Each week, five high school coaches will discuss one issue that affects Georgia high school sports. | Last week: Teaching adversity
At Issue: Georgia's elected officials in the Senate and House often have directed their legislative focus toward the Georgia High School Association during the past 20 years, introducing some bills of great import, others borderline frivolous. There have been two home runs. The Ryan Boslet bill, named in honor of a young Chattahoochee football player who died from heart failure during offseason workouts in 2002, mandated more thorough pre-competition physicals for high school athletes. Another push from the statehouse led to wet-bulb heat and humidity testing, which took athletes off the field during late-summer and early fall workouts if the readings showed danger. Unfortunately, many other bills were sparked by "fandom," including an attempt three years ago to dissolve the GHSA and let the state take control after fans in one area of the state complained about former GHSA executive director Gary Phillips, who decided to retire.
So exactly what role should state lawmakers have in relation to the GHSA?
The Skinny: Lee County won back-to-back football titles in Class AAAAAA in 2017 and 2018 under head coach Dean Fabrizio, in his ninth and 10th seasons in Leesburg, respectively.
In 2017, Fabrizio saw first-hand how the GHSA handles overlapping breaking news, when the state football championships were postponed after a snowstorm hit Atlanta during the halftime of the Peach County-Calhoun game. On top of the controversial ending in that game, the GHSA was forced to make a last-second decision to postpone the games, even as fans, bands and teams flowed into Mercedes Benz Stadium for upcoming games.
It was a tough day for the governing body of high school sports in the state.
But could the state government have handled things better?
“You know, no one knows,” Fabrizio said. “But I think a better way to say it is there’s a lot of things that people don't take into consideration, that you don’t even think about. You're talking about managing the entire state of Georgia from all the various regions in all the sports that they do. I just think there’s so many things you must take into consideration that everybody doesn’t realize.”
It’s a long list.
Fabrizio: "Just take the realignment, for instance. You've got situations where down here in South Georgia, you don't have as many schools, so people are concerned about the amount you must travel, and then the small regions have to try to find games. In the Atlanta area where there's a lot more schools, you got people who are concerned about the regions being so much bigger. And so there's just no way, with a state as big as ours with as many schools as we have, there's no perfect system.
“I think that’s something that people don’t know, when you’re looking at it from just your perspective. And it’s easy for us, and Lee County at times, to look at it from just where we are. But when you when you step back and you look at the big picture, we understand there’s just no way to make everybody happy with every decision.
“There's no doubt (about how hard it is) when you look at just the sheer geography and the difference in populations, especially in a state like Georgia, where you’ve got one really huge metropolitan area that dwarfs the rest of the state. Even though there are other metropolitan areas, the Atlanta area dwarfs the rest of the state. And when you’ve got a lot of population concentrated in just that one area, it makes for certain challenges.
“It’s easy to sit back after the fact and criticize. But when you’re making the decisions, you’re making the calls, you've got all those factors to consider. I think for the most part the GHSA does a really good job. You look at the state championships ... there’s some factions that want to have them back at the home stadiums. But then you have issues with the games being on TV. There are fractions that want to have it in Mercedes Benz Stadium where it’s indoors, but you get back to problems with the cost.
“Then you have it in one spot that satisfies and lowers the cost and satisfies TV, but then you got group saying, ‘Well, you know, if you’re not going to have it in Mercedes Benz then have it at the home field.’ It’s always easy to the sit back and look at it and pick it apart. For instance, we had the rain this year on Friday night during the state championships at Georgia State Stadium. Then some said, ‘Why didn’t we have it indoors?’ So yeah, it’s easy to sit back and second-guess. I guess it’s like this: the GHSA has a thankless job in some respects, and there’s just no way you can please everyone.”
AT ISSUE: Legislating high school sports
• Kelby Cronic, Banks County softball coach
• Dean Fabrizio, Lee County football coach
• Eric Godfree, Parkview football coach
• Anson Hundley, Carver-Columbus basketball coach
• Chris Slade, Pace Academy football coach
» MORE: Previous topics
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