Five St. Thomas Aquinas Football Players Suspended

SFHSSports: Twitter | Facebook

SFHSSports learned Wednesday that the Florida High School Athletic Association has suspended five St. Thomas Aquinas football players for their roles in a postgame brawl following the Raiders' 37-0 win over Palm Beach Dwyer this past Friday.

The FSHAA also suspended five players from Dwyer for their roles in the melee.

The suspensions are effective immediately, meaning those five mandated players will not be available to play in St. Thomas Aquinas' upcoming regional final showdown with Hialeah Gardens Mater Academy this Friday night.

The state's high school sports governing body did not release the names of the players that were given suspensions – largely due to the holiday-shortened week.

FHSAA spokesperson Kyle Niblett released a statement regarding the situation.

"Along with the FHSAA's discipline, we have been notified by both schools that they have added additional disciplinary actions," Niblett said. "The investigation into the incident is still ongoing and should be concluded next week at which point the FHSAA will inform both schools as to the full length of each suspension as well as any potential financial penalties or program restrictions."

Niblett confirmed the FHSAA will not comment further on the matter until next week.

Suspensions to any frontline players could possibly derail Aquinas' quest to win a Broward County record third straight Class 7A state championship. The Raiders, who opened the 2016 season as the consensus No. 1 ranked high school football team in the country, was No. 9 in the latest USA Today national poll and ended the regular season as the No. 3 team in the SFHSSports Top 25 Rankings.