http://gnwa.org/article/post/show/id/34 ... y-Phillips
And the BB is Brandon Brigman from the Gwinnett Daily Post
(make sure you get to the bottom and see who his tailback was in football)
Q&A with GHSA's Gary Phillips
February 14, 2010, 9:16pm
Gary Phillips is in his ninth year at the Georgia High School Association as the Assistant Executive Director. Phillips oversees four sports, including wrestling, cross country, track and field and golf.
Phillips took some time to talk to GNWA correspondent Brandon Brigman on Saturday about the state tournament, the growth of the sport and coaching Georgia legend Hershel Walker.
BB: Great weather this weekend. Take me through the last few days as far as making decisions with the weather, sectionals and the state tournament.
GP: We thought we were in pretty good shape going into the earlier part of the week with the sectinals scheduled for Friday and Saturday. Then here comes the weather reports and immediately the question comes from hundreds of corners of the state, what are we gonna do, what are we gonna do? Thursday we made the decision that we would have to move the sectional tournament to Monday and Tuesday, that there was not much other choice. It look imminate that Friday and Saturday were going to be a problem. Some folks liked it, some didn't. Then we adjusted the time schedule. Instead of starting at 5 o'clock on Monday, we were going to start early in the morning on Monday and end earlier on Tuesday because kids traveling and coming from school. South Georgia coming back from school and the plan was they would be back in school on Wednesday and then come back at 4 o'clock on Thursday (at the Gwinnett Arena) to have weigh ins and start the tournament. Well, it wasn't long after that, actually Friday morning, that it looked like Sunday, Monday night is going to be a problem and what do we do? The last thing I want to do and I told Dr. (Ralph) Sweargin, who's the executive director, I don't want a school traveling four hours on a bus Sunday night, spending money to stay in a hotel and being told Monday morning we're snowed out again, you need to go home. So we talked for a few minutes and I talked to Bud (Hennebaul) and in the mean time he was talking about going to a 32-man bracket if we have to blend the two sectionals. I think by 9:30 Friday morning, we made the decision we have to dispense with the sectionals and go immediately to bring all 32 wrestlers to Gwinnett in AA to AAAAA. Then what do we do with Class A? Because they are on a whole different format because there's fewer schools, few wrestlers in Class A. So we worked that plan out and instead of them bringing eight guys here as they would normally, we let them bring 16 and they reduce their (sectional) tournament from two days to one day. Because both area directors said if we only have to get down to eight men, then we can do this in one day. All that crashes together all at the same time and then you try and send out e-mails, we have an emergency message system we send out to schools, we get it out on our Web site and different other places, we send out to major media major outlets the major changes. That's a long story, but that's what went into discussion. We had to make some decisions about the conduct of the tournament. The Arena has the hockey team (Gwinnett Gladiators) there, so as the hockey team leaves to go on the road, we're coming right behind them to set up all the wrestling mats and have weigh ins on Wednesday night. We have a plan worked out that basically instead of starting 5 o'clock Thursday, we start at 8 o'clock Thursday to get it done and work within that time constraint. So we had to make some other decisions about the tournament. One of the questions we get now, we decided if you're a first round loser in your wrestling match, you are eliminated from the tournament. That's as I told some guys Friday is brutal. That's very tough. A kid comes in and he's got one shot and if he wins he moves on and if he loses he's out. But that with the time, there wasn't any other way to handle the first round. We had to get Class A to eight men alive to stay on schedule and AA-AAAAA 16 men to be back to where we were by 6 o'clock Thursday night.
BB: Did you guys look at any other possible scenarios for the state tournament?
GP: I had a telephone call from a source who said why don't you just take the top two (from each region) and then there's no changes and you got 16 guys. We said that wasn't quite fair if you want to use that word because you got kids sitting out there that finished third and fourth in their area and are in the next round of the state tournament and then we turn around and tell them no you're not. So, we didn't think that was a good deal. At least a kid has a chance. Okay, but it's tough. I understand that. But there wasn't any other way to do it. We can't go beyond Saturday night because of the Arena, because we have other issues for athletics. We don't have any competitions on Sunday, that's a 50-year old rule in the association that's never gonna change in my view. So you got to get done Saturday night and to stay on the schedule and let people go home before 1 a.m. Sunday morning we have to find a way to get it done. Some people don't like it, but when you explain to most folks what you're trying to achieve they understand. It's just nobody dialed this up. We had problems with the state championships in duals. So weather since January 1 has been an issue in this state. Basketball postponement, area duals postponed and we had to hold our breath in Macon with the state duals down there. It was pouring down rain and is it gonna be 31 degrees or 38 degrees. Well, lucking it stayed at 38 and we got it done with two long days there. It's just one of those years.
BB: How did you get put in charge of Georgia high school wrestling?
