Florida high school football coach suspended for 2025 season

A Florida high school football team must find a new head coach because of the suspension of their previous mentor. The Florida High School Athletic Association banned The First Academy’s Jeff Conaway from coaching throughout the 2025 season. However, according to FHSAA rules, the school will have ten days to appeal this decision.

While the Royals had a 9-1 record last season, having unenrolled players led to the forfeiture of all their victories. Likewise, they cannot participate in the playoffs for the 2024 and 2025 seasons and the school must pay a fine.

As the Orlando Sentinel’s Buddy Collings wrote, the FHSAA ruled that Conaway must also forfeit $5,000 of his salary. He cannot attend Florida high school football games at any level until December 13, 2025, as well.

Under Conaway’s tenure, The First Academy welcomes more than 30 transfer players. According to the FHSAA, at least ten players participated in the school’s athletic activities before enrolling. Worst yet, Conaway knew that these student-athletes were not TFA students.

In addition to being a Florida high school football coach, Conaway was also the school’s Athletic Director. However, the school relieved him of that duty and hired former FHSAA Board of Directors president Andy Chiles as A.D.

Conaway moved to The First Academy before the 2023 season. After going 6-4 in his first season as head coach, the Royals became the top-ranked team in Class 1A. Without the forfeited wins, their only loss was against Georgia’s Rabun-Gap Nacoochee and they’ve pulled off upset victories against Edgewater and Seminole.

However, the violations perpetrated by the school came to light after baseball coach Scott Grove left his role due to the alleged circumventing of rules. After this incident, other Florida high school football coaches said that The First Academy recruited players from other campuses.