Offseason workouts to take on new look for high schools in Georgia

For many coaches, finding time to work with players during the offseason can be difficult.

Previously limited to working with just two players at a time in skill-building activities, coaches couldn’t spend much time on individual work. That opened the door to student-athletes using outside resources — AAU basketball, travel baseball and the like — to hone their skills.

The GHSA executive committee addressed that issue Monday at its spring meeting at the Macon Marriott City Center. The committee voted to double the number of student-athletes a coach could work with at one time during an offseason skill workout from two to four.

“Our teachers and coaches that are in the classroom have a lot of demands with their evaluations and all that stuff,” said Henry County athletics coordinator Curt Miller, a former basketball head coach at Dutchtown and Ola. “I think this proposal is going to allow our coaches to not have to stagger so many times before or after school to do offseason workouts.”

The move drew widespread approval from basketball coaches, who can now work in two-on-two or three-on-one situations. It also gives multi-sport athletes an avenue to put in offseason work at school in addition to putting in whatever time is needed from the current sport.

“One of the bigger wins in recent memory,” Norcross boys basketball head coach Jesse McMillan wrote on Twitter. “Many don't realize how important this is to player development in GA (in all sports). Great day!”

Basketball coaches got more good news from the association’s financial report. Ticket sales from the state final in March at Georgia Tech and Georgia were up 24 percent, according to a marketing report from the GHSA.

Keeping tabs on the membership

A week after the legislative hearing that moved a bill that would have effectively dissolved the GHSA had movement on the bill been halted by executive director Gary Phillips’ forced retirement, the GHSA executive committee heard in a called meeting that the vast majority of members were mostly satisfied with the GHSA.

More details of the survey, commissioned by the GHSA and conducted by AIM Sports Reputation Management in January, were presented Monday.

The big takeaway, according to Jeff Battcher, who co-founded AIM Sports with former college football head coach Bill Curry, is that 87 percent of the membership is “generally satisfied with the GHSA.”

The survey gives the GHSA high marks for knowledge of school issues and its treatment of race and gender issues, but it gives the association lower numbers for how it treats schools of different sizes and locations.

The two key areas for improvement, Battcher said, are communication (and the technology that goes along with it) and fairness and consistency with rulings made. But the survey indicates that schools are willing to support the association.

“This is great news that people are willing to help,” Battcher said.

Check those quarters

The tradition of conducting a coin flip via telephone or having to do one after a long road trip was put to rest Monday when the GHSA adopted a universal coin toss prior to each round in which seeds of the same rank might meet.

Prior to the adoption of this rule, a coin flip to determine the home team was conducted for each instance in which teams of the same seed met in the quarterfinals or semifinals. Now, just one coin flip will take place each round statewide, with the flip determining whether the upper or lower bracket line will host in those situations.

New face on the panel

Bleckley County athletics director Benjy Rogers, a longtime member of the GHSA executive committee, is leaving that post as he hands over the Royals’ athletics program to incoming football head coach Von Lassiter.

Rural Middle Georgia, however, will continue to be represented on the statewide panel. Replacing Rogers as the Region 3-2A representative is Dodge County football head coach and athletics director Rex Hodges.

“The schools our size, the rural communities may be declining in population,” Hodges said. “There’s some things we have from a school standpoint, I don’t know really what the GHSA can do to help us, but our situation is a little different than some of the other schools in the metro areas. We try to get rules that are good for everybody.”

More meetings to come

In a little more than a month, the GHSA hopes to have its next executive director.

The organization is preparing to post the position this week. It is being vacated by Phillips, who is retiring early under pressure from the Georgia legislature, at the end of June.

A board of trustees meeting is scheduled for May 4 in Thomaston to review applications. A called executive committee meeting is set for 10 a.m on May 16 in Thomaston to vote on a recommended candidate.

Appeals, appeals and more appeals

Eleven appeals were on the docket Monday morning, the longest list in several years at a scheduled GHSA executive committee meeting.

KIPP Atlanta Collegiate caught a break following the punishments it received for forfeiting its first-round football playoff game last fall. The school, which declared a forfeit of its first-round playoff game with Banks County after some of its players became caught up in incidents following a regular-season game against Hapeville Charter, had its playoff eligibility returned for 2017 following lengthy discussion. The school paid restitution to Banks County and Hapeville Charter, as well as officials’ fees and a fine to the GHSA.

Atkinson County’s appeal to have probation lifted for the 2017 football season was denied after eight Coffee players were found to be playing for Atkinson County without having fully established a bona-fide move.

The only local appeal involved FPD student-athlete Armaun Smith, who was looking for relief from the eight-semester rule. His bid was denied by voice vote.

Odds and ends

A proposal to increase minimum seating requirements at GHSA basketball tournament games was tabled. The proposal would have established a 2,000-seat minimum in Class 6A and Class 7A. ... Killed in committee was a proposal to allow video review of ejections, as were proposals to return to six classifications and to reset the realignment timer to two years from the current four. ... Football games must now be played to completion unless the trailing head coach decides otherwise. ... A three-team jamboree can replace a two-team scrimmage in spring football. ... Softball’s tiebreaker won’t go into effect until the 10th inning. ... Swimming moves to four classes from two, with the top 30 in each class being scored instead of the top 20

This story was originally published April 10, 2017 at 7:06 PM with the headline "Offseason workouts to take on new look for high schools in Georgia."