Prime Prep forced to withdraw from Palms Classic

Deion Sanders hoped to bring his team to two national high school tournaments. He has been working with his Prime Prep school all season, and they have been doing great all season.

Although the team has been doing so great, Sanders will have to settle for one tournament.

The Dallas-based Prime Prep, which was expected to play a couple games in the Sunshine Series portion of the 40th Annual City of  Palms Classic on Friday and Saturday, December 21-22, withdrew Friday from the University Interscholstic League, the governing board of high school athletics in Texas.

Since Dallas-based Prime Prep withdrew from the UIL, Prime Prep made itself ineligible to face Florida high school Athletic Association teams under the FHSAA rules and therefore cannot compete in the tournament.

Although they cannot compete in the UIL, they are eligible to compete against unsanctioned programs in the Gulfshore Invitational, scheduled to play Decemeber 27-31 at the Community School of Naples.

If Prime Prep played in the Sunshine Series, Bishop Verot High School, as the host, would’ve been fined $250 per game. Tournament director Donnie Wilkie states that he wasn’t too happy when Prime Prep withdrew.

Wilkie officially removed Prime Prep from the Classic on Thursday, replacing them with North Florida Educational Institute of Jacksonville.

“I wanted to do this…But we can’t do it this year, as much as I wanted to do it. There are just too many circumstances at this point,” says Wilkie.

Wilkie is confused about the UIL issue and hoped that Prime Prep could have competed.

“I don’t understand why they couldn’t have just stayed in the UIL for two more weeks. Then we would not have had this issue,” says Wilkie.