GP: When I interviewed Dr. Sweargin explained what he wanted to do and he wanted to expand the staff a little at a time and put certain administrators in charge of each sport. Before my arrival and Dr. Sweargin being elected as the director, it was three people and they handled everything. They outsourced a lot of different things to some reliable people in the state, but it wasn't really handled in our office. Ralph wanted to bring the major administrator role to the office. So when he offered me the job he said I want you to take cross country, wrestling, track and golf. It kind of came in a package.
BB: When you were assigned wrestling, what what were some of your thoughts about taking over the sport and some goals you had in mind?
GP: Well, to be honest with you, the first thing I tried to figure out was what's the landscape. Where are we and it took a year or so maybe a little longer, we kind of maintained the status quo for two years. As I became more familiar with the personalities around the sport, the officials, other people that are volunteers. I tell people all the time, the day that Bud Hennebaul, Gary Shaefer and Walt Hennebaul approached me at the state tournament and said we want to talk to you is where we did a 180 in wrestling. What people see now is based on that, I don't want to say it was a chance encounter, they initially had some ideas about wrestling. They did it at the state tournament and I said we'll talk and it kind of went on from there. As I got to know these guys and here's a large group of volunteers as we can do this and we can do that. The first year I was in the office, I knew Pete Fritts vaguely. He and I got to know each other a little more and when the duals got to be a different story, that whole area began to expand, too. So there wasn't any real vision, there was no real goal. What Dr. Sweargin said is 'We want wrestling to become a more prominent sport in this association.' and we need it to rise to a higher level because it was kind of stuck off in another level like some other sports are now. That was the whole goal.
BB: So how do you view the sport now compared to nine years ago when you took over? Do you think it is more prominent?
GP: Oh yes. I mean this may be a bias on my part, but yes. I mean what element of public perception we can capture is much larger now. Bringing the state state championships to central sites where you see all the competitors in one place, really changed the dynamics. Before we had five championships all scattered in somebody's gym all over the state. Maybe we got a story in the paper about this one and not that one, depending on where you were. It's much different. I think the notoriety the kids receive is more heightened. It's easier for kids to be noticed in the sport because the college coaches can come and see all of them in one place.
BB: You sort of eluded to it, but what do you like about having all five classifications in one place at the Gwinnett Arena?
GP: Well I think it's the unifications of your efforts. We have a large core of volunteers, but we don't have to find hundreds and hundreds of them to operate the tournaments. We've expanded the intensity, the effort to get to the state finals by what we did last year with the sectionals. Here's the other thing and I don't claim any responsibility for this. When I was appointed wrestling we had 280 schools, probably not that many, but 250 schools in wrestling. Now we have 320, so the schools that have wrestling are growing and the number of kids. We had over 9,000 kids in wrestling in Georgia last year. When I took over it was in the 6,000s, so its grown proportionality in that respect. Lots and lots of schools in the association, here's a new school being built they are going to have wrestling, here's a private school they are going to have a wrestling program. So its growing in that respect, too.
BB: Next week after the tournament is over, there's going to be a bunch of people that say we would love to see one state champion per weight class. Why don't we have that now and would that ever change?
GP: The history lesson here is that Georgia attempted to do this in basketball years ago. After the state tournament they took all the basketball teams and had them play down to one champion in boys and girls and people didn't like it. I remember it because I was a coach back then and it was always the biggest school always won, whatever that was. It was AAAA for AAA, I don't remember, but the biggest school always won. Our attitude is that while there is an element of people that want to see this single state champion, we feel like we're better off as an association and the sport is better off with five champions. Where do you stop is one of the questions we have. What if you do it as an individual activity and I know some states do that, but their focus is a reverse from ours. Those states that come away with one weight class state champion, their big championship is the team duals and oh by the way we have these individual champions. In Georgia since the individual championship was here for years and years and years before the dual ever came, the spotlight is on the reverse. So we don't see it serves a purpose necessarily to go back and while we like the dual concept, it will be a while before it can challenge notoriety of the individual tournament.
BB: Are there any additions or rule changes to the sport on the horizon?
GP: Not really. I have formed over the last four years an advisory committee and so I bring that committee together after the state tournament and we talk about tweaks in the rules and what me might do. If the national federation doesn't change the rules of the game too dramatically then all we do is try to do what we did. The sectional concept we put in last year came from this committee because we thought with the growth of wrestling and the number of kids and the number of teams the state tournament here in Gwinnett was just too big. It's half a day Wednesday, all day Thursday, all day Friday and all day Saturday. It's too big. So we said what about a sectional tournament and dividing the state into halves. We worked out a plan, this area here, that area there to come away with the sectional plan. That was a major change two years ago and I thought it was very successful last year. I believe it raised the intensity and what it took to be a champion last year. It was off the chart compared to the years before.
