CLINTON, Tennessee — For the first time, 20 student-athletes across Tennessee will sit on a student advisory committee to provide insight on things like rule changes, eligibility rules and other initiatives for student-athletes.
One of 20 students who now have a say in how high school sports in Tennessee are regulated by the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association is Reese Russell, a junior and a tennis and football player from Anderson County High School. He will be part of the association's student advisory committee.
The TSSAA is a nonprofit agency regulating over 27 sports and activities for high school student athletes. It said over 200 people applied for the role. Russell said it's an honor, and he hopes to provide a voice to student-athletes statewide.
"Things are constantly changing in today's world," Russell said. "Getting people that are actually experiencing it right now, getting them to have a say in what's going on, will be better overall for the organization."
Lexie Crawford, coordinator of sports information and digital content for the TSSAA, and her colleague, Lamar Lee, were integral in forming the student advisory board.
"We really just wanted to do it because we think that it's important that the students have a way to voice their opinions and kind of voice their concerns," Crawford said. "I think there's probably a lot of topics that we wouldn't even think of because we're not in a school building every day."
One topic top of mind for students like Russell is student transfers.
"I've seen it, not just in Anderson County necessarily, but just around the whole of the Knoxville area and around the country really," Russell said. "As long as the kid takes all their classes, I think it should be fine. But I think the problem might happen when you transfer multiple times, your credits kinda get lost."
Mark Reeves, the Executive Director of the TSSAA, said the organization does not want dynamics playing out on the collegiate level involving name, image and likeness deals and student-athlete transfers to trickle down to high school.
"Those topics are driving a lot of conversations within our organization," Reeves said. "We don't want what the NCAA has, where you can transfer unlimited times."
Another topic to tackle is navigating student-athletes who transfer schools after receiving the state's new universal school vouchers, which allow families to use public funds to pay for private school expenses.
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