CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Wayne Ryan, the new executive director of the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission, has been busy trying to make the necessary changes within the
commission to enhance the student athlete experience in the Mountain State.
Ryan, whose duties began on July 1, stood before the Senate Joint Standing Committee on Education Monday during legislative interim meetings at the state Capitol.
“We are excited in this new position. We’ve all been together only since July 1, but we are doing our very best to brand things new and to do some fresh, new ideas,” Ryan told lawmakers.
A main priority for Ryan and his crew will be getting everyone involved in school sports around the state educated better than before.
“We’ve got to educate all stakeholders. That includes you and that includes our school administration because there’s high turnover there and we’ve got to get to the people who are just coming into those positions,” Ryan said.
Ryan also says they need to get a bigger focus on helping middle schools across the state.
“We’re going to have some middle school emphasis that we’ve never had before because we think, in the past, or office probably hasn’t served those middle school administrators as well as they should. We’re going to improve that,” he said.
After Ryan concluded his presentation, lawmakers in the room were able to ask questions. One of the questions came from Marion County Senator Joey Garcia, who asked if West Virginia is doing okay with getting and retaining referees and umpires.
“I’m not going to say we’re doing fine. I’m going to say that over the last few years, we’ve held our ground,” Ryan said. “Our average age of officials in this state is 58 years old. That’s not a positive, to be honest.”
Ryan says there is a clear goal to recruit more young adults to get into the field, but it’s not easy to have a good retention rate.
“It’s tough to keep up with the retirement and it’s also tough to keep young people in officiating because their life changes so much. It’s a task we face and high school associations around the state are facing,’ he said.
Another point brought up after Ryan’s presentation was the commission’s financial audits with regards to its $2.2 million budget. Putnam County Senator Eric Tarr called the commission’s audits, “a thousand-foot view of what happens with the finances.”
On the other side, a legislative audit looks at the organization’s purpose, how it is funded, and determines if the revenues are being used to accomplish their mission.
Tarr says public schools are funded by taxpayer dollars, and the SSAC needs to be more transparent.
“Our student athletes across West Virginia are the reason the commission exists. Those schools are funded through public funds. Those kids are in those schools because taxpayers pay for them to go to school,” Tarr said. “I hope that maybe the commission would be a little bit more transparent, so that when we do legislation to do an audit, maybe you would see that it’s worthwhile to let the people of West Virginia actually see what happens behind the curtain.”
“I don’t think we operate without transparency or behind a curtain,” Ryan responded.