Tocoi Creek reclassified to new classification after student population increase

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – In what is considered a very rare move by the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA), Tocoi Creek (St. Augustine) is getting a new classification and a new district for the upcoming 2023-24 school year.

The news of the reclassification midcycle comes very late as teams are less than 50 days away from the kickoff the regular season which was discovered after a post from the team’s Twitter account for Bradford (Starke) seeking two games was posted, one of which included the original date for Bradford to play Tocoi Creek. The news of the reclassification was then verified by Tocoi Creek head coach Zach Harbison.

“I knew that this was a possibility when I took the position [as head coach],” Harbison said via phone earlier on Monday when reached by FloridaHSFootball.com.

Harbison mentioned that the other schools in District 2S-8 which includes Bradford, Palatka, and Keystone Heights, had petitioned to the FHSAA to have Tocoi Creek be reclassified to a different classification and district midcycle after the school had experienced a significant jump in enrollment for the 2022-23 school year. FHSAA Policy 12.2.4 Significant Increase or Decrease in Student Population, which outlines the requirements to petition a change with student enrollment including that if a school’s actual student population would place it into a classification higher than that of its projected student population, the school shall not be eligible to compete in the Florida High School State Championship Series in a lower classification.

In the 2021-22 Student Enrollment report from the FHSAA, which the numbers from that report were used for the current classification cycle, reported 1,322 students for Tocoi Creek. Those numbers included only 9th, 10th, and 11th grades as a 12th grade would not be added until the 2022-23 school year. With the 2022-23 Student Enrollment report, Tocoi Creek reported an increase in student enrollment to 2,017 students, marking an increase of over 52% in the student population.

However, the timing of the notification of reclassification from the FHSAA came way later than Harbison said they thought they would hear something regarding the issue as Tocoi Creek said they were first told they would hear something by mid-March about a potential reclassification. That notification did not come until Friday, June 23 at 12:07 p.m. that an email had been sent by the FHSAA notifying Tocoi Creek of the reclassification while Tocoi Creek was at the Florida High School 7v7 Association’s State Tournament down in The Villages.

With the reclassification now in hand, Tocoi Creek will now compete in Class 4S and in District 4S-4 which includes Flagler Palm Coast, Nease (Ponte Vedra), and Ponte Vedra as district opponents, Harbison confirmed. Harbison said that all three district games are currently scheduled to be away games, but that the school is working to get at least one of those games flipped to a home game to make it fairer to give Tocoi Creek a home district game. Tocoi Creek will now play Ponte Vedra in Week Eight, Flagler Palm Coast in Week 10, and Nease in Week 11. Of those, Nease was originally on the initial schedule to conclude the season as a non-district contest.

Of the former district opponents, Tocoi Creek will continue to keep Palatka on the schedule for Week Six while Bradford and Keystone Heights have been dropped from the schedule altogether. While Bradford is on the search for a replacement for the Tocoi Creek game, Keystone Heights has already filled the Week 10 slot with Joshua Christian (Jacksonville) for that week. Joshua Christian is relaunching its 11-man program this season after not fielding a team last year.