As the future of oversight of high school athletics continues to hang in the balance, athletics directors in Alamance County are questioning if placing that power in the hands of government is the right move.
"I don't want to tell lawmakers how to do their job, but there are a lot of pressing issues that we have as a state, and I just don't think high school athletics, right now, rises to that level that I guess dictates like a state of emergency,” said George Robinson, the Alamance-Burlington School System athletics director. “I just don't think we're there."
House Bill 91, legislation that would eliminate the NCHSAA after the 2021-22 school year and create a 17-member commission in the Department of Administration to oversee high school athletics across the state, passed through the Senate’s education and finance committees in July and currently resides in the rules committee.
“I don’t know the answer,” said John Kirby, the longtime Eastern Alamance athletics director and football coach. “I don’t think we need government running athletics, but does our association need an overhaul? I don’t know. I don’t know enough about it. I don’t agree with everything that they do. I don’t agree with decisions that are made, but I respect the decisions that are made and we live with it.
“I do think that there needs to be accountability and I think those are some things that are being talked about right now, is what do you do to make it better? Because, I’m not sure the government wants to run high school athletics, either.”
Lawmakers and leaders from the NCHSAA met last Wednesday for the first time since the introduction of House Bill 91, according to a report from HighSchoolIOT.
Prior to that meeting being scheduled, area athletics directors expressed their hope that the two sides would sit down together to work out potential concerns and make improvements to the athletic association.
“We're talking about kids,” said Sean Quinn, the Western Alamance athletics director. “So, let's all sit down and make sure we're doing what's best for kids. If it's best for kids to take (the NCHSAA) away and that's what we can agree to, then I guess it's the right thing to do. But, it seems like if you got everybody together, sat down, they could come up with something that addresses these issues and is best for kids. Not for adults, for kids.”
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Quinn said he thought a meeting between lawmakers and the athletic association could help bridge the disconnect and go a long ways in getting the two sides to come to a better understanding.
“If people are coming out in support of or against (the NCHSAA), are they completely aware of all the details?” Quinn said. “Because it seems to be two very different versions of information that’s being promoted on both sides about what the association does or does not do. That’s, again, why I wish we can have some sort of conversation (between lawmakers and the NCHSAA).”
Last Wednesday’s meeting between members of the state legislature and representatives from the NCHSAA was called a ”great first step,” by Senator Vickie Sawyer, according to the HighSchoolOT report. Sawyer said the state legislature’s intent wasn’t to eliminate the NCHSAA, but instead, House Bill 91 was created out of necessity to get the athletic association to discuss perceived issues with state representatives.
It’s still unclear what the future of House Bill 91 will look like and whether or not that would still include dissolving the NCHSAA, or if the bill would instead be reconfigured to keep the association in tact but with certain changes.
Southern Alamance athletics director Stephanie Smith called the possibility of the government overseeing high school athletics, “a big concern.”
“I think, just in education in general, sometimes it feels like people who haven't done the job, want to make decisions about how the job should be done,” Smith said. “I call it that typical ‘armchair quarterback.’ There's a lot of things sitting as an observer that you can decide you know better or know more or have a better solution. And while I do think that we should be opening to hearing those ideas, I think people who have put in the time and done the job are definitely much more aware of all the little pitfalls and situations and scenarios that can pop up and are better prepared to kind of handle those. So, that for me is concerning in that it would be a group of people making decisions, who maybe haven't walked in the shoes of a coach or walked in the shoes of an administrator to understand all that goes into it.”
If the government were to take on the responsibility of overseeing high school athletics, it would create a long list of questions regarding how things would operate, Quinn said.
“The (NCHSAA) is set up to run a day-to-day organization,” Quinn said. “It becomes more difficult for a government operation to run day-to-day, moment-by-moment issues that come up. To me, that would take time to establish that.
“It brings up all sorts of questions. Do conferences stay in place? Do the same rules apply? Are the same health and safety concerns that the NCHSAA put on the forefront, they’ve made that a big deal — concussion safety protocol, heat illness awareness, all those things — is that going to be handled by this new board? That’s serious stuff when it comes to kids’ health and safety.”
David Kehrli is a sports reporter at the Burlington Times-News and USA Today Network. You can reach him at david.kehrli@thetimesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidKehrliTN. Subscribe to the Burlington Times-News here.
This article originally appeared on Times-News: House Bill 91 would eliminate NCHSAA, put oversight power in government hands. Why are Alamance County athletics directors apprehensive?
