Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This has two locations to serve you on Magnolia and
(00:02):
Ogle Tree, and we're going to Montgomery, Alabama to bring
in the Alabama High School Athletic Association executive director coach
Heath Harmon.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Good morning, coach, Good morning. How you guys doing.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Man, We're doing good. We're doing I'm sorry I cut
you off. We're doing good. How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Heath doing well? Doing well well?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
First, thank you for being with us. It means a lot.
I appreciate that, all right, Yeah, thanks for having me
absolutely year. It's been about a year, am I.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Right about that year one? It has coming up on
a year one anniversary of the date I was hired
and came on board around July eighth. So you know,
in any job, year one is always great because you
kind of lived through things for the first time and
at the end of that year you really get an
opportunity to reflect and plan on the next year. So
(00:47):
got a little hopping my stuff and excited about your two.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I can tell a little hump in your voice too.
I can tell, I can tell, and you know what,
I can imagine what you walked into. I mean, that's
that's but you know what I think it's been a
good year. I want to tell you it just from me.
I want to congratulate you on the year, and I
want to applaud you for just one avenue that I
know of is when a school was placed on or
had to find or placed on probation for whatever reason,
(01:11):
your office released a statement of what school it was,
and and what you know that they broke a rule
and what the you know, the ramifications were, and what
happened and not what happened, but what the fines and
punishment would be. As a member of the media and
being transparent, I appreciate that you don't go into detail
that you shouldn't go into, but you give enough. So
thank you for that, coach armor.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Well, I think that's that's big. You know, that's that's
something we talk about a lot. Is the is the
transparency and being intentional about what we do. So so
that's a big part of that.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Well, it means a lot. It's not just you know,
you want to identify those that you know because because
it's important when someone makes it you know has the
era and you know someone gets fined or penalized. You
don't go into the extreme detail and name the student
but you you do name the school, and that's important,
and and and another thing, how do you think the
state of the HSA. I know the legislator has been
(02:01):
firing on you and I'm not a fan of that
because the HSA has its own members. The members run
the association, and I don't like outside entities trying to
jump in there and tell the HSA what to do.
But in your mind, the state of the AHSA coach.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, So I think what you just said is is huge.
So we have an association and when you say this,
it's kind of like you're you know, you know, where's
the uh. You know, it's a little funny say in it.
But we need our associations to be able to handle
whatever they're in charge of. So the Athletic Association, you
want it to be able to govern high school athletics.
(02:38):
And we do have a very strong process, now not perfect,
but we have a legislative process where our member schools
are able to, you know, propose rules, they are able to.
We have sports committees, people come down and represent all
of our districts that are very passionate about their sport.
(02:59):
We have other committees, superintendent committees, principal committees, classification committees,
and so we have a very strong legislative process and
we want to we want to do what our member
schools ask us to do. So when you have other
entities get involved in, first of all, you know, I
have a ton of respect for any person in authority,
(03:20):
any elected official. I haven't I understand what their you know,
charge is where they're constituents, but I would just like
people to understand we do have very strong processes in
our association. We have great leadership throughout our states, and
it's difficult. It's not easy to make everyone happy when
(03:41):
you're looking at eight districts statewide, one A through seven A,
all of those different things. But I think that's why
it works because you have representation from all of those entities.
So you know, I definitely am looking forward went through
my first rookie kind of year with the legislate session.
I'm looking forward to building relationships with our elected officials.
(04:04):
We won't always agree, and it's my job to defend
the association, but you know, I'm looking forward to building
relationships and having those conversations. Some of them will be
more difficult than others, but I think we've just got
to protect our process with what we have with the association,
because we have some tried and true processes and we
have some great leadership. So I think I think we're
(04:26):
in good hands. I think where it's just a constant
process of you know, looking at what we're doing, how
are we performing, Where can we do better? Just that
continuous improvement. Good idea.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Yeah, well, said Coach Harman. And I remember, you know,
the legislator, and I agree with you. They're serving, they
have their people to serve, and I'm talking about representative.
