Listen to @AHSAA_Updates Executive Director Heath Harmon On the Mark @ONTHEDMARK1 talking AHSAA Athletics and Choose Act

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hooks and we've got a slew of games for you tonight,
including Opalaca and Central on our sister station ninety seven
point seven Kicker FM. Airtime will be six o'clock with
Van Riggs and his crew. And don't forget the Encore
Rehab High School Scoreboard Show coming on at at ten
o'clock until midnight with Jerry and Eddie.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
And tomorrow morning at eight o'clock to nine o'clock.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
The Orthpedic Clinic High School Wrap Up show me Jeff
and Terry or Terry and now tomorrow morning we'll bring
you all the scores from last night and tonight tomorrow morning.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Now we got all our housekeeping in order.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Time to go to the Hambleton's Hotline for a special
guest out of Montgomery, the executive director of the Alabam
High School Athletic Association is kind enough to be with
us this morning on the Hamilton's hotline.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Good morning, coach Rmon, how are you?

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Good morning? I'm doing great? How about yourself? Man?

Speaker 2 (00:46):
We're doing good. First off, thank you so much for
taking time to be with us. That means a lot.
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
Well, I appreciate you having me. Appreciate appreciate the job
that y'all do.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Well, we appreciate that. Thank you for saying that as well.
How's everything with AH eight coach, How is it going?

Speaker 3 (01:02):
It's going going great. Had the opportunity last night to
go out to Bochi Poka. Of course A. Whedon is
the Yeah, he's the uh principal out there and he's
on our central board. He just uh he is a great,
great environment. They had folks set up grilling everywhere, having
a good time, just proud to be there and uh

(01:23):
and got to hang out with him for a little bit.
And ron Ingram joined us out there, and I thought
they did a really good job of congratulating ron you
know his recent recent announcement retiring and uh, so just
it was a it was a fun night.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Well, I am so glad. Mister Whedon does an excellent job.
He's one of my favorite I love him and I
got I got invitation but couldn't make it. I did
see the part of the game on w O t
EM and public television. They did a very normal, great
job of broadcasting. They really carry that to another level
and poker played well. I'm so glad you' all there.
Mister Wheedon runs a top notch program. Now, I mean

(02:00):
he does it one way, the right way, the poke
away as they.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
Say, that's right. That's they made sure they told me that,
And of course appreciate him for all he does on
our central board and all of our central board members.
I can never thank them enough. That's a that's a
somewhat thankless job. And not everybody understands what all they
what all they do, but just we've got a great
central board and he's a part of that, and just
wanted to hang out with him and make sure he

(02:25):
knows how thankful we are for him and his service.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Now I'm good for you to do that.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
We've got volleyball area tournaments going on across countries, coming
up to the sectionals. Gosh, we got swimming's coming up
to coming down to the their you know, sectionals, and
it's a it's a ever.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
It just continues.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Then you've got basketball on the rise and all the
winter sports. So we're asking some other things. It's a
non stop deal with you, guys and girls.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
It is just a lot of opportunities for our young
folks and looking forward to getting into our championship play.
Obviously with the area tournament. So looking forward to some
great matches continuing this week and getting into our super
regionals next week. I know there's going to be some
exciting times for us.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Now I want to jump to something. You had a
meeting this week with the independent school or not independent school,
private members schools of the association and over the chew. Well,
let me back up. There's been an issue with the
Choose Act. Let me start, and this was this act
was the part of this act. The the bill was

(03:32):
discussed prior to you becoming the director. I think it
was under Coach Briggs's tenure. So I know this is
a bill that you've had to deal with. So can
you kind of educate I kind of jumped a gun
with that meeting. Can you educate our listeners on the
situation where the age has a private member organization that
accepts no money from the State of Alabama government. Okay,

(03:55):
So that's the one thing, a private member association run
by its members.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
Then the state passes the Choose Act, which is seven
thousand dollars for parents can use to educate their child
the way they want to. The private schools and so forth,
or homeschool is the where they choose, and there are
rules by laws laid down by the HSA according to
participation that you must follow.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
And when some of these may.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
Require the person to sit out for a year before
they can play. Can you educate our listeners I kind
of gave a quick summary. Can you educate our listeners
on that? And where the conflict is with the HSA
and the legislature on that?

