Recent Releases
April 4, 2008 Alabama Sports Foundation and AHSAA
Sign Partnership Agreement
(Montgomery, Ala.) - The Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) has contracted with the Alabama Sports Foundation (ASF) to provide management and consulting services to AHSAA for the next three years. These services will include managing and promoting the AHSAA Super Six Football Championships and the Basketball State Finals Tournament as well as helping coordinate other AHSAA championship events. In addition, the ASF will also be responsible for providing marketing, public relations and sponsor fulfillment services that include managing AHSAA’s corporate partnership program and negotiating media rights on behalf of the Association. The ASF will also be assisting AHSAA with a new website design and online strategy.
“We are excited about our relationship with the Alabama Sports Foundation,” said Steve Savarese, AHSAA Executive Director. “We interviewed several sports marketing companies and felt that their experience and resources would provide the most benefit to our events and student-athletes. Additionally, utilizing the Foundation will allow us to have consistency in our sponsor and event management.
Ultimately our mission is to do what is best for the children of Alabama. This partnership will be a tremendous benefit to all our schools across the state.”
The ASF, headquartered in Birmingham, was originally organized in 1996 to manage Olympic Soccer events at Legion Field. Since that time, it has managed a myriad of events, including the SEC Baseball Tournament, the SEC Gymnastics Tournament, U.S. Soccer Federation matches and the Magic City Classic.
“We are honored to be selected by the Association,” said Gene Hallman, Executive Director of the ASF. “We believe that with our state-wide experience, community relationships and available resources, we can make a positive difference. Our goal is to make the Alabama High School Athletic Association a model for the rest of the country.”
“I have been involved with high school athletics for many years,” said Dr. Larry Lemak, Chairman and Founder of the ASF. “I have stood on the sidelines at hundreds of games and seen first hand the positive impact athletics has on Alabama’s children. For that reason I have a true passion for high school athletics and am thrilled that the Alabama Sports Foundation will be working with AHSAA.”
ABOUT AHSAA
The Alabama High School Athletic Associations (AHSAA), based in Montgomery, Ala., is private agency organized by its member schools to control, promote, regulate and coordinate the interscholastic athletic programs that include 700 public, private and parochial institutions and over 100,000 participants.
The AHSAA provides the vehicle through which member schools write their own rules and regulations, and then determines that schools abide by those standards in such areas as student eligibility, contests and championship programs. Another basic function of the AHSAA is the registration, training and regulation of officials.
A major arm of the AHSAA is the Alabama High School Athletic Directors & Coaches Association, composed of coaches that meet the AHSAA Coaches Education Program requirements and also administrators.
Since 1924, the AHSAA has been a member of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), the national leadership organization for high school sports that reaches more than 11 million students through its 50 member state associations and the District of Columbia. www.ahsaa.com.
