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: The Carver-Columbus basketball programs had a banner season in 2019 with boys and girls programs winning Class AAAA state championships — the second for the boys, first for the girls.
This season, coach Anson Hundley led the girls to the AAAA semifinals before losing to Troup 56-47 in his ninth season as the head coach in Columbus. The back-to-back runs deep into the playoffs gave Hundley a perspective of the GHSA and how it handles the state championships that he previously had not seen.
“I think the Georgia High School Association does a great job,” Hundley said. “I don’t know if it would really get better or not if the state ran (high school sports) instead of the GHSA.”
But he is sure of one thing: Sports people should run sports.
Hundley: "You know, you want sports people making the decisions about sports. I don't think people within the statehouse are just playing hands. They're going to make decisions based on the things that they may not know a whole lot about. I think having (the GHSA) is good because those people are sports people, and they kind of understand what the key is, and coaches need to be successful.
“They have to deal with a lot. They have to get it all accomplished in a timely, timely manner — from scheduling all the semifinals and the finals and taking care of all the locations. They do the things like that, and they do a good job of making sure that things are fair and sites are good for each team, as best as possible. There’s just a lot of they have to deal with, and overall they do a good job to take care of everybody’s needs.
“It goes from kids transferring and whether they are eligible and all the other stuff GHSA has to deal with. Plus, there’s people just calling and making complaints about different things. The government ... they don’t have time to hear all those phone calls and deal with all those different issues that are truly serious in high school sports. I don't think it would be good for the state to take over high school sports.”
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
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