Alabama High School Athletic Association
The Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA), based in Montgomery, is an agency which oversees interscholastic athletic programs for public schools in Alabama. It was founded in 1921 and has been a member of the National Federation of State High School Associations since 1924. The executive director is Steve Savarese.
The AHSAA merged with the Alabama Interscholastic Athletic Association (AIAA) in 1968, forming one high school athletic association for the State of Alabama in accordance with a court order relating to athletics. The AIAA had previously governed athletics at segregated African-American schools. Private school athletics are sanctioned under the separate Alabama Independent School Association, the Alabama Christian Sports Conference, and the Alabama Christian Athletic and Academic Association.
The AHSAA sponsors state championships programs in 12 boys and 12 girls sports: Baseball, Softball, Basketball, Football, Cross Country, Soccer, Swimming and Diving, Track and Field, Tennis, Volleyball, Wrestling, and Indoor Track. The football championships, known as the Super Six, was held at Legion Field from 1996 until 2009, when it began alternating between Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa and Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn.
In 1984 the AHSAA increased the number of championship classifications from four to six. In 2014 they reorganized with a new "Class 7" designation for the state's largest schools.
References
- "Alabama High School Athletic Association" (November 7, 2013) Wikipedia - accessed January 22, 2014
- Bean, Josh and Jeff Sentell (January 22, 2014) "Reclassification: AHSAA approves new classification system with creation of Class 7A." The Birmingham News