Florida school district orders specific program dropped from athletic scheduling

Deciding to not put a particular team on your schedule is usually handled by choice of the athletic director for each respective school. In the case of a Florida school district, it came down to a directive straight from the very top of the athletic department that oversees the county.

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According to a Tampa Beacon report by Bob Putnam, Pinellas County Schools athletic director Marc Allison has ordered all high schools under their proverbial umbrella to not enter any new athletic contracts with St. Petersburg Catholic High School for the time being. Per Putnam’s report, it is the first time a school district has ever ordered such a directive to its member schools.

“I sent a thank you note to Allison,” St. Petersburg High football coach Denis Gillen said in the Tampa Beacon report. “This is out of control. I’m glad somebody finally stood up and did something about it.”

St. Petersburg Catholic’s athletic department X, formerly known as Twitter, account had previously released a statement back on July 10th, which was presumably in response to the Pinellas County Schools decision:

St. Petersburg Catholic High School remains committed to conducting its admissions and athletic programs with integrity and in full compliance with all applicable rules and regulations. Every student is admitted through our established admissions process and completes all required documentation in accordance with governing requirements. We remain confident in our procedures and our longstanding commitment to compliance.

While we are disappointed by recent scheduling decisions made by Pinellas County Public Schools, we remain committed to working collaboratively to protect the best interest of our student-athletes. We have requested a meeting with Pinellas County Schools leadership and are awaiting a response. We are hopeful this dialogue will lead to a positive outcome that is in the best interest of all students.

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— SPC Athletics (@SpcAthletics) July 10, 2026

Pinellas County has seen a immense drop in student enrollment over the years, forcing the district’s hand to close multiple schools in the process. Putnam’s report says that since 2018-19, Pinellas County has seen a drop in around 17,000 students since then, being one of the steepest falls of any Florida school district.

Student-athlete transferring over the years has become much more rampant throughout the state of Florida and St. Petersburg Catholic has seen a number of high school football players transfer in during the off-season.

Jesse Chinchar, the second-year head coach at St. Petersburg Catholic, said to the Tampa Beacon student-athlete transfers happen in cycles and that the Barons have lost kids in the past themselves and never voiced out concerns.

“These things go in cycles,” Chinchar said of transfers to the Beacon. “There have been transfers at plenty of public schools. Before I got here, this school was losing a lot of kids and they never complained. Eventually, I’ll lose some here, too.”

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