By Taylor Kennedy, HD Media
PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — It’s been almost a year since David Price assumed the role of executive director of the WVSSAC, replacing Bernie Dolan, who held that position for nearly eight years.
Price took over knowing challenges lay ahead while keeping an open mind about the future of high school athletics in West Virginia.
State legislation to allow for greater freedom of movement for transfers loomed, as well as adding a fourth classification in five sports.
“We had inherited several things that had to be addressed immediately,” Price said, “one being the transfer portal that the (state) legislature and Senate passed that had been brought to the SSAC Board of Control, and it failed among them. But then the legislature put it into law. We had to deal with a lot of recruiting that was going on, because there was a lot of misconception about what was allowed and what wasn’t.
“We had to rewrite some rules on the fly, because that one rule changed a lot of rules within the WVSSAC handbook.”
Price said the fourth classification for football, softball, baseball, volleyball and cheer “passed overwhelmingly.”
Defining what WVSSAC does
Price said an eye-opener for him was a September school board association meeting, seeing that people didn’t realize the behind-the-scenes significance and that the executive director didn’t drive policy.
“We just don’t sit there and make up rules and do all this stuff,” Price said. “The principals of the secondary schools of West Virginia make up the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission. They are the Board of Control. They are the rulemaking body.”