I think it's brought Colvin pumping up in Auberville. He
wanted to English as a second and he basically I
call it one to cherry pick who he counted for
his and I don't you don't have to get into
that right now. But he wanted to cherry pick how
he wanted to classify each team, and I just thought
(04:59):
that was I'm just like, you know, it reminded me
of Senator Waltley. There was an issue that came up
with Senator Tom Watt here locally coaching. He was a
senator in the album Senate at the time, and coach
Saverge and I met with him at the borguard dinner
and Cole Savage went over just what you kind of
talked about the member of the association and what all
the bylaws. We left that two hour lunch and he
(05:20):
became one of the biggest allies for the AHSA because,
just like you said, he didn't know and once he
got educated, it made worlds of difference. So it does
matter to have those relationships, doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
It does, And I think what you just said, it's
important as the role of executive director that I helped
to educate, you know, on those matters, because we do
have systems in place that work, and they're not perfect.
But if you look at the way we do classification,
you know, nine through eleven the total ad M, it's
(05:52):
not perfect, but it is fair. It's the same way
for everybody. And if that was going to be changed,
that would need to be a propose from our member schools,
or it would need to be a recommendation coming from
our Classification committee. Classification committee meets every June, and and
if they were to come up with some suggestions or
(06:13):
or some some things in an advisory role that ended
up being something that was proposed in our member schools,
then then that's that's the power in it, because that's
that's the system working, you know, through our legislative process.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
There you go, you just named it. If they wanted
to change those those the way the rule is, all
they have to do is the members need to bring
it up for a vote. Right, It's very simple. It's
a process, right, Coach, it is.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
And we had a similar proposal, not exactly what the
EO bill was, but similar and it received It was
in the twenty maybe twenty seven percent positive statewide, so
it wasn't supported statewide, and that's data that's important for
us to look at. So but but going back to
(06:59):
what you said, I think Bill in those relationships having
the opportunity to educate people on our on our processes,
and that's Keith.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
There you go, Coach Heith Harmon with us at Alabama
High School Athletic Association executive director. He's liable around with
the sideline. You're on the March thirty three minutes past
the hour, your staff are you full force?
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Now?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Coach?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
We have one more spot to feel and I'm excited
about where we are because I was still hiring people
in January. So we'll start this year fully staffed. That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
I heard that. I heard that kind of chuckle and smile.
I know you proud of that.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yeah, all right, So let's go to this task force.
The you created a task force on transfers. Kind of
explain that to our listeners if you don't mind.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yeah. So we came out of the April board meeting
and our board voted unanimous to establish a transferred task Force,
and uh, right out of the gate, I would hear
just different comments about what people thought a task force
you know was, and so, you know, we made sure
(08:01):
that we on the front end just really made sure
everybody understands exactly what it is. It is an advisory group,
and we wanted to have good representation from all across
the state, and we wanted to make sure that we
had some really strong, you know, foundation and what the
(08:22):
purpose was and what our goals were going to be
that can be measured, because I don't want to have
a group that just meets. We want to have a
group that actually had set some goals and then measures
those goals so we can have some quantifiable data to
determine whether it was successful or not. Now, how people
feel anecdotal type stuff that's imported. I'm not saying that's
(08:42):
not important, but we want some real data where we
can gauge the success. And if we set a goal
and we need it and the data proves that's great,
we'll celebrate that. If we set a goal and we
don't meet it, we will be able to articulate exactly
why we didn't and we'll make adjustments. This task force
is not going away. It's made up of about around
(09:03):
thirty people throughout the state. Our district board members put
people up for the passporce, so we have representation from
all eight districts. We have good representation. Feel really strong
about that. And when we met the other day, we
really settled in on three big areas. So number one
(09:25):
was professional development. What are we providing and the means
of support to our member schools related to transfers. And
when I talk about transfers, I'm talking about the issue
of non compliant transfers, so transfers that would not be
needing the threshold of our rules. So we're not just
talking about transfers in general. We're talking about non compliant transfers.
(09:48):
So we talked about professional development, we talked about our
digital platforms, So for us, that's Dragonfly, So how do
we collect data in Dragonfly so that we have real
data on transfers so it helps us look into the
issue of non compliant transfers in a more efficient manner.
