THOMASTON, Ga. — The Georgia High School Association may be ready to not only discuss two major factors affecting the future of high school sports but also implement policy.
In a Board of Trustees meeting held Wednesday at its offices, GHSA executive director Robin Hines addressed the need for the Executive Committee to look at name, image and likeness (NIL) as official policy.
Hines told the Trustees that he is working on a proposal to have ready for the Executive Committee meeting in October.
Another major topic that the Trustees discussed was the proposal GHSA vice president Curt Miller, assistant principal and athletics director at Oconee County High School, brought to the committee in the spring looking at middle school recruiting.
Miller's proposal, which was tabled back in April, stipulates a two-year ban -- presumably the 9th and 10th grades -- for middle school students who participate in skills camps or combines and then transfers to a school where any of the coaches working the event were employed. Under the proposal, schools holding the events would be required to report the names of coaches working the event to the GHSA.
Here is middle school propsal presented to the Executive Committee in April and to the Trustees on Wednesday:
Discussion of proposal tabled at the April 17, 2023 meeting of the State Executive Committee as follows: Proposal to mandate a two-year sit out period (9th and 10th grades) for any middle school student-athlete who:
- Attends a skills camp, combine or official visit set by schools to host student-athletes and transfers to a school (feeder or high school) where any of the coaches working the event are employed.
- Attends a skills camp, combine or official visit set by schools to host student-athletes and transfers to the school (feeder or high school) where the camp/event was held.
- Any coach(s) or school(s) hosting one of these camps, combines or official visits set by schools to host student athletes must report the following to the GHSA:
- (a) A complete list of all staff working the event. This includes those on the field, involved with any aspect of the event, including but not limited to, registration and facility rental/care.
- (b) A complete list of all participants in attendance. (Curt Miller, Vice President)
Back in May, Hines talked to AccessWDUN for a story in the 2023 Kickoff Magazine about the proposal: “It certainly has legs to it,” he said. “It's a developing story. I don't think it's going to drop off the radar.
“I think that the membership feels like there's a problem in this area of people having middle school camps, quarterback camps and combines and those kinds of things,” Hines told AccessWDUN at the time. “What Dr. Miller was trying to get across is the staff at the schools [hosting the camps] have the opportunity to evaluate students. You are trying to remove that undue influence situation from them, and at least know it’s there, have it defined, and have specific penalties for those violations."
The discussion on Wednesday appears to show that the Executive Committee almost certainly will take up the matter in its October meeting.
(Bo Wilson contributed to this story.)
