GHSA board supports ouster of leader

Executive director’s removal seen as bid to blunt legislative action.

Georgia High School Association executive director Gary Phillips’ fate will be decided at a meeting next Monday.

Georgia High School Association executive director Gary Phillips is fighting for his job after the GHSA board of trustees voted 5-3 on Monday to recommend that he resign effective at the end of the school year.

Phillips’ fate will be decided by a specially called meeting of the GHSA’s 66-member executive committee to consider the recommendation next Monday at the Thomaston-Upson County Civic Center.

Phillips declined to resign and said he would have no comment before Monday’s meeting.

The trustees’ vote coincides with House Bill 415 and Senate Bill 203, which propose to replace the GHSA with a new statewide governing body that would operate under the state board of education. Phillips’ resignation might serve to appease the bills’ authors.

“Obviously, we don’t see the need in all this,” Phillips said last week when asked about the legislation. “We understand we’re not perfect and understand that there are some controversies within the body itself and rules that are made . ... There’s always going to be some controversy here and there. That’s the way high school athletics unfortunately have evolved.’’

Rep. John Meadows, R-Calhoun, said he gets more complaints about the GHSA — from schools,

referees, coaches and parents — than about everything else put together. “And basically I’m sick of it,” said Meadows, chairman of the House Rules Committee. “I don’t think they know what their job is.”

Jay Russell, GHSA assistant executive director, told lawmakers Monday that Phillips would resign, saying, “I don’t know if that will influence the vote at all, but I wanted you to have this information.”

But Phillips had not made that declaration as of Monday night.

Board member Tommy Stringer of Loganville, who voted to support Phillips, said other board members expressed no personal dissatisfaction with Phillips’ performance but said his removal would ensure the GHSA’s existence and independence.

“I don’t think the Georgia Legislature has any business dealing in Georgia High School Association affairs,” Stringer said.

Voting to recommend Phillips resign were board president Glenn White, Model High principal in Rome, Gary Long , Mill Creek High athletic director in Gwinnett County, Don Corr of Cherokee County schools, Jesse Crews of Charlton County High and Benjy Rogers, Bleckley County athletic director in Cochran.

Voting against were Stringer, Jim Finch, Mary Persons High principal in Forsyth, and Joe Lancaster of Jackson County. Vice president Lisa Moore Williams of Mableton and at-large trustee Wes Taylor of Valdosta did not attend. The 10-member board includes representative from each of the seven GHSA classifications, a president, a vice president and an at-large member.

Many of the GHSA’s decisions during Phillips’ tenure have been controversial, which is not unusual.

Administrators in Buford and Jefferson were unhappy with the process and appeals procedures that led to those city schools being placed in higher classifications this academic year, while most other city schools were unaffected.

Cartersville is the home turf of the high school bill’s author, Bruce Thornton, R-White. He scrapped with Phillips in the spring of 2015 over a baseball scheduling decision. A playoff double-header between Cartersville and Wayne County was rained out and Phillips ruled the game had to be completed the next day, forcing Cartersville to return immediately to Jesup.

Phillips’ decision to keep Wheeler’s boys basketball team from participating in a postseason tournament in New York two years ago caused a public outcry. He subsequently changed course and gave permission once legal action was threatened.

The Legislature got involved in fall 2015, when the GHSA upheld the disqualification of a third-place finisher at the state cross-country meet who ignored a warning and wore a head band that contained a Bible verse. Any message, and not the verse per se, violated national federation rules.

The GHSA got a black eye during last year’s state basketball finals when it was discovered that the baskets at the Macon Coliseum had been positioned incorrectly, about a foot too close to the baseline. Phillips elected to play on and not correct the mistake at mid-event, which would’ve caused games to be delayed or postponed.

Phillips, just the fifth GHSA executive director since 1946, would be the first to be forced out. He succeeded Ralph Swearngin, who served from 2001 to 2014. Phillips’ contract was renewed a year later through 2017-18.