Armwood High football team must forfeit state title, pay more than $12,000

By Joey Knight, Times Staff Writer
Joey KnightTampa Bay Times Posted: Jun 19, 2012 02:00 PM

Since recently acknowledging it used five ineligible football players during its undefeated state championship season last fall, Armwood High has awaited the grim formality of having its title taken away.

The wait ended Tuesday, with a 16-page document steeped in stern language and irony.

Nearly six months to the day after their 40-31 victory against Miami Central in the Class 6A final, the Hawks must relinquish their trophy and pay more than $12,000 in fines and investigative costs, the Florida High School Athletic Association informed the school Tuesday.

Officially, the school must forfeit every game in which the ineligible players competed last season. Additionally, Armwood must forfeit 11 games from the 2010 season in which an ineligible player competed.

Hawks coach Sean Callahan declined comment when reached Tuesday, referring all questions to Principal Michael Ippolito, who was attending a teachers' job fair at Jefferson High.

University of Oklahoma-bound outside linebacker Eric Striker, the catalyst of Armwood's '11 defense, declined comment. Right guard Cody Waldrop, reached Tuesday at the University of South Carolina, said the 2011 team will forever be champion in his eyes.

"No matter what happens, no one can take that season and that day away from us," said Waldrop, who signed with the Gamecocks in February.

The $12,743.46 price tag includes $6,543.46 for the costs of a six-month probe conducted by Troy Pumphrey, a former Washington, D.C., detective hired as an independent contractor for $250 a day. The $6,200 in fines breaks down to a $100 per-player penalty for each game in which an ineligible student-athlete competed.

FHSAA policies call for a $2,500 per-student, per-contest fine, but the FHSAA lowered the penalty considerably "as a result of the school's cooperation with the investigative process."

Hillsborough County school district spokesman Steve Hegarty said the school is on the hook for the investigative costs, but emphasized no taxpayer money will be used to pay them.

However, Hegarty said Armwood will require the parents of the ineligible players to pay their share of the fine total, citing a form parents sign at the beginning of the school year agreeing to pay any monetary penalties incurred by them or their children.

"Some of these students have graduated already, but we're going to contact the parents and tell them we expect them to pay their share," Hegarty said.

The monetary penalties and forfeited title are the harshest of seven sanctions administered by the FHSAA after a six-month investigation found the families of five players falsified residence information to enroll at the school, thereby making them ineligible.

Last week, Armwood agreed with those findings in a formal response to the probe.

Bearing some of the collateral damage will be Callahan's quest for a milestone. Callahan initially entered the 2012 season three victories shy of 200.

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