The Tennessee Secondary School Activities Association (TSSAA) Board of Control voted to promote Assistant Executive Director Mark Reeves to the position of Executive Director, effective July 1, 2022. Reeves will succeed Bernard Childress as the fifth executive director of the organization following Childress’ retirement after 41 year in education.

“I am incredibly humbled to lead an organization that I have grown to love,” stated Reeves. “I’ve devoted my life to education and educational athletics and there’s no other work I’d rather be a part of.

“With the staff we currently have, I can’t help but be excited to lead this organization forward. My hope is that we can continue to enhance the lives of the young people we serve and that through our efforts we can produce young men and women who are capable of making a positive impact in this world.”

In his 14 years on staff at TSSAA, Reeves, 48, has had primary responsibility for several sports including Football and Track & Field and he currently oversees Soccer, Wrestling and the areas of Coaches Education and Sports Medicine. Reeves has served on a number of committees for the National Federation of State High School Associations including the NFHS Football Rules Committee, the NFHS Wrestling Rules Committee, and, most recently, the NFHS Sports Medicine Advisory Committee.

Prior to his tenure at TSSAA, Reeves was a teacher, coach and administrator at his alma mater, Springfield High School, from 1997-2006. In 2006 he accepted a position as an assistant principal at East Robertson High School where he remained until beginning his tenure with TSSAA in the summer of 2008.

At Springfield High, Reeves was the head wrestling coach for nine years and an assistant football coach for four years. He also worked with the cross country and track programs.

Reeves will become the fifth Executive Director in the association’s history and will have been preceded by Bernard Childress (2009-2022), Ronnie Carter (1986-2009), Gill Gideon (1972-86) and the association’s first director, Mr. A.F. Bridges (1946-72).

Childress was hired as an Assistant Executive Director of TSSAA in the summer of 1995. He was the first African American individual to serve the association in an executive capacity and was promoted to the position of Executive Director in 2009 after 14 years with the organization.

During his tenure as Executive Director, Mr. Childress was not only a part of, but instrumental in numerous milestones that have shaped the association. Perhaps his most widely-recognized contribution will be for his work to meet the significant challenges faced by the association and its member schools through the COVID-19 pandemic. Childress and his staff tirelessly worked with health professionals and the Governor’s office to develop safety protocols for student-athletes and fans, which ultimately led to the resumption of athletic participation among TSSAA member schools in the fall of 2020.

One of Childress’ early challenges as Executive Director was to return the association to sound financial footing after a decade of exhaustive litigation. Five years into Mr. Childress' tenure, the TSSAA began distributing shares of football and basketball championship revenue to the participating schools, a sign of the improved financial stability of the organization.

Under Childress’ leadership, the association became an early participant in the InSideOut Initiative, a partnership between TSSAA, the Tennessee Titans and the NFL Foundation. The program continues to help schools build a culture of positive sportsmanship and shift from a “win-at-all-cost” mentality to one where athletics solidifies its role in the character development of athletes.

Childress has overseen the development of significant technology projects affecting the association. Launched in 2017, TSSAAsports.com has become the public face of TSSAA championships and home to an overwhelming amount of historical information on the schools and athletes that have participated in TSSAA events. Two major refurbishments to the association’s main website, TSSAA.org, have taken place under Childress. The most recent updates in 2019 saw the addition of specially-tailored landing pages for individual interest groups and the publishing of in-depth news articles and feature stories about the people and schools of TSSAA.

Childress has been involved in many aspects with the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), including having served on the NFHS Coaches’ Education Committee for eight years and as chairman of that committee for four years. He was a member of the NFHS Softball Rules Committee for four years, served on the NFHS Five-Year Strategic Planning Committee for four years, served one term on the National High School Hall of Fame Screening Committee and made countless presentations at NFHS meetings and conferences.