Florida prep coach fined $5K, suspended for violations

Booker High School (Sarasota, Fla.) football coach and athletic director Scottie Littles ran afoul of the Florid High School Athletic Association and it will cost him in two ways.

Littles has been fined $5,000 and suspended for six games for violating improper contact and improper benefits, the Heard-Tribune reports.

Per the report:

At a track meet on Feb. 27 at Booker High, according to the report, Littles approached the mother, saying he wanted to meet her. According to the mother, Littles told her that her son “would look good in purple and gold” and she told him “no.” And she explained she and her whole family were graduated from the same school her son attended.

,,, In a video shot by security cameras and submitted to the FHSAA as evidence, the player and his mother can be seen arriving on March 11 in the Booker High parking lot. The player told the investigator he was there to work out with a friend, who never showed up. About 20 minutes later, Littles arrived. The player, his mother and Littles started talking in the parking lot. The player said he’s known Littles since eighth grade and Littles asked him “about colleges, college recruitment offers, how much he was benching, and other things like that to make sure he was on track.”

Booker High School also suspended Littles for two games. That ban will run concurrently with the other.

“We’re optimistic about our appeals process,” said Littles, a former Booker High assistant hired in 2022 to replace Baraka Atkins as head coach. “We appreciate the FHSAA and their due diligence. We want to uphold the FHSAA standards as best we can and continue to follow the rules and build a program people are proud of. No sanction levied by the FHSAA is going to harm our team or our players. At the end of the day, we respect the FHSAA and their rules and procedures.”

The Tornadoes went 9-5 in 2023 and finished second in 2S District 15. The team opens its 2024 season against Lely (Naples, Fla.) on August 23.