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9.24.04 Ronnie Matthews pictured in 1968 Arrow Erskine alum stepping down as S.C. High School League executive director Ronnie Matthews walked away from the hallowed halls of Erskine College in 1968, ready to take on the challenges of the real world. Thirty-six years later, the executive director of the South Carolina High School League is preparing to step down from the position he has filled for seven years. Matthews announced in August his plans to end his tenure in September 2005. The purpose of the league is to formulate and maintain policies that will safeguard the educational values of interscholastic competition, to cultivate sportsmanship, to develop and direct a program that will promote, protect and conserve the health and physical welfare of all participants and to promote uniformity of standards in all interscholastic competition. A native of Orangeburg, Matthews remembers fondly his days as a student at Erskine. "When I graduated from high school, I had no idea where I wanted to go to college," he said. "There were a lot of people from Orangeburg who had gone to Erskine and I decided I was going to go there, too. "I wouldn't trade anything for those four years," Matthews said. He wound up being a physical education major and minored in history, but admits he was not a "studious" student. "I had to learn how to study when I got to Erskine," Matthews said. He learned quickly of the need to take good notes from his history professor, Dr. Robert K. Ackerman. "The story was that if you dropped your pencil in his class, you missed about 200 years of history," Matthews said. Harry Stille was another professor who was a big influence on Matthews while he was at Erskine. "He was and is a unique person," Matthews said of Stille. "He made you think and was a great people person." Matthews also remembered the late Dr. Gordon Parkinson fondly. "Everybody there was just very pleasant," Matthews said. He decided in his junior year that he wanted to go into teaching and coaching, and he did his practice teaching and coaching at Dixie High School. After Matthews graduated from Erskine, he got a job as an assistant football coach at Stall High School and four years later, he was promoted to head coach and athletic director. In 1984, Matthews went to work for the High School League and was later promoted to executive director. The High School League executive committee hopes to announce Matthews' replacement by March 1, 2005, and the new director will officially take charge July 1 of next year. It has been more than a month since he announced his intention to retire and he said he has gotten used to the idea – more on some days than others. "Some days I know I've made the right decision," Matthews laughed. Most days, though, he said he feels "comfortable" with the decision. "I've learned that if you're in the education profession long enough, eventually somebody's going to ask you to leave," Matthews said. "I'm just trying to stay ahead of the curve." He said he has enjoyed his job, the only one of its kind in the state. "I feel good about where we are," Matthews said. "Corporate sponsorships have gone a long way to help to get to where we are." The High School League has used partnerships with companies such as Southland Log Homes and State Farm to enhance opportunities for member schools. Southland Log Homes is the sponsor of the "Weekend of Champions" for high school football title games at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia. Matthews said the league has also set the pace for placing automatic external defibrillators (AED) in high schools. Last year, the league put AEDs in 35 member high schools and plans to do the same this year, he said. AEDs are relatively simple devices used to shock and possibly save anyone having cardiac arrest. "We've helped explode that issue," Matthews said. The executive director said he also feels good about the relationship that the league office has with member schools. "It's a professional relationship with all our schools," Matthews said. "We try to be supportive." The credit for that belongs to his predecessor, retired league executive director Pete Ayoub. Matthews has served on numerous national rules committees and has become more involved in legislative issues in recent years. He and wife Paula married while Matthews was a student at Erskine. They have two grown children and four grandchildren, including a set of triplets. |
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