Speaker 3 (04:40):
Yeah, so where this is as you said exactly correctly,
we're a private association that you know, really our job
is to have some type of process by which member
schools can establish rules that we go by, and then
the association, out of this office with the executive director,
job is to enforce the rules as written. And so

(05:04):
I think there's at times where you know, some of
those things might be questioned, and you know, there might
be some outside entities that don't agree with everything that
we do, and I think there's a long history of
executive directors working through those things through our processes. So
all we would ever ask is that we can work
through our process. You know, which is the biggest piece

(05:27):
of our legislative process happens in January. So our schools,
if they don't like the rules as written, they make proposals.
Those proposals have to have a rationale and be signed
by the principal, and then from January to March, those
are voted on by the member schools, and then our
Legislative Council convenes in April. It takes a two thirds

(05:50):
vote to ratify those. If any of those proposals pass,
then they're enacted for the next year. Our handbook is
approved in July, and then we follow those rules for
the next year as written. And that's something that I
think that our association could take a lot of pride

(06:10):
in that that we've done that, and that's all that
we would ever ask is that we can that we
can do that, and we can address these issues through
our through our processes, because what's what happens is that
creates a collaborative consensus, a collaborative solution. Now it's not perfect,
because there are member schools that that maybe want a

(06:31):
proposal to pass, it doesn't pass, or maybe have one
pass that they they particularly didn't like individually. But because
you're trying to do what's best for an entire state
eight districts, you know there's a reason that this association
has been successful for over one hundred year and so
we've just got to be careful, you know, when we

(06:52):
have disagreements, we've got to make sure we follow our processes.
And that's the biggest piece of it. But I would
also say another important piece is our district meetings in
the spring, when our staff goes to the district meetings,
that's where they select their committee members. Their sports committees
meet a week after the end of their championship and

(07:15):
go over what we can do to make their sports better.
We have non sports committees. One of the things that
we looked at as soon as I came in was
every organization coming out of COVID, you were limited in
what you could do physically face to face, and so
it's a pretty big emphasis that we get back to
face to face meetings. And so we found that some

(07:36):
of our non sports committees had not been able to
meet consistently. And what I mean by that is our
principals Advisory, our superintendent's advisory, we have a Junior high
principal advisory, classification committee, all those things, and the classification
committee had pretty consistently met, but some of those had
not met. While we're with ten o'clock today, we're meeting

(07:57):
with our Technology Committee. I don't think our Technology Committee
has been able to meet in three or four years.
So that gives an opportunity for people to voice their
opinions as we look toward collaborative solutions. And it may
be that, hey, there's things that they want to talk about.
Is going really well and we want to make sure
we keep that the same. And there's other areas where

(08:19):
we might could we might could look at doing something
a little different, and all of those are advisory. Everything
still has to go through our legislative process. Same thing
with the task force Transfer task force, that's an advisory.
That's another example of bringing people together to try to
figure out things. So I think I think I would
just want people to understand we have really good processes,

(08:41):
not always the result that every single person might want,
but it's good the test of time.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
It has And as far as to choose act, tell
me where the discord is, where the where the conflict
is between the state, the legislature and the AHSA, can.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
You do that?

Speaker 3 (09:00):
Yeah? So I think I think where we where we
are with that is uh as the rules as written
with the ability for a child to be immediately eligible
regarding our final financial aid rule. And so, like I
said earlier, you know, we'll we'll work through that. We
we've we've had a history of doing that. If you

(09:21):
go back to one thing I love to do is
study some of the work that the executive directors have
done before me. And every time I do that, it
just blows me away. Uh Uh. Coach Washburn had a
really big issue with no pass, no play, and uh
he came up with I say he he obviously was
working with other people through through our process, came up

(09:43):
with the academic rule that we still use today that
I think is an outstanding academic rule. Coach Savaiice, you know,
there was an issue with how how the association dealt
with homeschool students, you know, which was a really big
uh big deal when that was going on, and and
so he worked through the legislative processes and came up

(10:04):
with an answer for that. And that's all I'm asking
for is a chance to do that. As executive director.
All I want to do is lead well. I want
to follow the great example I have from from previous
executive directors, and I think we can do it through
our legislative processes, and I think that's the way we
have to do it to to protect our association. So

(10:25):
so that's that there's no there's no shortage of examples
of great leadership from this association. Not just executive directors.
I'm talking about central board members. I'm legislative council members, coaches, principles,
you know. And that's that's what I every chance I
get to talk to our membership, I want them to

(10:45):
understand they are, you know, where they are in their
communities and their schools. Parents send their most prized possession
their they trust them to take care of them. Uh
and and they'll listen to them. And so I just
you know, we can't we can't set things out so

(11:06):
to speak, where we're not making sure that we're just
taking for granted that people know what we do and
why we do it and uh. And we've had so
many examples of of times where you know, athletics has
been the difference in people's lives and and I think
just our people telling that story and and uh and
making sure that we're we're doing that. We're we're blessed,

(11:28):
We're we're we're really blessed. And I know, there's a
tendency sometimes to look for the bad and and criticize
and and and there's a there's a uh, the argument
to be made that social media may may be even
fueling that even more. And and so we're just in
a time where we've got to make sure we're looking
at the whole picture. And we've got we've got some

(11:51):
really really great things going on, and I really hate
anything that's detracted from that because at the end of
the day, we want to be celebrating and recognizing our
coaches and our administrators and our student athletes.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
Yeah, you do a good job with that, Coach Armon
Heith Armon, executive director with out of my High School
Athletic Association. With us on our mark on this morning
on the mark on the Hamil's and the sideline, we're discussing
HSAA and issues that come up here and there in
the great organization that's been in existence for over one
hundred years. You had a meeting this week with the
member schools that are private member schools, some of your

(12:24):
charter members I think it was fifty eight member schools
and not to get you know, that's business of association,
but can you give us a little sneak about what
that was about. Coach, you had a lot of you know,
heads and people asking questions. Can you give us a
little insight on that meeting?