(10:09):
And then we settled on the third one was just
effective enforcements. So when we have this data available to us,
how are we using auditors staff members to be able
then to go and evaluate that data. So coming out
of those three areas, we are now establishing goals that
(10:34):
we'll put numbers to. And one of the big things
that we talked about is what can we do right now?
And by right now we meant from now until summer conference?
What can we roll out at summer conference? And then
what would it look like in January if we end
up with any proposals that need to be written, because
(10:56):
if you're talking about changing existing rules, that would be
a proposal process. And then we talked about at the
end of the year evaluating all of the results because
we want to be results. We want to be judged
by results, not intentions. It's great to have good intentions,
but we want to be judged by results. So it
was a great meeting. I was talking to somebody the other
(11:16):
day and they kind of looked at me and said,
you seem pretty confident about this, and I said, well,
the reason is, and I know this has become a
buzzword because of the great coach Saban, but I believe
in the process. I believe if you have a goal,
you put some numbers to it and you do the work,
it works. And so I trust that. And so I
(11:36):
am excited about this being an issue statewide, that is
an issue for our member schools, and we're doing something
about it. So that is encouraging to make.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Man, you articulated that very well, coached. I hang a line.
I can tell you feel strong about it by the
way you articulated it.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
So I am, yeah, I'm confident in the process. Yeah, no,
I understand. I'm confident like.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
That because that's in. And do you as a whole
do you think we have widespread transfers that aren't right,
that have slipped through the crack for whatever reason?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Coach, Well, I think that this is an issue that
our member schools, that they feel that this is an issue,
and so I feel like that you've got to have
some good data. You've got to move beyond just what
it feels like, and then you've got to have a
means to inspect that and check that, and that's a
level of support. No clarity is kindness, and so it
(12:32):
starts with being having a very high threshold of clarity
for our principles. Our principles have got to understand when
you have a transfer, what is expected for you to
have documented that make sure that this is a compliant transfer.
And so I think once you have that, you can
really start digging into making sure that these transfers are compliant. Now,
(12:56):
once we kind of work through that, we'll have a
lot better. But I just I can't imagine, you know, uh,
you know, where we'll be, probably three to four months
from now, when we've beefed up our our awareness through
our technology platform Dragonfly. I just think we're going to
(13:16):
have a really lot better idea of transfers in general
and then specifically non compliant. So I think it's an issue.
I think I think that, you know, I feel like,
you know, really one of the first times I had
an opportunity to be in front of the member schools
was the summer conference last year, and i'd only been
on the job for a little less than a month,
(13:39):
and I talked about transfers because I mean, I knew
that was an issue, but maybe five minutes. If I
had it to do over, I'd probably be talking about
it for about forty five minutes, just in a different place.
I've visited all eight districts. I haven't had a single
district that I've gone into that people haven't said, hey,
we've got to do something about non compliant transfers.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
So I unbelieve Jeff just as right.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Yeah, I had two questions, Coach, uh, the proper way
to report that that should should have? Should your school have, say,
a couple of transfers. I'm sure every school has people
moved for whatever reason, job, better situation.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
You know.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
I don't have an issue with that. I mean, if
you do it right, it doesn't it's not an issue.
But should the school just receiving the transfers say hey,
you know what, we had two transfers. We're investigating. I'm
just letting you know we got these these two people
in there. And the second part, you can answer this
on the task force or any of the investigators on
the task force.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Good question, Yes, So we made sure to include investigators
because they're in the schools and they're able to provide
some really good insight on what they're seeing, especially from
a documentation standpoint. And so the way that we're using
the dragonflyes, Dragonfly will have a needs for schools to
(14:59):
mark a kid of a transfer transfer, so that what
that does for us is then that gives us not
only the data of the transfers. And by the way,
that was a great question that you asked, because we're
not talking about there being an issue with transfers. We're
not talking about anybody that's you know, there's all kinds
of reasons that you would move, and you know, your
(15:20):
jobs and things like that, and you're doing it the
right way. We're talking about anybody that's not meeting the
threshold of right, there you go, non compliant. That's why
I've tried to use that term consistently because I don't
want people to get confused. And we're you know, that's
what we're talking about. But with Dragonfly, now when you
mark a student as a transfer, then we have the
(15:42):
availability now together the data that we need UH to
UH to be more effective in our enforcement of our
rules of our support to our schools.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
And I think it was really important that our task
force started with profess development. Yeah, that's a huge you know, teaching,
teaching our schools how to best manage this.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
And so I think I think that they landed on
three really good key ideas.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
And we're working through that right now. We're gonna we're
gonna send something out to our task force pretty quickly
and said, hey, we've we've summed up our meeting, and
these are the things that we said we can do
in the first three months. By by the six months,
we've done this, and by twelve months we've done that.
