of district team runners-up finishes.
About the FHSAA
The Florida High School Athletic Association supervises and regulates interscholastic athletic programs for high school students at member public, private and charter schools. The organization also recognizes and honors academic achievement among student-athletes at almost 800 middle, junior and senior high schools statewide. Headquartered in Gainesville, it is the official governing body for interscholastic athletics in Florida.
