Wooten: Life or death of the NCHSAA on lawmaker’s table
July 26, 2021 Bladen Journal Sports
https://www.bladenjournal.com/sports/38704/wooten-life-or-death-of-the-nchsaa-on-lawmakers-tableAnswers and solutions are somewhere in the middle.
That the leadership of the state’s governing body for the majority of high school athletics competition hasn’t found its way to them is alarming. When its executive director cried out with a play of the race card last week, it simply became a huge disappointment.A bill in the General Assembly would — if able to get through both chambers and avoid the veto stamp of Gov. Roy Cooper — dismantle the N.C. High School Athletic Association and replace it with dual oversight through a newly created N.C. Interscholastic Athletic Commission and the state Board of Education. The latter would handle eligibility and safety; the former would handle the rest, to include rules, championships, officiating, etc.
It could be implemented by next fall.
House Bill 91 last week jumped into the public eye out of nearly two years of conversations between lawmakers and the NCHSAA. Wednesday it cleared the House Education Committee, and Thursday the chamber’s Finance Committee. The Rules Committee, in August, is the next and final stop before floor votes.
But honestly, there’s no reason to believe it’ll get past Cooper’s pen. Ours was the last state in America to give the governor veto power, in 1996, and he’s blocked more bills than the combined totals of Jim Hunt, Mike Easley, Bev Perdue and Pat McCrory before him. Worth noting, only Perdue like Cooper operated with General Assembly control by an opposite party.Not only did social media light up on the Jones Street developments of last week, but so too did a number of entities offering an embrace of support to the NCHSAA. That list included the National Federation of State High School Associations, the N.C. Coaches Association, and the N.C. Athletic Directors Association.
The idea politicians in the General Assembly would have high school athletics under their thumb is arguably the loudest talking point. That opinion was voiced by a number of people and groups, and is less than accurate if not downright completely wrong.
The appointments to the new commission, 17 of them, will come from the governor and the two leaders of General Assembly chamber. The NCHSAA’s Board of Directors is made up of 20 school administrators — superintendents, principals and athletic directors currently and most years — with specific rules to apportion them from geographic areas and also between various sized schools. The 17 on the new commission and their appropriation based on school size and role in public schools would be similar, according to language in the bill and the NCHSAA by-laws.
The only difference going forward is who is picking their buddies. Sports politics is already in play, and any notion it isn’t is by those not paying attention.
Among the most telling points in the overall discussion thus far is what Raleigh Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, a Democrat, had to say about discussion that began before COVID-19. Lawmakers have spent 22 months trying to “move the ball down the field” with the NCHSAA.
“Had we seen movement toward a shared goal of keeping that student athletic focus” they wouldn’t have needed the bill, he said.
Que Tucker, the NCHSAA’s commissioner, has offered a mix of defensive stance and willingness to cooperate with lawmakers. Included in a Q-and-A posted Wednesday by the News & Record of Greensboro was this question and her response.
“Q: What do you see as other concerns legislators have with the NCHSAA that led to the introduction of this bill and can any of those grievances be addressed within the association’s bylaws?
“A: One of their grievances really kicked in when we were in the midst of the COVID pandemic and COVID surges and we had limited numbers of people who could be in the gyms because we were following Governor Cooper’s executive orders and we were under the guidance of DHHS. I believe they feel the leadership was not sufficient and we were not proactive enough to make sure that fans could get back into the gyms and stadiums faster than we were allowing.
“I do believe that there is something personal beyond the fact that a team of one of the senators did not get into the playoffs. I believe that were I not female and African American the approach would have been a little different. …”
She later added, “I don’t want this to be a racial thing.”
Tucker is entitled to her opinion. As is anyone who questioned the NCHSAA board in December 2015 when it did not conduct a search to replace former Commissioner Davis Whitfield, instead choosing to remove the interim tag from Tucker – the deputy commissioner at the time, and who had been with the organization staff since 1991.
She was also asked if she would consider resigning or retiring to preserve the association. She said if she thought it would help, “I would do it in a heartbeat.”
That doesn’t add up, that she believes she individually is a part of the reason lawmakers want change and transparency from the organization, but she doesn’t think it’ll help if she steps out of the picture.Tucker, in that Greensboro newspaper interview, said since an April 15 hearing with lawmakers she and the NCHSAA have not been asked back by a “subcommittee or anybody.” Our question: They are talking about significant change, up to and including dismantling your organization; shouldn’t you be on offense instead of defense?
The NCHSAA begrudgingly yielded its financials to lawmakers, but otherwise the nonprofit has always kept them secret. Its $41 million in assets make it the richest such organization in the country, with more — and by a good bit more — than the combined total of Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia. It is in various places that necessitate comfortable reserve, but the swelling endowment sum coupled with the nearly half-million dollars collected through fines over a five-year period against less than $50,000 in annual scholarships to students won’t fly with objective people outside of those Chapel Hill offices.
Tucker likes to say they’re representing 427 member schools. But truth is, the ratio of voices being represented across the state is barely a thimble full. The NCHSAA board is diverse in makeup, but is rooted in who knows who. Decisions are made often saying coaches or administrators are surveyed, but we talk to the boots on the ground and many never have a voice.In some schools, principals and ADs run the show with iron hand and coaches have little to no say. Arguably, participation in the NCHSAA’s overall process is limited. And there is no guarantee lawmakers’ plan will change that.
Often over decades, we have heard coaches complain about other coaches getting around or flat-out breaking rules, yet seldom have we seen those accusations get turned in, or those issues get fairly resolved. Among coaches, it’s protect the industry. The boards of associations aligned with the NCHSAA have offered up the same in recent days, as have hundreds of coaches individually across the state.
Change scares folks. What lawmakers propose, something accurately described as a nuclear option or death penalty, isn’t totally the best route.
But 22 months is a long time to “move the ball down the field” without satisfactory results. For the NCHSAA to sit back from April to nearly August and not play offense, or much of it, isn’t encouraging either.
The ultimate hope from here is high school athletes will come out the big winners. They could through either organization.
The NCHSAA is surely going to bank on Cooper’s veto; bill proponents will be trying to earn enough bipartisan support for an override.Sure answers and solutions are not with either of these two sides. They’re somewhere in the middle, where the ball isn’t moving.
Alan Wooten can be reached at 910-247-9132 or awooten@bladenjournal.com. Twitter: @JournalBladen.