So we've got some really good actionable steps. So I
(16:36):
think that's gonna be a good thing.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Now.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I've always been under impression if there's something wrong, the
quicker the better, because I don't know how many times
we've been in game at playoffs and then somebody reports someone, Yeah,
we don't like that.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Ahead.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Yeah yeah, Well, and I was gonna say in the
task force, I kept using that term. I kept saying
what can we do now? And I defined now by
zero three months because I agree. I mean, you can
have great meetings and this is well intentioned people. You
can have a great meeting, and then you get busy
doing other stuff and you don't think about it till
you have the next name.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
So I think that's why we just kept saying we're
gonna judge ourselves, because I think the intention is great,
but we're gonna judge ourselves by result.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
There you go, Coach Chith Harmon with us. We're talking
to HSA Athletics out of my High school Athletic Association.
Across the incredible interview. He's almost in as completed his
first year. We were talking transfers the task Force. I
love what you're doing. I love the education, I love
the work you know, letting people know, and I'm gonna
get off this after this one. I thought about this
question while Jeff was asking you, is there a checklist
(17:38):
to go down perhaps, coach, when you get a transfer?
Is there a checklist so that maybe kind.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Of stuff we're working on. We're working on some resources
that support schools in Hey, if you follow these the helps,
this is going to put you in a really good
spot to be able to comply.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
I love this because you're educating everybody and you're putting
it in places kind of like you know, you lay
down the law and you go, Okay, Now we told
you don't go over fifty, and you went, you went sixty.
So here's what you're gonna get, you know. And so
I love that, coach, I really do. I really do.
Now we're coming up on reclassification after this time, Am
I correct?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
That's correct?
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Yeah? Has anything changed that you know of it's coming
into that, coach? Will there be any changes to how
you do that?
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Well?
Speaker 2 (18:20):
No, we Now we do have our classification committee that
beat in June, UH and we'll begin our work. Of
course that'll be my I'll be going into year two,
but that'll be the first UH deal into classification. So
we're excited about that. Obviously, that is probably one of
the I would guess that would be. Would that not
be the most probably I don't know. Scrutinize Yeah, yeah,
(18:42):
anything no mistakes right on that. Yeah, But that's so
that's always an exciting time. You know, I can remember
as a coach and a principle, you can't wait for
that to come out.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Oh yeah, I host that show and I love it.
I get text all like I know, I'm like, I
don't know what y'all do just the TV, but it
is an exciting time. Anything you'd like to say before
we go that you'd like our listeners.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Dear, Yeah, I just want to say, you know, finishing
out year one, I just want to say how thankful
I am for the former executive directors. You know, Coach Briggs,
Coach Sevarei's coach Washburn. You know coach Coach Washburn and
coach Sevareies both the day I was hired, Yes sir,
they said you call me anytime, and and they meant it,
(19:26):
and they just that having access to those outstanding leaders
the association means so much to them.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
And I just publicly, you know, I just want to
say how much I appreciate them, appreciate what they've done
and what they continue to do and their love and
passion for the association.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Good deal, that's awesome. They do love it, they do.
How's your wife and family?
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Coach are by Okay, doing great. We've forth settled in.
