Four local athletic directors are pushing back against Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt’s call to dismantle the organization that governs and regulates high school sports and activities across the state.
In his final State of the State address last week, Stitt said the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association should be eliminated, arguing the association creates barriers for student-athletes who transfer schools under Oklahoma’s open transfer law.
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“A student can transfer to a new school, but if they want to excel in sports, their opportunity may be blocked by an unelected and unaccountable high school athletic association: the OSSAA,” Stitt said.
The Ada News reached out to several local administrators involved in athletics, and all agreed that dismantling the OSSAA would be a bad idea.
Days after the governor’s remarks, Sen. Casey Murdock, R-Felt, introduced legislation aimed at curbing what he described as the OSSAA’s “unchecked authority over students’ ability to participate in school sports.”
Senate Bill 1890 proposes the creation of a new entity — the Oklahoma Athletics and Activities Commission — to supervise, regulate and coordinate school sports and other secondary school activities. The bill would also repeal an existing law that requires many students who transfer districts to sit out for one year before participating in school sports or other regulated activities.
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Under SB 1890, the new commission would be composed of the state superintendent of public instruction, along with parents, school administrators and athletic directors appointed by the governor, the Senate president pro tempore and the House speaker.
The following are reactions from Ada Athletic Director Christie Jennings, Stonewall Athletic Director Brian Davis, Roff Athletic Director Steve Kile and Latta Athletic Director Jeff Williams. All four bring decades of coaching and administrative experience at local Oklahoma high schools.
CHRISTIE JENNINGS
Ada Athletics
“Although there are times when we may disagree with certain decisions, the OSSAA serves an important purpose in trying to ensure fairness, consistency, and organization across interscholastic activities. Any discussion about its future should focus on strengthening those principles rather than removing them.
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”Like most public school coaches, I would like to see the OSSAA split public and private schools. I understand where the backlash comes from over this topic, but at the end of the day, the association handles many more issues. It would take a lot of planning and financial backing to set up something in place of the OSSAA.”
BRIAN DAVIS
Stonewall Athletics
“Governor Stitt’s remarks during the State of the State address, suggesting the elimination of the OSSAA, are concerning and misguided. The OSSAA plays a vital role in the oversight and administration of interscholastic activities across Oklahoma. While no organization is perfect, the OSSAA consistently works to be fair, transparent, and responsive, and it regularly reviews and updates its rules in an effort to improve,” he said.
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“In recent years, some rule changes may have leaned too far toward appeasing legislative concerns rather than focusing solely on what is best for schools and students. However, the current structure of the OSSAA is effective because it allows coaches, athletic directors, principals, and superintendents to have direct input into the rule-making process. If this responsibility were transferred to lawmakers, that collaborative input would likely be lost. Too often, education-related mandates are created without a full understanding of their practical implications or implementation challenges. While such policies may appear effective on paper or politically appealing, they frequently create significant difficulties for schools tasked with carrying them out. Maintaining a system that values practitioner input is essential to ensuring that interscholastic activities remain fair, functional, and beneficial to students. For these reasons, dismantling the OSSAA would be a step backward rather than an improvement. All this coming from someone who has worked with the OSSAA for more than 30 years.”
STEVE KILE
Roff Athletics
“I know the OSSAA has not been perfect over the years, but I do feel that they have been the best thing for public schools. If you have no regulations over the athletics of all the schools, I feel like you will just have a revolving door from one season of sports to another. The coaches will not know which students to invest their time in, because at any time, they can go to another school and not have to sit out. You will see a bigger push from the private schools to have more control if there are no regulations. I, for one, am not in favor of not having regulations. I could see this being a nightmare for athletic directors and school administrators to keep up with.”
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JEFF WILLIAMS
Latta Athletics
”If the collective goal of those working at the Oklahoma State Capitol is more chaos, then abolishing the OSSAA is a huge leap in that direction. The OSSAA is not, as described by Sen Murdock, ‘governed by unaccountable, out-of-touch bureaucrats’. The OSSAA is governed by member-driven rules, which are then lived out by all member schools — administrators, coaches, participants, etc. Those lived experiences, more often than not, result in amazing student experiences for the majority of Oklahoma students and their families. The OSSAA Board of Directors is composed of volunteer school administrators and voted into those regional representative roles by member schools because they are respected among their peers. It’s their wheelhouse and they know what they are doing. They are not opposed to change, and they are not unreasonable to deal with as suggested.”
”In the sports world, some days we win and some days we lose. The general public watches games and sees who won or lost, but they don’t always understand or appreciate the process of working and preparing for a season, competing, and then dealing with the outcome, only to turn around and do it all over again every week, every season, every year. It’s a grind that not everyone is cut out for, not everyone is willing to stake their livelihood on, yet everyone thinks they know how it should be done.”
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”The Governor said in essence — they followed the rules, they were denied, their parents had to lawyer up and fight the OSSAA just so they could play basketball. That’s not entirely true, but this is not the first time we’ve seen a governor seize a hot-mic moment recently in the sports world to showcase that they don’t fully understand what they are talking about. Ask Louisiana how that worked out.”
”People don’t like to hear the word ‘No’, but life is all about learning which lines we shouldn’t cross. OSSAA is being demonized for holding people accountable for circumventing our self-imposed rules, so I need to better understand exactly when every school playing by the same rules became unacceptable for Oklahomans?”
”I don’t always like the outcome of a hardship decision, or even the voting outcome for a rule change myself. But once that decision is made or that rule is approved, we follow it at Latta. The reality is, some days life just does not seem fair, even when we try to do everything the right way. But every challenge in life is an opportunity to grow and learn, and that tone is set within our leadership and reflected down through our coaches and players.”
