HARTWELL, Ga. — For the past seven years Dr. Robin Hines was front-and-center while guiding the Georgia High School Association from his Executive Director position down in Thomaston.
Thursday marked his final official day as the face of the GHSA. He announced back in November that the 2023-24 school year would be his last as Executive Director. Back in April, the GHSA announced that Dr. Tim Scott, the superintendent of Dalton Public Schools since 2018, would be taking over.
Scott will be the seventh Executive Director in the history of the GHSA, following Sam Burke (1939-76), Bill Fordham (1976-91), Tommy Guillebeau (1991-2001), Ralph Swearngin (2001-14), Gary Phillips (2014-17) and Hines (2017-24).
While Hines’s time was the second-shortest among the previous five Executive Directors for the organization, it also may have been the most formative period in its more than 80 years. The GHSA may have had to deal with more fundamental shifts in high school sports than at any other time in history.
Hines helped the state navigate COVID-19 in 2020 and oversee dramatic changes with issues like NIL, rampant transfers, and the GHSA’s declassification from seven classes back down to six this season. There were also issues such as athlete safety and the recent concerning shortage of officials.
But Hines said he wasn’t alone in having to make some hard decisions early on. He said it takes a team to make things work and credited the entire organization for overcoming some early challenges.
The next task was bringing about some needed changes on and off the field.
“Being able to navigate COVID where there was no playbook and figure out how to do that was pretty difficult,” he said during a phone interview on Thursday. “Through a wonderful sports medicine advisory council, we’ve really done some great things for our association that deals with the safety of our athletes. When we came in my first year here, we were ranked 47th in the country as far as safety for the athletes and safety policies, and now we’re in the top five in the country I believe with some of the things we’ve implemented with the heat restrictions in all sports.”
Hines was also instrumental in working with Arthur Blank and the Atlanta Falcons to launch girls' flag football and bring the football finals back to Mercedes Benz Stadium. Another new sport, bass fishing, was introduced during his tenure and boasts the largest participation by any state in the country.
When Dr. Scott officially takes the reins, he will be just the second Executive Director that did not come out of the GHSA organization at the time. Hines was the first and said it may have helped him with seeing things through a different lens.
“I’ve been involved with the GHSA for 50 years as a teacher, coach, administrator, superintendent, and now the Executive Director,” he said. “We've had great executive directors all the way through and all did a great job I believe. And the people that work in that office, they do a super, super job. But I do think (not already having been in the building) helped me see some things maybe a little different. I think it helped having some different experiences.”
Hines had glowing things to say about his successor and said he plans to stay involved.
“I've known Tim for many years and you're gonna see the same thing out of him. He's going to be open, he's going to give consideration, he's going to be transparent, and he is a common sense guy,” he said. “He's asked me to stay with him and to help navigate his first little while here. I'm going to do that, because the GHSA is very important to me.”
Hines’s new role will involve working closely with the General Assembly while it is in session. He says continuing his relationships with state lawmakers will be a key factor in helping the GHSA deal with the rapidly changing sports landscape.
“I have found that as long as I’m transparent and talk and explain those things to them, we're in great shape,” he explained. “I've made a lot of relationships (at the Gold Dome) over the past seven years, and honestly appreciate the opportunity to continue to do that.”
On Thursday, he was working on eligibility paperwork submitted to the GHSA during the summer before taking some time to talk about his time as Executive Director. He said he feels things are set up for Dr. Scott to continue to build on the progress made over the last seven years.
“We're all in this together,” he said. “I'm excited for the future for what (Dr. Scott) is bringing into the GHSA and for what my role is going to be moving forward. We’re in a really good spot as an organization.”