My my wife loving her job. So life is good.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Man, I can tell you doing good. I really appreciate
your time and and good job and keep up the
good coach. Okay, thank you, you got it. Coach Heath
harmon the executive director of the Alabam High School Athletico
Association live right here on the Hamblesote line from the
Orthopedic Clinic studio will continue in a moment
This has two locations to serve you on Magnolia and
(00:02):
Ogle Tree, and we're going to Montgomery, Alabama to bring
in the Alabama High School Athletic Association executive director coach
Heath Harmon.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Good morning, coach, Good morning. How you guys doing.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Man, We're doing good. We're doing I'm sorry I cut
you off. We're doing good. How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Heath doing well? Doing well well?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
First, thank you for being with us. It means a lot.
I appreciate that, all right, Yeah, thanks for having me
absolutely year. It's been about a year, am I.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Right about that year one? It has coming up on
a year one anniversary of the date I was hired
and came on board around July eighth. So you know,
in any job, year one is always great because you
kind of lived through things for the first time and
at the end of that year you really get an
opportunity to reflect and plan on the next year. So
(00:47):
got a little hopping my stuff and excited about your two.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I can tell a little hump in your voice too.
I can tell, I can tell, and you know what,
I can imagine what you walked into. I mean, that's
that's but you know what I think it's been a
good year. I want to tell you it just from me.
I want to congratulate you on the year, and I
want to applaud you for just one avenue that I
know of is when a school was placed on or
had to find or placed on probation for whatever reason,
(01:11):
your office released a statement of what school it was,
and and what you know that they broke a rule
and what the you know, the ramifications were, and what
happened and not what happened, but what the fines and
punishment would be. As a member of the media and
being transparent, I appreciate that you don't go into detail
that you shouldn't go into, but you give enough. So
thank you for that, coach armor.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Well, I think that's that's big. You know, that's that's
something we talk about a lot. Is the is the
transparency and being intentional about what we do. So so
that's a big part of that.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Well, it means a lot. It's not just you know,
you want to identify those that you know because because
it's important when someone makes it you know has the
era and you know someone gets fined or penalized. You
don't go into the extreme detail and name the student
but you you do name the school, and that's important,
and and and another thing, how do you think the
state of the HSA. I know the legislator has been
(02:01):
firing on you and I'm not a fan of that
because the HSA has its own members. The members run
the association, and I don't like outside entities trying to
jump in there and tell the HSA what to do.
But in your mind, the state of the AHSA coach.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, So I think what you just said is is huge.
So we have an association and when you say this,
it's kind of like you're you know, you know, where's
the uh. You know, it's a little funny say in it.
But we need our associations to be able to handle
whatever they're in charge of. So the Athletic Association, you
want it to be able to govern high school athletics.
(02:38):
And we do have a very strong process, now not perfect,
but we have a legislative process where our member schools
are able to, you know, propose rules, they are able to.
We have sports committees, people come down and represent all
of our districts that are very passionate about their sport.
(02:59):
We have other committees, superintendent committees, principal committees, classification committees,
and so we have a very strong legislative process and
we want to we want to do what our member
schools ask us to do. So when you have other
entities get involved in, first of all, you know, I
have a ton of respect for any person in authority,
(03:20):
any elected official. I haven't I understand what their you know,
charge is where they're constituents, but I would just like
people to understand we do have very strong processes in
our association. We have great leadership throughout our states, and
it's difficult. It's not easy to make everyone happy when
(03:41):
you're looking at eight districts statewide, one A through seven A,
all of those different things. But I think that's why
it works because you have representation from all of those entities.
So you know, I definitely am looking forward went through
my first rookie kind of year with the legislate session.
I'm looking forward to building relationships with our elected officials.
(04:04):
We won't always agree, and it's my job to defend
the association, but you know, I'm looking forward to building
relationships and having those conversations. Some of them will be
more difficult than others, but I think we've just got
to protect our process with what we have with the association,
because we have some tried and true processes and we
have some great leadership. So I think I think we're
(04:26):
in good hands. I think where it's just a constant
process of you know, looking at what we're doing, how
are we performing, Where can we do better? Just that
continuous improvement. Good idea.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Yeah, well, said Coach Harman. And I remember, you know,
the legislator, and I agree with you. They're serving, they
have their people to serve, and I'm talking about representative.
