MONTGOMERY — Heath Harmon was named as the sixth executive director of the Alabama High School Sports Association in June.
Harmon took over for former executive director Alvin Briggs, who retired. Briggs held the position since 2021.
Prior to his time with the AHSAA, Harmon served as principal at Oxford High School since 2017. He is a graduate of Jacksonville State University and began his time in education as an assistant football coach. Harmon has more than a decade of experience as a head football coach with stops White Plains, Andalusia, Munford and Cordova.
Harmon sat down with the USA TODAY Sports Network in the AHSAA office this past week to answer questions about his job, the state of high school athletics in Alabama and the future.
SUPER 7 DECISION LOOMING:AHSAA Super 7 bidding down to four cities, decision expected ‘really soon’ per AHSAA head
AHSAA:“Coming up with a plan’: AHSAA leaders on NIL and transfers in Alabama high school sports
Q: Montgomery used to host the state championships for baseball and softball. Now obviously they’re in Oxford and Jacksonville. Do you see that potentially changing to maybe a rotation style?
“That’s a process for me, or where I’m at reviewing some of the contracts and where we are depending on how many years we are into the contracts. I feel like that, that’s another thing. You know, those championship events have gone well, those sites have worked really well. So I’m still kind of determining where we are in certain contracts, and I’m just making sure that we stay ahead.”
Q: With basketball regionals, there’s two in Montgomery this year. Is that something where you’d prefer to have four regionals in four different cities around the state?
A: “I think that, you know, there’s different things that go into that as far as the regional play. I’m not real sure that’s a great question and answer for me right now, because I’m still kind of assessing some of that.”
Q: Universal school choice, how will that affect you guys, will that change anything?
A: “Our rules still apply. So you still have to follow the rules in our handbook.”
Q: Back in August you discussed your plans for high school transfers and NIL. How are you feeling you’re coming along with those?
A: “Just to kind of catch up with you on that, really a priority for me has been to fill our staff out. So I’m very excited about where we are with new additions to our staff. I have some great new staff members coming on board with us. I’m also very appreciative to the existing staff, because anytime you have a transition, their ability to help with that transition and to pick up the pieces when you’re kind of bringing in new people and things like that … so they’ve been great. So we’re at a point where we just have one spot to fill on our staff. So that’s going along nicely.
“With NIL specifically, I said from the beginning, we’ve got to have a plan, and so in order to develop a really strong plan – and I’ve also said pretty consistently, we’ve got to move quick enough to where we’re not moving too fast to where you’re doing something reckless – but you’ve also gotta have a plan. So for me, that begins with our staff really making sure that we have a good understanding of the landscape of where NIL is. And there are some states that have really pushed forward on this pretty quickly. I think we can learn a lesson from that. And I’m not being critical of any high school association, but I think you can see pretty readily when you start to look at that there’s things immediately after they do something within NIL that they wish they would have done differently. And then I also am not critical of any leadership at the collegiate level, because that’s not my lane. I don’t know how that works, but I think we can all see that they’re having trouble managing that. …
“We want to make sure that we just have a real good understanding of what we’re doing to develop that plan. So that’s where we are. Our staff, we’re going to make sure that we’re working really hard to be knowledgeable to determine the current reality. … Our mission is to protect amateur athletics. So we want to make sure that we’re always willing to be progressive, but we’re also protecting those things that make us what we are.”
Q: Transfer (policies) and NIL, is that something the state legislature passes?
A: “I haven’t seen anything, but any time the state legislature wants to get involved they can do that. Of course, with our member schools, they have the opportunity during the legislative process to submit proposals, which is really, I think, the strength of our organization: the opportunity for our member schools to have a voice and be able to engage in a legislative process, and then that way we have the rules. And it’s one of those things too, where it’s the whole state, so you always have to weigh in what is the best for the entire state, but that’s that’s just a great process where our member schools, they can propose things, and we look at that. To me, that’s the strength of an association.”
