Comment: Who is the legitimate 6A champ?

The news began circulating for the first time seven months ago.

As the Lakewood Ranch High football team prepared for its regional quarterfinal game against nationally ranked Seffner Armwood, the Florida High School Athletic Association announced it was looking into whether or not one of the Hawks’ players was ineligible due to residency requirements.

Questions arose as to whether or not the game would actually happen and if, instead, the Mustangs would be granted a free pass into the second round of the Class 6A-Region 3 playoffs.

Although at the time, the Mustangs coaching staff and I both agreed that the notion seemed highly unlikely. Sure enough, we were right.

Later that week, as I walked around the stadium before the game, I noticed several poster boards and signs urging the FHSAA to let the player in question play.

And as the players took the field to warm up, I couldn’t help but seek out the player in question and wonder what sort of an impact he and the situation itself would present.

Four quarters later I got my answer. After watching Lakewood pull off a miracle comeback, the Hawks scored a touchdown with three minutes left in the game to secure a 35-31 victory and extend their perfect season.

The Hawks went on to win the Class 6A state title only to acknowledge later on that they had used five ineligible football players last fall.

On June 19, the FHSAA stripped the school of its trophy. The Hawks also must forfeit all of the games in which the ineligible players participated in last season, along with 11 games from the 2010 season, and pay more than $12,000 in fines.

So now the question becomes who should really be the Class 6A state champion?

Should it be Central who fell to the Hawks in the state championship? Or what about Lakewood, Hillsborough, Gainesville or Bartram Trail who all fell to the Hawks throughout the playoffs? Who is to say one of them wouldn’t have reached the state championship if Armwood wasn’t standing in their way. Of course we’ll never really know for sure.