What to expect from new TSSAA director
Mark Reeves played multiple sports growing up in Springfield. It helped spark an interest in high school athletics that led him to become a coach, school administrator and on July 1 the next TSSAA executive director.
He wasn’t an all-state athlete in any sport, but he reached the state wrestling tournament his junior and senior years where he never got beyond the second round.
“I gave up three points in the last six seconds to lose 3-2,” said Reeves, who wrestled at 125 pounds until his senior year when he was at 130 pounds. “We did not have double elimination at that time. Whoever beat you advanced to the semifinals.
“I knew as soon as I gave up those points I was done. It’s still a sore spot.”
Reeves, a 1992 Springfield graduate, wrestled for former coach Randy Thomas while playing football for Donnie Jones. He started four or five of Springfield first games his senior year before getting injured and being replaced by 1993 Class 3A Mr. Football Chico Gardner, who was then a sophomore.
Today’s wrestlers compete in a double-elimination tournament, a change Reeves welcomed as a former athlete.
“I never got to wrestle a consolation match,” Reeves. “Every kid now gets to. I think that’s a great step forward.”
Reeves, 48, has been with the TSSAA since 2008. Like his wrestling career, he’s calculated in his decisions. He studies topics closely — much like Bernard Childress, who he is replacing as executive director. Childress is retiring at the end of June after 27 years with the TSSAA, the past 13 as executive director.
“The biggest thing in this job is that you have all the information that you can gather before making a decision,” Childress said. “If you do not, it can wait. I think he’s patient enough to let that happen.”
Reeves, 48, and wife Jill Reeves live in Springfield where their sons Garrett (17) and Connor (15) are a junior and freshman, respectively, at Springfield High. Jill is the principal at Bransfield Elementary in Springfield, a pre-kindergarten school.
Reeves returned to Springfield after getting his bachelor’s degree from UT Martin and masters in education administration from Trevecca. He was a science teacher and later assistant principal as well as wrestling coach and an assistant football coach. He then went to East Robertson as an assistant principal before joining the TSSAA as an assistant director in 2008.
He’s helped oversee several sports since joining the TSSAA, including boys and girls soccer, track and field and wrestling as well as areas of coaches education and sports medicine. He’s served on NFHS committees including the football rules committee, wrestling rules committee and most recently been a part of the NFHS sports medicine advisory committee.
The Board of Control unanimously
approved Reeves as the fifth executive director and Childress’ replacement minutes after he announced his retirement. Outside of the original director A.F. Bridges, each executive director has come from the TSSAA’S staff.
“Mark handles tough situations well,” said Board of Control member Jody Wright, who is the Knoxville Fulton athletic director and boys basketball coach. “He’s a people person. I think he has all the attributes to fill a really, really tough role.
“That’s a position where you have to have the wisdom of Solomon when you are handling some of these situations. And I think Mark has those attributes.”
The Board recognized the TSSAA is in a good place after navigating through the COVID-19 pandemic and felt no reason to look outside the staff. And that pointed to Reeves, whose approach to decisions is similar to Childress.
“I love the work; I love the people and I love the mission,” Reeves said. “I see this as a mission field. We are in the business of making sure we provide the support that schools need to develop students who can become better citizens who grow into better people and better husbands and better fathers and better wives, better mothers.”
Former Springfield football coach Jon Offutt coached with Reeves while both were assistant football coaches and has remained close to him over the years. He believes his approach to handling problems will transition perfectly to his new role.
“He’s going to be very, very level headed about the things he does,” Offutt said. “He’s going to study it. He’s going to look into it and cross every T and dot every I. He’s very precise in everything he does.”
Reeves enters as the executive director during a time when the TSSAA is preparing for reclassification. The 2022-23 school year is the final of a twoyear classification cycle. Classification will be discussed at the June meetings — the final one under Childress. However, any Board of Control decisions may not be decided on until August.
While classification is a big part of the role, there are other big decisions approaching the association in the upcoming months.
It must decide if it is ready to sanction boys and girls lacrosse as a TSSAA sport. The sanctioning of girls flag football is also likely on the horizon as interest increases as Williamson County Schools participate in a pilot program sponsored by the Tennessee Titans this year.
The association is facing a referee shortage in numerous sports, including football where it has moved about 20 games a week to Thursday nights this fall to compensate for it.
Transgender athletes and NIL packages for high school athletes may also be topics for the association to address in the near future.
The Tennessee Senate passed a bill that would financially penalize public schools that allow transgender students to participate in girls’ athletics.
Eight states currently permit NIL sponsorships for high school athletes with Ohio voting on it in May.
Reach Tom Kreager at 615-259-8089 or tkreager@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Kreager.