NCHSAA says new legislation was ‘blindside tackle’: NCHSAA Commissioner Que Tucker indicated the association had no idea the new legislation was coming(Nick Stevens HS OT and WRALSportsFan reporting)

NCHSAA says new legislation was ‘blindside tackle’
NCHSAA Commissioner Que Tucker indicated the association had no idea the new legislation was coming.

from Nick Stevens , HighSchoolOT managing editor
www.wralsportsfan.com

The N.C. High School Athletic Association woke up to a new reality on Friday morning — legislation that strips the association of much of its authority to govern high school sports in North Carolina passed through the state House of Representatives overnight.

Senate Bill 452, which was originally centered around insurance issues in the state, was amended to include several pages of language about high school sports. It would take much of the NCHSAA’s authority and place it with the state superintendent of public instruction or the state board of education.

“The Association neither supports the bill, nor the manner in which our elected officials have attempted to force it through,” the NCHSAA said in a statement on Friday morning.

The language in SB 452 is similar to language in a bill introduced earlier in the year and passed by the Senate. NCHSAA Commissioner Que Tucker spoke out against that proposed legislation, Senate Bill 636, during a House committee meeting in May.

House passes new bill overnight that seeks to overhaul NCHSAA; Senate gives approval
Following the passage of House Bill 91 in 2021, the NCHSAA was required to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the state board of education in order to continue running high school sports in the state. That agreement was signed ahead of the 2022-2023 school year and was supposed to be in place for four years.

“The NCHSAA has operated in good faith with the state legislators and the North Carolina Board of Education in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding that was signed in 2022 and has received no such correspondence to the contrary. In fact, the staff and NCHSAA Board Members have worked closely with the leadership team of the state board of education in recent weeks to discuss changes to the current eligibility rules,” the association said.

NCHSAA Commissioner Que Tucker called it a “a dark day” for North Carolina high school sports, seeming to insinuate the NCHSAA was not aware this legislation was coming.

“This was a blindside tackle, and I am sorely disappointed in the actions of our state legislators. Any statement that would suggest that we have not honored our end of the current Memorandum of Understanding is grossly inaccurate,” Tucker said. “We have seen other state associations dismantled by their state legislatures and ultimately, legislators don’t know what they don’t know. The NCHSAA is not just an office in Chapel Hill, it is the 436 schools that make up its membership. This bill, should it become law, silences the voices of those schools.”

NCHSAA commissioner tells member schools ‘change is still very likely’ as legislation advances
In the statement, the NCHSAA says it has “the utmost respect” for the Department of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education, but added the two entities already have enough to do without the burden of running high school sports.

“The NCHSAA has a dedicated, full-time staff devoted only to the guardianship of interscholastic athletic competition, including several Certified Athletic Administrators and former public school employees. With the support of a Board of Directors, which consists of Superintendents, Principals, Athletic Directors and Coaches from every region and every classification in North Carolina, the NCHSAA believes that it has assembled the best possible team to administer high school sports in our state,” the association said.

Now that it has passed both the House and Senate, SB 452 will go to Gov. Roy Cooper (D) who can sign it, veto it, or allow it to become law without his signature if he does nothing for 10 days. If Cooper vetoes it, the bill could still become law because Republicans have a supermajority in both the House and Senate.

WATCH: NCHSAA Commissioner Que Tucker speaks out against legislation in May
Athletic directors, coaches throw support behind NCHSAA
The N.C. Athletic Directors Association released a statement in support of the NCHSAA on Friday morning, stating that the association is the right organization to manage high school sports in the state.

“The NCHSAA comprises superintendents, principals, athletic directors, and coaches at member schools. These individuals are the most qualified to determine who should represent their interests regarding the governance and regulation of education-based interscholastic high school athletics, not the State Superintendent or the Board of Education members,” the NCADA Board of Directors said in a statement.

The board’s statement also says the legislation puts politics into high school sports.

“This legislation is specifically designed to remove these most qualified individuals from the process that determines who represents them in matters related to high school athletics,” the board said. “Further, it injects unnecessary politicization into an organization that has seen its members successfully govern their affairs while working to benefit the student-athletes and schools of our state for more than 100 years.”

The N.C. Coaches Association also released a statement in support of the NCHSAA: “The North Carolina Coaches Association stands with and supports the NCHSAA. We firmly believe that the NCHSAA is the best organization for the administration and regulation of high school athletics in the State of North Carolina.”