Savannah-based former coach Earl Etheridge, 73, has worked with every executive director of the Georgia High School Association. He recalled how each brought unique talents, matching what GHSA needed at the time.
As a member of the GHSA executive committee for 28 years, I had the opportunity to be associated with all of the GHSA executive directors: Sam Burke, Bill Fordham, Tommy Guillebeau, Ralph Swearngin and now Gary Phillips.
When Mr. Burke started, it took an individual with his personality and ways to lead. It was a lot different than today, but it was what GHSA needed. From that point, we tried to put the right person to carry our success further. It didn’t mean that each one didn’t get someone mad along the way, but each gave insight to a lot of issues. You have to have respect for how tough a job it is.
Mr. Fordham basically had been Mr. Burke’s assistant and built upon what had been done. As we expanded, along came Mr. Guillebeau, who moved us into the process of investing the monies we earned to make the organization more solvent. We could do more things for the schools. He was a great leader in that phase.
He hired Dr. Swearngin as commissioner of officials. Under Dr. Swearngin, many rules changed — everything really changed. He was a great leader for what we needed.
Gary Phillips is certainly not the same personality as Dr. Swearngin, but we hired the right person at this point to continue to lead. The organization is growing and changing. We are getting a lot of the small private schools joining us, while others have not. The cost of travel and missed classes is causing us to look at whether we need to play closer schools. Another issue is getting the best officials that we can.
High school sports have become more sophisticated. We have great exposure for our teams and athletes. Mr. Guillebeau had great foresight to arrange the football semifinals in the Georgia Dome. We’ve been very fortunate to play that series and attract college coaches throughout the country to see our athletes. From spectators to players to band members to cheerleaders — it’s a great tradition. Playing in the Dome is not anything that anyone thought we would do 50 years ago.
We have a lot of people to thank for our growth, and if we take all the executive directors, each represent a time in our history and now in our future. Each was the right person at the right time to lead the GHSA.
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