Jackson Jambalaya

 The rise and fall of a Florida private school's football program provides a cautionary tale to Mississippi private schools who "recruit" public school football players for their own rosters.  The Wall Street Journal reported Monday:

“Central Florida’s #1 Private Christian School” asks applicants to its now $28,370-a-year high school for reference letters from pastors. Prospective parents have been quizzed about Scripture. An honor code requires students to avoid, among other things, cursing, witchcraft and “professing to be a homosexual.”

On the athletic fields of its 160-acre campus, the children of doctors, lawyers and other professionals won state championships in golf and baseball. But in football, Florida’s marquee high-school sport, the TFA Royals were an afterthought with small players and a cupcake schedule.

That changed in 2024 after a wealthy entrepreneur named Eric Obrokta stepped in. The father of a TFA student with ambitions to play high-level football, Obrokta sank millions into the school.

More than 30 players, including some bound for big college programs, suddenly transferred to TFA before the 2024 season. The offensive line, once anchored by a 160-pound center, came to average about 280 pounds. There were new uniforms and helmets, NFL-style sideline monitors, drones for filming practice and a coach with a $230,000 compensation package.

Unsurprisingly, TFA crushed the competition that fall, going 9-1 and barreling toward a state title. Then, just as quickly as it began, it all crashed down....

Not TFA. Its offensive line was generally too small to protect the quarterback for long, making a sophisticated passing game difficult. The team relied on a running game, which moved the ball down the field in fits and starts but rarely resulted in plays worthy of highlights.

There was the money, too. With Obrokta’s largess, annual spending on football ballooned from about $25,000 to more than a half-million dollars, people familiar with the team said.

Conaway was paid a salary of $150,000 with an additional allowance that worked out to about $80,000 a year, Obrokta said. 

By contrast, TFA’s then baseball coach, Scott Grove, a former Major League pitcher, collected $67,000 a year for teaching gym and coaching. His team was a top national squad that had won a state title and was a perennial playoff contender.

Obrokta helped the new football coach and his family house hunt. After they selected a $962,500 four-bedroom home with a pool, Obrokta paid cash for it and held it for two months while they relocated, property records show. The family then purchased the property from Obrokta for the same amount....

Obrokta pitched Moffett on TFA as a “super team” that could rival the nation’s elite programs. Moffett accepted a position as associate head coach at a salary of $70,000, according to a person familiar with his finances. 

Groups of boys, many Black and large in stature, started touring TFA’s campus.

“I was just like, ‘What the heck is going on?’” said Grove, the baseball coach, who had worked at what he described as the “extremely white” school for a decade.

“We don’t get these type of athletes…I just didn’t understand it,” he said.

Conaway, who was also the school’s athletic director, was keeping a running tally of players transferring into TFA on a whiteboard in the athletic department, Grove said. He said he counted 25 names and Conaway told him that more were on their way. Grove said he replied, “You don’t know the FHSAA rules real well.”

The Florida High School Athletic Association is the main regulatory body for private and public school sports. Under its rules, schools or their representatives may not “pressure, urge or entice” students to transfer for athletic reasons. The prohibited conduct can range from a coach texting a prospective athlete to schools offering athletic scholarships or housing.

Grove said it seemed clear to him TFA was engaging in impermissible recruiting. He said Conaway shrugged off his warnings and that Obrokta mocked him, saying: “We are not buying them hookers,” a remark two others present also recalled hearing....

Transfers, many coming from the public schools around Orlando, would account for 18 of 22 starters that fall.  

As dozens of bigger, stronger boys appeared on campus, TFA’s existing team members realized they were unlikely to see the field. One varsity player took his frustrations to interscholastic authorities....

School officials used to dealing with wealthy, academically focused families had initially balked at admitting some transfers, Obrokta said. 

Many boys had single mothers with limited incomes, and some had learning disabilities, according to FHSAA records and proceedings. One player had scored just 200 out of 760 on the verbal portion of the PSAT, a mark suggesting pronounced academic delays, according to an application in FHSAA records. 

In the end, TFA admitted boys who were far behind, FHSAA records show.

Paying full tuition, which was $24,700 for the 2024 school year, was out of the question for many of them. One transfer’s household income was less than $40,000, according to FHSAA records. 

Obrokta said he suggested a less costly solution. 

TFA already had a two-day-a-week homeschool-hybrid program. It was housed in a church complex and separated from the regular school by a lake, and had different teachers, chapel services and dining facilities. It was also about half the cost. 

After Florida state education vouchers, which covered about $8,000 for each student, tuition came down to about $3,000—or less than $100,000 in total for 30 transfers.

Complaints filed to the FHSAA alleged Obrokta was footing the bill for the players’ tuition—which would be prohibited by interscholastic rules. 

Obrokta said he didn’t pay individual tuition bills or ask school officials to use his contributions to do so. But he doesn’t dispute his donations helped cover the cost of educating players, saying “I’m sure some of that money” would go toward that.

TFA denied any wrongdoing to FHSAA, saying, “In no way is tuition assistance given for the purpose of participating in interscholastic athletics.”...

Some plagiarized work and spent class on their phones, FHSAA records show. Players used to supervision, with worksheet handouts and a full week of instruction, had to complete assignments online and independently. “It was like being thrown into a totally different way of approaching school,” Philips said.

Some boys rose at 4 a.m. to make an hour commute for morning practice from areas outside Orlando. Linebacker Aden Hall, who graduated last year and now plays for UT San Antonio, said he did well, but “a lot of dudes were always sleeping in class.”

By October 2024, more than a dozen were failing academic courses, according to school records reviewed by the Journal. Obrokta said he offered administrators “an open checkbook” for tutors or other intervention.

TFA has a policy of mandatory drug testing to aid teens “in resisting temptation,” according to its website.

But the hybrid students weren’t tested before or during the season, even after suspicions arose that football players were smoking marijuana, according to people familiar with the program. 

After the season wrapped, Broomfield texted players a “heads up” that there would be drug testing in March—four months away, according to a text reviewed by the Journal. He added, “I would hope all of you young men are living right outside of football but if not you got time to get it right!”...

In November, with the playoffs looming, FHSAA announced that its investigation found that 10 TFA players had participated in preseason football without proper enrollment. The punishment was forfeiture of all wins in the 2024 season, which voided the team’s playoff eligibility, and a playoff ban the following year—the “death penalty,” the school lawyer called it.

TFA appealed. Obrokta hadn’t been interviewed by FHSAA and none of the infractions involved him, but he spent $25,000 for a lobbyist to argue the school’s case to the governor.

At a last-ditch hearing before the FHSAA, TFA acknowledged that it had improperly allowed transfers to participate but argued the punishment was too steep. 

An FHSAA board member noted an “unseriousness” in the school’s dealings with the regulatory body, according to a transcript of the hearing. Another asked about compensation for Moffett, the associate head coach who was paid $70,000 a year. Cohen told the board Moffett was an unpaid volunteer. ... Rest of article