Speaker 3 (12:40):
Yeah, that was to get face to face in a
room looking for collaborative solutions. And that's what I want
to do. I want to And like I said, sometimes
a virtual meeting is necessary. You can. You can accomplish
things virtually. You can. I'm not saying that you can't,
but you know, especially early in my tenures executive director,

(13:02):
I want to get in, uh, in a room with
people which you know, there's face to face feel. Yeah,
and that's how that's how we've got to we've got
to lead. And I like to get people in our office.
Now this this office here in Montgomery is the member's office.
This is their their place, and you get to come
in here and see our hall of fame, and it

(13:24):
just reminds you of who we are, uh, and it
reminds you of what we've been able to accomplish together.
So just wanted to get in a room with them.
I wanted to hear them, to hear me explain kind
of how important I think this association is and the
membership and give them a chance to tell me what
they think is going well, what they think we need
to work on, and for me to explain to them

(13:47):
we've got a process we want to go through, and
the same things I just told you, to make sure
that in their communities that they're they're explaining to people
what we do and how we do it, because I'm
noticing a good bit of confusion. Uh, And I think
the thing that this association does well, one of the
many things is through the legislative process to the best

(14:09):
of its ability. It's trying to be proactive. Now you
have to react. If there's schools that think there's a
bad rule, you have to react and correct that. But
for the most part, it's a forward thinking getting in
front of things in that legislative process because what you
have to be careful of is reacting to something that
might be not as long term of an issue or

(14:33):
as impactful statewide as you might think. And if you
react to all those you know, in coming out of
our Principles advisory, one of the big things that most
of those principles talked about was the consistency of the ahsa.
You know what you're going to get you may not
always be excited about what decision was made, but you

(14:56):
understand it was made through a consistent process. So that
the key. But yeah, just to get in a room
and and and build relationships and and uh make sure
they get to know me, I get to know them,
and and uh and we're understanding that we're going to
do everything we can to protect of this association because

(15:16):
you know, I'm just going to tell you our state association.
I don't know that people know this, but for me
traveling around the country, I've had an opportunity now four
different times to be in an event with all the
other executive directors. Our association is a model. There are
that asks that they're going to ask about our legislative process, absolutely,

(15:36):
and they're going to ask about our championships.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (15:39):
You know, our championships are known nationwide. So we we
do have a lot to be proud of. We always
have things we need to work on, and that's why
we we want to do that collaboratively. But it also
requires an executive director that's willing to lead. And you know,
the price of leading, you're not always going to be understood.

Speaker 2 (15:59):
Yeah, yeah, no, I think that's great.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
And you know what from those that I to speak to,
all of them, obviously just a few. Everybody was positive
about the meeting. They seemed real happy about it. So, uh,
and I heard comments, you know, I know you've made comments.
You think it went well? Am I putting words? I've
heard you, you know.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
I wrote to me, I think anytime you can, yeah,
anytime you can get together and and and talk about
where you are as an association and and what you
need to do to make sure you're hearing from the membership.
I think that's a good thing. And that's what happened.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
Good all right, before we go h redistricting and red
you know, uh, golly, I can't reclassification. Listen to me.
I couldn't even get it out right. It's coming up
things going in that direction.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
So it's going, well, we're getting all our numbers in,
you know, you know, we talk about sportsmanship and fair
play and and and those are two really cornerstones, especially
fair play. There's nothing really more impactful all and more
eyes on fair play than classification. So uh, get our
numbers coming in and working on that. And of course
the deal with that is we do the fall sports

(17:06):
in December, so there'll be a lot of a lot
of eyes on that and and looking forward to doing that.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
Good deal. How's a wife and family doing.

Speaker 3 (17:14):
Coach doing great? So I'm super excited tonight I'm going
out to Lee scott And to take I'm gonna be
able to take Coach Washburn out to dinner with my
wife and Holly will be with me and I just
I am looking forward to that. Anytime I get to
hang out with any of the former executive directors, it's

(17:34):
a good deal. But excited to be able to spend
a little time with Coach Washburn this evening.

Speaker 2 (17:39):
That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
I may see this as the game Immigrants son is
going to so I may see that. Yeah, hey, I
hope you enjoyed the afternoon. Thank you so much for
your time this morning. Thank you for what you do, coach.
It means a lot to me. And thank you for
what you do for me too. That means a lot.
Thank you, Thank you.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
It was great talking to you.

Speaker 2 (17:57):
You got it, Coach Heath Harmon