I think it's brought Colvin pumping up in Auberville. He
wanted to English as a second and he basically I
call it one to cherry pick who he counted for
his and I don't you don't have to get into
that right now. But he wanted to cherry pick how
he wanted to classify each team, and I just thought
(04:59):
that was I'm just like, you know, it reminded me
of Senator Waltley. There was an issue that came up
with Senator Tom Watt here locally coaching. He was a
senator in the album Senate at the time, and coach
Saverge and I met with him at the borguard dinner
and Cole Savage went over just what you kind of
talked about the member of the association and what all
the bylaws. We left that two hour lunch and he
(05:20):
became one of the biggest allies for the AHSA because,
just like you said, he didn't know and once he
got educated, it made worlds of difference. So it does
matter to have those relationships, doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
It does, And I think what you just said, it's
important as the role of executive director that I helped
to educate, you know, on those matters, because we do
have systems in place that work, and they're not perfect.
But if you look at the way we do classification,
you know, nine through eleven the total ad M, it's
(05:52):
not perfect, but it is fair. It's the same way
for everybody. And if that was going to be changed,
that would need to be a propose from our member schools,
or it would need to be a recommendation coming from
our Classification committee. Classification committee meets every June, and and
if they were to come up with some suggestions or
(06:13):
or some some things in an advisory role that ended
up being something that was proposed in our member schools,
then then that's that's the power in it, because that's
that's the system working, you know, through our legislative process.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
There you go, you just named it. If they wanted
to change those those the way the rule is, all
they have to do is the members need to bring
it up for a vote. Right, It's very simple. It's
a process, right, Coach, it is.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
And we had a similar proposal, not exactly what the
EO bill was, but similar and it received It was
in the twenty maybe twenty seven percent positive statewide, so
it wasn't supported statewide, and that's data that's important for
us to look at. So but but going back to
(06:59):
what you said, I think Bill in those relationships having
the opportunity to educate people on our on our processes,
and that's Keith.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
There you go, Coach Heith Harmon with us at Alabama
High School Athletic Association executive director. He's liable around with
the sideline. You're on the March thirty three minutes past
the hour, your staff are you full force?
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Now?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Coach?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
We have one more spot to feel and I'm excited
about where we are because I was still hiring people
in January. So we'll start this year fully staffed. That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
I heard that. I heard that kind of chuckle and smile.
I know you proud of that.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yeah, all right, So let's go to this task force.
The you created a task force on transfers. Kind of
explain that to our listeners if you don't mind.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yeah. So we came out of the April board meeting
and our board voted unanimous to establish a transferred task Force,
and uh, right out of the gate, I would hear
just different comments about what people thought a task force
you know was, and so, you know, we made sure
(08:01):
that we on the front end just really made sure
everybody understands exactly what it is. It is an advisory group,
and we wanted to have good representation from all across
the state, and we wanted to make sure that we
had some really strong, you know, foundation and what the
(08:22):
purpose was and what our goals were going to be
that can be measured, because I don't want to have
a group that just meets. We want to have a
group that actually had set some goals and then measures
those goals so we can have some quantifiable data to
determine whether it was successful or not. Now, how people
feel anecdotal type stuff that's imported. I'm not saying that's
(08:42):
not important, but we want some real data where we
can gauge the success. And if we set a goal
and we need it and the data proves that's great,
we'll celebrate that. If we set a goal and we
don't meet it, we will be able to articulate exactly
why we didn't and we'll make adjustments. This task force
is not going away. It's made up of about around
(09:03):
thirty people throughout the state. Our district board members put
people up for the passporce, so we have representation from
all eight districts. We have good representation. Feel really strong
about that. And when we met the other day, we
really settled in on three big areas. So number one
(09:25):
was professional development. What are we providing and the means
of support to our member schools related to transfers. And
when I talk about transfers, I'm talking about the issue
of non compliant transfers, so transfers that would not be
needing the threshold of our rules. So we're not just
talking about transfers in general. We're talking about non compliant transfers.
(09:48):
So we talked about professional development, we talked about our
digital platforms, So for us, that's Dragonfly, So how do
we collect data in Dragonfly so that we have real
data on transfers so it helps us look into the
issue of non compliant transfers in a more efficient manner.
