This is an opinion piece.

The search for a new AHSAA executive director is officially on.

The job qualifications and application process was posted on multiple sites this week, including AHSAA.com.

The Central Board is searching for a replacement for Alvin Briggs, who announced his retirement earlier this month.

It’s a critical hire.

“It’s extremely important,” Board president Mike Welsh said. “You are hiring the leader of your association. It’s extremely important to get the right next person to come in and do the job.”

That may even be understating the magnitude of this decision.

There are so many issues concerning high school athletics nationwide at the moment from NIL to transferring athletes and much more. In Alabama, the executive director is expected to have to make a decision soon on where to play the Super 7 football championships in the future.

Birmingham will host this year’s title games, but Auburn and Alabama have been expected to pause their relationship with the AHSAA due to the possibility they could host a college football playoff game with that tournament expanding.

“I think they are all important,” Board member Luke Hallmark said of executive director hires. “It was important when Dan Washburn was hired. It was important when coach (Steve) Savarese was hired. It was important when Alvin was hired. It’s very important now as well.

“The AHSAA is so well respected and has such an impact on so many coaches, students and athletic directors. It’s also very well recognized nationwide. You always strive to have good leadership.”

Deadline for applying for the job is 5 p.m. on May 15. Hallmark will chair a seven-member sub-committee that will go through the applicants and narrow down the list. The full Central Board will then interview the finalists.

“We want to make sure all of our board members feel they have had a role in the selection of our next executive director,” Hallmark said.

The list of responsibilities and required skills posted is three pages long.

In short, the basic description is as follows:

“The executive director is the chief operating officer of the AHSAA and is responsible for providing strong leadership in developing and enforcing policies, procedures and practices that maintain and improve the quality of interscholastic athletic programs and services for the AHSAA member schools.”

Hallmark, the longest tenured member of the Central Board, had a difficult time narrowing down what traits might be most important in hiring the next executive director in his opinion.

“I don’t know how you would rank them,” he said. “It’s a great leadership job. It’s not an 8-4 job. It’s 24-7. It’s not a Monday-Friday job. It takes a lot of time. When you think about it, I think one thing is you have to be consistent. You have to know the rules, enforce the rules and be consistent with what you do.”

This just in: I WILL NOT be applying.

This is not an easy job, folks. The rewards can be great. Yes. But the criticism is constant, the decisions are tough and the travel is challenging at best.

I’ve been in the AHSAA offices many times. The phone never stops ringing.

The challenges we expect high schools to face in the future are daunting enough, and we don’t even know what else might be coming down the pipe. Who thought we would have to cancel spring sports one year due to a pandemic?

“There is so much out there I’m sure no one has even thought about yet,” Hallmark said.

However, Hallmark also mentioned what an honor it is to be elected as executive director. There have only been five-full time directors in the AHSAA’s history. Briggs was the first minority director. It’s an impressive list of strong leaders.

“To think a board would have that confidence in you to run this association that is so well respected, not just in Alabama, but nationwide is special,” Hallmark said. “At national conferences, people gravitate to our staff. They are amazed at our championship programs, the sponsors we have, the broadcasting.”

Hallmark said the sub-committee will begin narrowing the candidates down after the May 15 deadline. The posting went online earlier this week. He said he has not checked yet to see who or how many people may have applied already.

“I wanted to wait a week or so before I checked it,” he said.

Briggs’ retirement is effective Sept. 2. Hallmark said ideally the Board would like to have a replacement named by July 1.

“In the world of school systems, July 1 is usually the starting point,” he said. “But we are not going to rush the process. We are going to take our time and do our best to get the right person for the job.”

Thought for the week

“I’ve got joy in chaos. I’ve got peace that makes no sense.

So, I won’t be going under. I’m not held by my own strength.”

— Firm Foundation

Ben Thomas is the high school sportswriter at AL.com. He has been named one of the 50 legends of the Alabama Sports Writers Association. Follow him on twitter at @BenThomasPreps or email him at [email protected]. He can be heard weekly on “Inside High School Sports” on SportsTalk 99.5 FM in Mobile or on the free IHeart Radio App at 2 p.m. Wednesdays.