NCHSAA PRESIDENT HARRISON TO RESIGN ASSOCIATION POST

CHAPEL HILL – Charlie Adams, executive director of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, announced today that Dr. Bill Harrison, superintendent of the Cumberland County Schools and current president of the NCHSAA, has tendered his resignation as president of the Association effective April 26.

Adams received an email from Dr. Harrison on Thursday confirming his plans to resign. Harrison has recently been named chief executive of North Carolina’s K-12 school system and chairman of the state Board of Education by Governor Beverly Perdue and wanted to see how those new duties might impact his NCHSAA responsibilities before he made a decision about his term.

Harrison said he selected April 26 because the Association’s spring meeting of its board of directors on May 5-6 conflicts with the meeting of the State Board of Education, but he will still be able to fulfill many of the other responsibilities of his office prior to that.

Harrison will be involved with a number of NCHSAA events before leaving his post as president, including a recognition of the Association’s 95th anniversary at the University of North Carolina basketball game on February 7, the NCHSAA state basketball championships on March 14, the North Carolina Athletic Directors’ Association state meeting in late March and the NCHSAA Hall of Fame on April 25.

“This is a huge loss for the Association because you don’t get a Bill Harrison very often,” said Adams. “He is a consummate professional and one of the best ever to serve on our Board and as president.

“Bill has great people skills and is a wonderful communicator. He is very knowledgeable and has used his excellent athletic and education background along with his decision-making abilities to help the NCHSAA move forward in a number of ways. We’ll certainly miss him in his role as president. Besides being a trusted colleague, though, Bill is also a dear friend. No association in the country could have better leadership from its president than we’ve gotten in two different terms from Bill.”