The NHSBCA held its annual Summer Congress in Raleigh, North Carolina during the week of July 9-13. Representatives from 23 different states attended this year’s meetings. The meetings began on Tuesday evening with introductions of all attendees and each state sharing accomplishments and progress made by their state association over the past year, as well as issues and concerns that high school coaches face in their respective states. Representatives also received reports on progress made by the NHSBCA in regards to our involvement with the NFHS, the NABC, the WBCA, and USA Basketball.
Reports from the NABC and the NFHS dealt a great deal with the anticipated changes in the NCAA’s men’s basketball recruiting calendar as a result of the Rice Commission’s recommendation. The NHSBCA’s Senior Director of Operations, Dave Archer, serves on the NABC Board and was a part of one of the NCAA working groups on revising the basketball recruiting calendar. From these positions, Dave was able to provide much valuable information and guidance on the possible reforms the NCAA may be considering. Much of the time in meetings was spent with attendees working collaboratively in committees developing different models for the possible “scholastic events” that hopefully will become part of the new June recruiting calendar in an effort to move recruiting back to the high school teams and coaches. Models and formats were developed by the NHSBCA for individual states to conduct showcase events and team camp formats, as well as multi-state regional events. These models/formats have since been shared with the NABC.
In addition to the valuable committee work done by attendees and the exchange of ideas to help strengthen state associations, those state representatives in attendance were treated to visits to historic college basketball venues along North Carolina’s Tobacco Road. There were guided tours of the Smith Center on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill, Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke University, as well as Reynolds Coliseum and the Dail Basketball practice facility on the NC State campus. State representatives were also treated to a Durham Bulls Triple A baseball game on Thursday evening. The highlight of the week was the annual Court of Honor induction luncheon on Thursday. Former NC State star Derrick Whittenburg was the guest speaker at the ceremony that saw Arkansas’ Cliff Garrison and Ohio’s Tom Barrick become the 19th and 20th inductees into the NHSBCA Court of Honor.
The 2018 Summer Congress concluded on Friday, July 13. Committee work was submitted and adopted. The transition of the Presidency occurred with President Nalin Sood (Washington) relinquishing that position after 2 years of outstanding leadership to Chris Nimmo (Missouri). Tom Barrick became the new Vice President. Finally, the group approved Seattle, Washington as the location of the 2019 Summer Congress and set the dates of July 9-12, 2019 for next summer’s meetings.