FHSAA

The Senate voted 35-0 on an amended bill that was unanimously accepted by the House earlier in the week. It allows head coaches to spend up to $15,000 on their players a year.

The measure was named after Teddy Bridgwater, who played with the Bucs last season after he was suspended from Miami Northwestern High because he paid for meals and rides for his players.

Teddy Bridgewater's suspension from his voluntary position at Miami Northwestern High inspired the legislation, which would permit prep coaches to financially help kids on their teams.

The proposal comes after Teddy Bridgewater was suspended from his voluntary coaching position at Miami Northwestern for assisting students through Uber rides, meals and branded gear.

After a nine-year legal battle, the high court let stand an appeals court ruling in favor of the FHSAA, which denied Cambridge Christian's request to use a football stadium loudspeaker for prayer.

The Florida High School Athletic Association filed a document asking justices to turn down an appeal by Tampa's Cambridge Christian School.

The justices will discuss whether to take up the case during a Sept. 29 closed-door meeting.

School districts will be mandated under new law to provide low-cost electrocardiograms to student-athletes in Grades 9-12. The tests can detect deadly heart conditions.

The yearslong dispute is about whether the school should have been barred from offering a prayer over a stadium loudspeaker before an FHSAA football championship game.

The school will ask the high court to overturn a decision last year by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that sided with the FHSAA over a prayer on a stadium loudspeaker before a football game.

The case stemmed from a 2015 game at Orlando’s Camping World Stadium where the FHSAA blocked Cambridge Christian from praying over the public address system.

The panel concluded that announcements over the loudspeaker at the 2015 game were “government speech.”