(10:09):
And then we settled on the third one was just
effective enforcements. So when we have this data available to us,
how are we using auditors staff members to be able
then to go and evaluate that data. So coming out
of those three areas, we are now establishing goals that
(10:34):
we'll put numbers to. And one of the big things
that we talked about is what can we do right now?
And by right now we meant from now until summer conference?
What can we roll out at summer conference? And then
what would it look like in January if we end
up with any proposals that need to be written, because
(10:56):
if you're talking about changing existing rules, that would be
a proposal process. And then we talked about at the
end of the year evaluating all of the results because
we want to be results. We want to be judged
by results, not intentions. It's great to have good intentions,
but we want to be judged by results. So it
was a great meeting. I was talking to somebody the other
(11:16):
day and they kind of looked at me and said,
you seem pretty confident about this, and I said, well,
the reason is, and I know this has become a
buzzword because of the great coach Saban, but I believe
in the process. I believe if you have a goal,
you put some numbers to it and you do the work,
it works. And so I trust that. And so I
(11:36):
am excited about this being an issue statewide, that is
an issue for our member schools, and we're doing something
about it. So that is encouraging to make.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Man, you articulated that very well, coached. I hang a line.
I can tell you feel strong about it by the
way you articulated it.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
So I am, yeah, I'm confident in the process. Yeah, no,
I understand. I'm confident like.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
That because that's in. And do you as a whole
do you think we have widespread transfers that aren't right,
that have slipped through the crack for whatever reason?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Coach, Well, I think that this is an issue that
our member schools, that they feel that this is an issue,
and so I feel like that you've got to have
some good data. You've got to move beyond just what
it feels like, and then you've got to have a
means to inspect that and check that, and that's a
level of support. No clarity is kindness, and so it
(12:32):
starts with being having a very high threshold of clarity
for our principles. Our principles have got to understand when
you have a transfer, what is expected for you to
have documented that make sure that this is a compliant transfer.
And so I think once you have that, you can
really start digging into making sure that these transfers are compliant. Now,
(12:56):
once we kind of work through that, we'll have a
lot better. But I just I can't imagine, you know, uh,
you know, where we'll be, probably three to four months
from now, when we've beefed up our our awareness through
our technology platform Dragonfly. I just think we're going to
(13:16):
have a really lot better idea of transfers in general
and then specifically non compliant. So I think it's an issue.
I think I think that, you know, I feel like,
you know, really one of the first times I had
an opportunity to be in front of the member schools
was the summer conference last year, and i'd only been
on the job for a little less than a month,
(13:39):
and I talked about transfers because I mean, I knew
that was an issue, but maybe five minutes. If I
had it to do over, I'd probably be talking about
it for about forty five minutes, just in a different place.
I've visited all eight districts. I haven't had a single
district that I've gone into that people haven't said, hey,
we've got to do something about non compliant transfers.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
So I unbelieve Jeff just as right.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Yeah, I had two questions, Coach, uh, the proper way
to report that that should should have? Should your school have, say,
a couple of transfers. I'm sure every school has people
moved for whatever reason, job, better situation.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
You know.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
I don't have an issue with that. I mean, if
you do it right, it doesn't it's not an issue.
But should the school just receiving the transfers say hey,
you know what, we had two transfers. We're investigating. I'm
just letting you know we got these these two people
in there. And the second part, you can answer this
on the task force or any of the investigators on
the task force.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Good question, Yes, So we made sure to include investigators
because they're in the schools and they're able to provide
some really good insight on what they're seeing, especially from
a documentation standpoint. And so the way that we're using
the dragonflyes, Dragonfly will have a needs for schools to
(14:59):
mark a kid of a transfer transfer, so that what
that does for us is then that gives us not
only the data of the transfers. And by the way,
that was a great question that you asked, because we're
not talking about there being an issue with transfers. We're
not talking about anybody that's you know, there's all kinds
of reasons that you would move, and you know, your
(15:20):
jobs and things like that, and you're doing it the
right way. We're talking about anybody that's not meeting the
threshold of right, there you go, non compliant. That's why
I've tried to use that term consistently because I don't
want people to get confused. And we're you know, that's
what we're talking about. But with Dragonfly, now when you
mark a student as a transfer, then we have the
(15:42):
availability now together the data that we need UH to
UH to be more effective in our enforcement of our
rules of our support to our schools.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
And I think it was really important that our task
force started with profess development. Yeah, that's a huge you know, teaching,
teaching our schools how to best manage this.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
And so I think I think that they landed on
three really good key ideas.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
And we're working through that right now. We're gonna we're
gonna send something out to our task force pretty quickly
and said, hey, we've we've summed up our meeting, and
these are the things that we said we can do
in the first three months. By by the six months,
we've done this, and by twelve months we've done that.
