OHSAA Search begins for new leader

Howard Friend said the new commissioner will have to be an organizer.
By BRIAN RICHESSON
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
SEBRING -- The next Ohio High School Athletic Association commissioner will enter a changing sports landscape.
"Our programs have expanded to where the opportunities for student-athletes have grown," said Howard T. Friend, superintendent at Sebring High.
No longer are high school athletes staying home to play their games.
"Now we have athletes going all over the country," said Friend, a 1969 Poland High graduate.
It is in these expanding times that order must be kept.
Modernizing the position
That's why the replacement to retiring commissioner Clair Muscaro will have to exercise extreme organizational skills and control -- and make wise financial decisions -- in running the 1,600 member schools.
"With those expansions, we're looking at more venues to hold these competitions, numerous officials and the financial picture," Friend said. "With all the programs, there's a cost to operate."
Friend has been on the Northeast District Athletic Board, which serves 14 counties, for 14 months. He's been on the OHSAA Board of Control for six months.
Now, he's been appointed to a five-member screening committee, headed by Magnolia Sandy Valley superintendent Rock VanFossen, in the search for Muscaro's replacement.
The other members are Ottawa-Glandorf principal Bill Hanna, Covington principal Bob Huelsman, along with Jeff Jordan, associate director of grants management for the Ohio Department of Education.
Key role
The screening committee will reduce the number of applicants from a nationwide search to around five, Friend said, and those candidates will be interviewed by all nine members of the OHSAA Board of Control.
"We've known for several months that this was going to take place," Friend said. "We've been meeting since August on our timeline with what we wanted to do."
So when Muscaro announced his intentions last Thursday, the OHSAA was able to promptly post the job opening across the country -- in publications and other state associations and on NCAA web sites.
"We don't want to count anybody out," said Friend of a position that he estimates pays between $115,000 and $130,000.
The OHSAA already has polled a variety of areas -- assistant commissioners, office personnel, district boards -- to determine the type of candidate it will seek, Friend said.
"Someone who is well organized, someone who is able to develop a team concept," Friend described. "Mainly, someone who can get everything working together for a common goal."
The eighth commissioner in OHSAA history, Muscaro was hired in 1990. His retirement will become effective on July 31.
"It's an important job; we certainly take it seriously," Friend said of the committee's responsibility.
"Hopefully, this next person will be here for another 13 years."
richesson@vindy.com