Three high school athletic directors in Cherokee County are not in favor of the bill making its way through the General Assembly that would dissolve the N.C. High School Athletic Association.
House Bill 91 was about improving regulations for children with autism until it was overhauled and named the “Fair Play & Accountability in Athletics Act.” Under the new legislation, the State Board of Education would administer rules governing high school athletics in the state for public and charter schools, which would be enforced by a newly created North Carolina Interscholastic Athletic Commission. The commission would take over for the NCHSAA, the nonprofit agency in charge of high school athletics across the state.
“Dr. Lisa Fletcher, principal, Mr. Ray Gutierrez, athletic director, along with the faculty, staff and our student body fully support the NCHSAA,” Gutierrez wrote in a letter obtained by the Cherokee Scout. “It is our hope that the NCHSAA can continue to provide governance and leadership for interscholastic athletic programs that support and enrich the educational experience of students.”
The bill has moved through both the Senate Education Committee and Senate Committee on Finance, and now heads to the Committee of Rules & Operations. The bill has to pass through both the Senate and House, then be signed by Gov. Roy Cooper, in order to become law.
State Sen. Kevin Corbin (R-Franklin) and state Rep. Karl Gillespie (R-Franklin) could not be reached for comment on the bill.
The state Legislature held hearings about the NCHSAA throughout the spring, with their main concern being the organization’s $41 million in assets. According to a June 1 report from The Carolina Journal, lawmakers concluded a then-recent hearing by saying they intended to propose legislation that would overhaul the entire system and change how high school sports are governed in North Carolina.
The NCHSAA is against the bill.
“The General Assembly’s discussion today of HB 91 represents what we believe to be a full-scale attack on the ability and desire of the NCHSAA member schools to govern their own affairs as relates to high school athletics, education-based athletics,” Commissioner Que Tucker said in a statement. “We believe that high school athletics in our state should not be a political issue. When you start peeling away or turning the pages of this bill, clearly there are politics involved in how the new commission that they have mentioned would be established.”
The commission would be run by a 17-member board composed of athletic directors, superintendents, principals, associate superintendents and assistant principals. Nine of the members would be appointed by the governor, four by the General Assembly and four by the state Senate.
This structure is a concern for both Gutierrez and Hiwassee Dam athletic director David Payne, who worry that western North Carolina schools would not be properly represented under the new commission. In the current setup, Swain County athletic director Neil Blankenship represents this part of the state on the NCHSAA board, so regional athletic directors can talk to him about concerns and give them a direct line to Tucker if necessary.
That line of communication came in handy this spring, when one Murphy football player made inappropriate remarks on a live broadcast after the Bulldogs beat Robbinsville to win the 1A Western Regional championship. The player could have been suspended for the state championship, but Gutierrez worked with Tucker to make sure he could play in the game while still making it a teachable moment.
“It is our belief that being one of the most western schools in the state of N.C., we have when it comes to concerns that arise,” Gutierrez wrote. “We have always had a direct line to the office of the NCHSAA and/or its elected board members and can get immediate answers. That working relationship is one we do not want to lose.”
If the bill passes, the NCHSAA would remain the governing body for the 2021-22 school year before the commission takes over for 2022-23. That timeline is also a concern, as the NCHSAA has been the governing body for high school sports in the state since 1913.
The agency is set up as a nonprofit, which is similar to the majority of governing bodies for high school sports across the United States. For Payne, it’s more practical to try to address flaws with the NCHSAA then create a new governing body that would go into effect next year.
“If people have issues and there is concern with things the NCHSAA is doing or has done, let’s try to address those,” Payne said. “Don’t take a totally unproven entity to run our high school athletics. Don’t just try to create something on a whim that says hey we’re going to do this differently.”
Andrews athletic director Frank Maennle agrees.
“I just don’t understand what the government officials are looking for,” Maennle said. “I don’t know why they think they could govern it any better.”
The bill would also address one hot-button issue for high school sports in Cherokee County. Under the bill, private schools would no longer be allowed to compete in state playoffs, and charter schools would move up a classification from what they would be if they were a traditional public school.
The private and charter schools disproportionately affect 1A. According to the NCHSAA website, there are four private schools and 45 charter schools in the athletic association, and 46 of those 49 are in 1A. Last year, Murphy was knocked out of the playoffs by a private or charter school three times, and the boys cross-country team finished runner-up to Lincoln Charter at the 1A state championships.
Gutierrez said he would like to see charter schools have their own state championship, and would also like to see more classifications due to the inequities between the smallest and biggest 1A schools. But he would rather push for more reform within the NCHSAA than start over.
“Help the high school athletic association instead of solely just eliminating it,” Gutierrez said. “I don’t think that’s the right solution.”