The Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) just recently changed a rule pertaining to uniform requirements that has been hotly debated between coaches and meet officials over the years. As confirmed by the FHSAA Track & Field Director Edward Thompson, starting for the 2017 track & field season, uniforms will no longer be required to have competitor numbers on the back. This idea was initially passed by the track & field coaches' advisory committee in May and was recently approved by the FHSAA.
News of the change has been received with much praise by coaches and on social media sites because of the ruling. The reason for the support of the new rule change is that schools will be saving money when purchasing new uniforms as the cost should now be decreased because manufacturers will no longer have to print numbers on the back. This track & field change towards uniforms now falls in line with a rule change that was made towards uniforms in cross country a couple of years ago. Although these policy changes have received some criticism from competition officials who argue that numbers missing from uniforms make it harder to identify athletes during meets, the majority of the feedback has been positive.
This change happens to be one of a few larger policy changes made by the FHSAA in track & field over the last few years. Other big changes have included allowing athletes to participate in four running events during a competition versus only three, following in line with National Federation guidelines, and most recently, the policy change that now allows athletes to wear jewelry during competitions. The new change pertaining to jewelry was addressed by the FHSAA Cross Country Director, Alex Ozuna, at the FACA Cross Country Clinic this summer. This now better allows meet officials to be able to focus on the competition itself, rather than having to police athletes for wearing jewelry and being out of rule compliance.
If you would like more information about the FHSAA or how to help with policy changes in either track & field or cross country, visit the FHSAA website and contact your sports administrators or members of the advisory committee.
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