Ralph Swearngin has served the Georgia High School Association since 1992, originally as commissioner of officials and deputy director. He succeeeded Tommy Guillebeau and became the GHSA’s fourth executive director in 2001. Swearngin will turn the job over to Gary Phillips on July 1. He recalls some of the issues he has faced during his tenure.
I had worked in the GHSA office for nine years before I became the executive director, so I knew the policies and procedures very well. But when I moved behind the executive director’s desk, the view was quite different. Even the staff responded to me differently.
The most significant issue that tested my leadership ability that first year occurred on Sept. 11, 2001 — when I had been executive director for about 10 weeks.
I was in a conference in Charleston, S.C., when I got the news about the tragedy we now call “9-11.” I rushed back to the office not knowing how widespread the terrorist threat was, and schools wanted help deciding what to do with their fall sports. All sports but football were easily re-arranged, but football was a real challenge.
Across the country, state associations were making similar decisions. Some postponed weekend sports while others didn’t want to give in to the terrorists. By Wednesday, the GHSA had decided to proceed with the football schedule. About that time, President Bush named Friday as a “national day of prayer,” and school districts began debating the subject again, and many of them decided they would not let their schools play.
It would have been major chaos to have some schools play and other schools not play, especially if they were scheduled to play one another. Early Friday morning I made the decision to cancel all football games that week and extend the regular season by a week. The entire staff was making phone calls Friday morning to schools scheduled to play that night telling them of the new decision. We went from possible major chaos to actual moderate chaos. But it worked out.
Before I became executive director, there were five people on the GHSA office staff. Tommy Guillebeau was executive director then, and he handled the administrative issues. I handled most of the operational issues in all sports, and I oversaw the officiating issues in all sports.
When I became executive director, I had difficulty letting loose of the operational matters even though I had expanded the staff significantly, and those people were handling matters very well. Over time, I learned to trust the talented people I had hired.
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