BB: That was my next question. Do you like the sectionals and can we expect to keep that?
GP: We don't have any plans to change it. The voting membership of the GHSA like it, the executive director likes it. I think for the largest part, so does the wrestling community.
BB: As long as it's not snowing.
GP: (Laughs) Yes, that's true. As long as we don't have a flood or snow or something like that.
BB: Compared to other sports, how do wrestling fans compare? To call them passionate might be an understatement.
GP: That would be an understatement. It's like some of the other sports we have now that it's highly developed, the youth program is essential to the skill you see when these kids are in high school. Most of these guys have been in kids wrestling in some fashion all the way up. The parents have taken all around the state, all around the country when they were little guys and so yeah they are extremely, highly connected to the sport. If you get a loyal fan you got one. We have volunteers here that their kids are grown and gone and they are so tightly connected to wrestling that they want to be involved.
BB: You were inducted into the Georgia chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame last summer. What did that mean to you?
GP: I tell you what, I was absolutely shocked. I had no idea that anybody had thought about that for me at all. I was shocked and overwhelmed. As I said when I was given my plague, I was in awe of being in the company of not only the guys that went in the hall of fame with me, but all the guys that had been inducted before. These prominent names in the sport in Georgia and some of them are known all around the country. Good grief and then they are going to say I deserve to stand in the same place as them, that was very gratifying. My parents, both are living, were elated. My brother said 'Where did that come from?' It was great for our family. My son was very proud, so it was a totally enriching experience.
BB: You spent five years as a head football coach in the late 70s and early 80s. What made you get out of coaching?
GP: This is a long story, but I had a principal one time when I was teacher say 'What are you going to do for the rest of your life?' I said I want to coach and he said 'You don't want to coach until you're a real old man. What do you want to do?' He kind of guided me and opened my eyes that there's other things you can do in education. So I started graduate school and thought about school administration. As I got a little further in coaching I was offered administrative jobs on several occasions that I turned down to stay in coaching. About the third offer I got, I thought maybe somebody is talking to me and I need to listene to the message. At that point I made a decision to leave coaching and became an assistant principal before I became a high school principal. It was just that message, someone tapping me on the shoulder.
BB: You won a football state championship in 1979 at Johnson County High School. What do you remember about that season?
GP: Well, it was great. We had a good football team the year before and got beat in the semifinals with some kids hurt and banged up, we didn't play very well, but we had a lot of kids coming back. We talked the whole spring practice, the whole summer, we can't let that happen again. We have talent on this team, but we can't get ahead of ourselves either. Again, that was a fulfilling experience. As a coach that's your goal, win a state championship. I was a track coach, so we wrapped two state championships in track around the one in football. That really made things great. We had great kids and we played under a huge spotlight and our kids responded. That's what I thought was our strength of our team. Our coaches challenged the kids, not only the big names on the team, but the other guys. I firmly believe had we not done that job in the background we would not have won.
BB: You had future Heisman Trophy winner Hershel Walker on your team as your running back.
GP: That's what I'm talking about. He drew all the attention and he drew a lot of attention as a junior and over the summer people were calling from the NCAA, the papers and from colleges saying we want to find out about this guy. We felt like we needed to do a good job with everyone else around him. He's going to take care of business because we need to do a good job with everyone around him. I'd see some examples as a young kid and coaching where you have this great player and the team fails. I related that to people individually and to our coaching staff and we all rallied. We all made a pack, 40 football players and six coaches and we're all in this together and we have one goal. We made it.
BB: When it came game time though, you had to feel pretty good about your chances of winning with the best player in the state.
GP: When I would watch us warm up, I'd look over and he was No. 43 then, I'd feel pretty good about our chances. I was never really bold enough to say we got this one in the bag, but I felt good about our chances. I kept telling everybody we give the ball to the big guy, we're going to be okay.
BB: How long do you see yourself with the GHSA and being in charge of wrestling?
GP: I've never been a guy that has talked about limits. Whether it's coaching or other jobs I've had, so I really don't know. I like what I'm doing, I'm older than I'm going to tell you (laughs), but I'm going on 40 years in high school education. I feel good about everything we're doing, so I feel like we're going to stay and until I don't have any more fun. And that's the way I've done it. You asked me this question earlier and I didn't say this, but at the time I was offered a job in administration I was beginning to wonder how much longer will I be able to do this as a coach. At the time Dr. Sweargin talked to me and interviewed for the GHSA job, I was at the point in school administration that I had been a high school principal for 15 years and I was thinking how much longer am I going to do this? So when that question comes back again and I think it might, then I'll start looking to do something else or retire or go out and play golf and sit on the front porch. I don't have the question in my mind. Those are the two instances that the question was there all the time. It became immanent, so as my dad says if you don't like what you're doing, if you're not having any fun with what you're doing, then you need to find another job.