So we've got some really good actionable steps. So I
(16:36):
think that's gonna be a good thing.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Now.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I've always been under impression if there's something wrong, the
quicker the better, because I don't know how many times
we've been in game at playoffs and then somebody reports someone, Yeah,
we don't like that.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Ahead.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Yeah yeah, Well, and I was gonna say in the
task force, I kept using that term. I kept saying
what can we do now? And I defined now by
zero three months because I agree. I mean, you can
have great meetings and this is well intentioned people. You
can have a great meeting, and then you get busy
doing other stuff and you don't think about it till
you have the next name.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
So I think that's why we just kept saying we're
gonna judge ourselves, because I think the intention is great,
but we're gonna judge ourselves by result.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
There you go, Coach Chith Harmon with us. We're talking
to HSA Athletics out of my High school Athletic Association.
Across the incredible interview. He's almost in as completed his
first year. We were talking transfers the task Force. I
love what you're doing. I love the education, I love
the work you know, letting people know, and I'm gonna
get off this after this one. I thought about this
question while Jeff was asking you, is there a checklist
(17:38):
to go down perhaps, coach, when you get a transfer?
Is there a checklist so that maybe kind.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Of stuff we're working on. We're working on some resources
that support schools in Hey, if you follow these the helps,
this is going to put you in a really good
spot to be able to comply.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
I love this because you're educating everybody and you're putting
it in places kind of like you know, you lay
down the law and you go, Okay, Now we told
you don't go over fifty, and you went, you went sixty.
So here's what you're gonna get, you know. And so
I love that, coach, I really do. I really do.
Now we're coming up on reclassification after this time, Am
I correct?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
That's correct?
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Yeah? Has anything changed that you know of it's coming
into that, coach? Will there be any changes to how
you do that?
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Well?
Speaker 2 (18:20):
No, we Now we do have our classification committee that
beat in June, UH and we'll begin our work. Of
course that'll be my I'll be going into year two,
but that'll be the first UH deal into classification. So
we're excited about that. Obviously, that is probably one of
the I would guess that would be. Would that not
be the most probably I don't know. Scrutinize Yeah, yeah,
(18:42):
anything no mistakes right on that. Yeah, But that's so
that's always an exciting time. You know, I can remember
as a coach and a principle, you can't wait for
that to come out.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Oh yeah, I host that show and I love it.
I get text all like I know, I'm like, I
don't know what y'all do just the TV, but it
is an exciting time. Anything you'd like to say before
we go that you'd like our listeners.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Dear, Yeah, I just want to say, you know, finishing
out year one, I just want to say how thankful
I am for the former executive directors. You know, Coach Briggs,
Coach Sevarei's coach Washburn. You know coach Coach Washburn and
coach Sevareies both the day I was hired, Yes sir,
they said you call me anytime, and and they meant it,
(19:26):
and they just that having access to those outstanding leaders
the association means so much to them.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
And I just publicly, you know, I just want to
say how much I appreciate them, appreciate what they've done
and what they continue to do and their love and
passion for the association.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Good deal, that's awesome. They do love it, they do.
How's your wife and family?
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Coach are by Okay, doing great. We've forth settled in.
My my wife loving her job. So life is good.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Man, I can tell you doing good. I really appreciate
your time and and good job and keep up the
good coach. Okay, thank you, you got it. Coach Heath
harmon the executive director of the Alabam High School Athletico
Association live right here on the Hamblesote line from the
Orthopedic Clinic studio will continue in a moment
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