There is no “hard and fast timeline” for hiring a new AHSAA executive director, Central Board president Mike Welsh said late Wednesday.

Alvin Briggs announced his retirement as Wednesday’s regularly scheduled Board meeting began. It is effective Sept. 2.

Briggs’ announcement apparently came as a surprise to most.

“I didn’t know about it until this week,” Welsh said. “I don’t have a lot to say about it at this point. We appreciate Alvin and certainly wish him a happy retirement. It’s a tough job he stepped into. We appreciate him taking the wheel and wish him the best going forward.”

Briggs is just the fifth full-time director in the AHSAA’s history and the first minority director. Cliff Harper (1948-1966), Bubba Scott (1966-1990), Dan Washburn (1990-2006) and Steve Savarese (2006-2018) also led the association. Briggs was officially promoted to the job on May 24, 2021. His three-year tenure as executive director is the shortest of the five.

“I had no idea it was coming,” said Central Board member Terry Curtis, who will follow Welsh as president in July. “I really didn’t have a chance to talk to Alvin much about it. I know it’s been a tough year for him. He’s had some hard decisions. I think he probably just had enough, and I can fully understand. There’s been a lot going on and happening.

“Alvin has been a good friend of mine and will continue to be. I certainly wish him the best.”

Briggs’ retirement was accepted by a unanimous vote of the Board.

So now what — or rather who — is next for the AHSAA?

“We are just starting to formulate a plan,” Welsh said. “We will have a sub-committee so we can get the ball rolling. Obviously, we will advertise and accept applications. We will deal with it as quickly as possible, but we also want to be as thorough as possible.”

Once resumes are sorted out and candidates are interviewed, the Board will vote on the new director.

“We will have a committee like we did with Alvin and anticipate having a good variety of people interested,” Curtis said. “We will throw out there exactly what we are looking for and, hopefully, we can get some good applicants and get someone in there to take his place.

“Clearly, we would like to have someone in place who can work with Alvin for a month or so to kind of get the lay of the land and see what they’ve got and go from there. I don’t have any idea who it might be right now. You always would like to get someone sooner rather than later, but we don’t want to rush it either.”

Curtis said the next executive director will need to have a variety of skills in his opinion.

“I think it has to be a person with some administrative background whether it is a principal or superintendent or whoever,” he said. “In that spot, you have to deal with so much – budgets, staff, coaches, principals, legislative people. It’s a tough job, man.

“You have to have someone who can handle the money aspect of it and knows how to do contracts and how to deal with people and venues for championships. The person will have to make tough calls just like Alvin had to make. You have to know the manual, the rules, and what has been done before. It’s a learning curve, and it will take someone a while to get used to that.”

Briggs guided the AHSAA through some difficult times, taking over at the tail end of the Covid pandemic. He was instrumental in starting Girls’ Flag Football, secured the current site for the state baseball and softball championships in Oxford/Jacksonville, saw a tremendous growth in participation in the non-revenue sports. He also guided the AHSAA to record years in the revenue sharing paid back to member schools.

Challenges for the next executive director will surely include the possibility of NIL on the high school level in Alabama, the increase in athletes transferring from one school to another and the future location for the Super 7 football championships should Auburn and Alabama pull out – as is expected – with the expansion of the college football playoff.