Due to pressure leveraged by pair of bills, (SB 203 and HB 415) that would have put control of the Georgia High School Association in the hands of the state, Executive Director Gary Phillips will retire at the end of the current school year. The retirement comes after the GHSA Board of Trustees recommended by a 5-3 vote that he retire immediately, but the organization’s executive committee opted to let him finish out the year in a “show of solidarity.”
Phillips has taken harsh criticism in recent years from high school parents and coaches across the state who said that the GHSA had become a ‘good ole boys club’ that had gone out of control. Athletes transferring schools and rumors of recruitment gone unpunished were rampant. Perhaps the most jarring moment was during last year’s state basketball playoffs at the Macon Coliseum when it was found that the baskets were improperly placed, but Philips decided to let the teams play anyway without fixing the issue.
Said Philips in a prepared statement,
“The overall experience of Georgia’s student-athletes is not served by turning a blind-eye to the issues of athlete recruitment and eligibility-related fraud. The student-athlete experience is not served by pandering politicians who seek to disband the geographic or residency-related factors in determining student-athlete eligibility. It is not served by personal agendas that diverge from the GHSA’s mission. And it is not served by knee-jerk opposition to the GHSA because of some perceived slight arising from past GHSA rulings or decisions. The only way that an organization like the GHSA can work is as a true team, where every person – both leadership and support personnel – has the respect and trust of every other person. Unfortunately, that is not currently the case within the GHSA. I have therefore agreed, subject to terms tentatively negotiated with the GHSA Board of Trustees, to retire at the end of this school year.”
State Rep. John Meadows told the AJC that he’d received a staggering number of complaints about Philips over the past two years and that he was, “basically I’m sick of it. I don’t think they know what their job is.”
Both the House and Senate bills were tabled, but state control of the GHSA could be an issue if the organization fails to rein itself in during the next executive director’s tenure, whomever that may be.
