MOULTRIE – Robin Hines stepped down as the superintendent of the Houston County school system in 2014 and was having an enjoyable retirement.

He had served on several boards, was renovating a home in the mountains and, an accomplished musician, was playing plenty of gigs as the bass player for the Eli Carlan band.

Then, with the Georgia High School Association feeling pressure from the Georgia Legislature, Gary Phillips announced his retirement as its executive director.

Hines, who – as many Packer fans remember – was an assistant football coach at Colquitt County High from 1984-1988, was approached by several former colleagues about applying for the position.

At first, Hines rejected the idea of giving up three years of retirement to take on the GHSA position, especially when its future was being threatened by two bills in the Legislature looking to turn the organization’s functions over to a non-profit state agency under the state Board of Education.

But the more he thought about it, the more the 56-year-old Hines liked the idea. He and wife Kim talked it over, and in May he was approved as the sixth executive director in the organization’s 109-year history.

“Kim said I ought to do it,” Hines said recently during a mountain getaway with his family during the GHSA’s ‘dead week.’ “It’s a great organization. It’s been a big part of my life. I can’t think of anything else I’d interrupt my retirement for.”

Hines, who has a doctorate degree from Nova Southeastern, was a teacher, coach, assistant principal, principal and assistant superintendent before his five-year tenure as Houston County’s school superintendent.

He is the GHSA’s first executive director in 70 years not chosen from the organization’s staff, and he is taking over amid one of its most difficult periods.

In February, House Bill 415 and Senate Bill 203 were introduced, both resulting from the General Assembly’s frustration with the GHSA.

Among the areas of concern for legislators were costs of attending events, financial transparency and transfers of athletes. The forced retirement of Phillips was seen as a step toward placating the Legislature. Perhaps the hiring of someone not closely identified with the organization is another. The General Assembly did not pass either bill, but is expected to revisit them next year.

Hines says his experience as a school superintendent will help him in dealing with the issues facing the GHSA.

And he has some ideas on how he will conduct business.

“I want to know what our member schools are thinking,” Hines says of the organization that oversees the activities of its 458 member schools.

“It’s our job to serve them and abide by the rules they’ve established. The GHSA is here to maintain the integrity of our competitions. I’m not naïve enough to think we can please everyone. But I feel very strongly that the GHSA can do the job better than anyone else.”

Hines played football for Jim Hughes at Thomasville High, and after graduating from Valdosta State was on the Bulldogs’ staff when Hughes moved up Route 319 to take over the Colquitt County High program in 1983.

Hughes did not have an opening for Hines that year, but did the next. Hines, after a year in Griffin, was on the staff of the 1984 Packers football team that went 9-2-1, the program’s most successful season in nearly a decade.

He remained a Packer through the 1988 season before heading to Westover. He was the Patriots’ head football coach from 1990-1994, posting a 19-31 record before deciding to get into administration.

Hines was at Dougherty High for three years as an assistant principal before being named principal at Charlton County. He fondly remembers his three years in Folkston, where the school’s football program receives excellent support.

“That is a great football community,” Hines said.

Hines then went to Jackson County, where he hired Brent Brock, a former fellow assistant coach at Colquitt County, as the Panthers’ head football coach in 2002.

After five years in Jefferson, Hines went to Houston County where he was the principal at Northside in Warner Robins for two years before becoming the assistant superintendent for school operations in 2008.

Two years later, he was named superintendent.

Hines said he learned some valuable lessons while in Moultrie.

“I loved Coach Hughes,” he says. “I looked at him as a second father. He was tough on me. But if you worked for him, you learned how to work, you learned how to put in the time and you learned to pay attention to detail.”

Hines said he and Kim keep in touch with Hughes and wife Lillian and spent time with them recently at the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame induction.

Paying attention to detail will serve Hines well in his new position.

He worked with Phillips before his predecessor departed and is getting a feel for the GHSA’s 14-person staff.

“The people there are very knowledgeable and they work hard,” Hines says.

That staff is charged with putting on championships in 19 activities: baseball, basketball, cheerleading, cross country, football, golf, gymnastics, lacrosse, literary, one-act play, riflery, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, wheelchair sports and wrestling.

It also receives between 8,000-9,000 transfer requests each year.

And it is the transfer of students to participate in sports – particularly football – that has had GHSA in the headlines over the last year.

High-profile football players Kurt Taylor, DeAngelo Gibbs, Jamyest Williams, Breon Dixon and Tony Gray all transferred from other Georgia high schools to Grayson before last football season with the intent of winning a state championship.

And the Rams, did in fact, win the state title, much to the consternation and chagrin of fans and other observers around the state.

It was later learned that Taylor, after the football season, returned to Newton County, his former school, to graduate.

And Grayson quarterback Chase Brice transferred after the football season to North Oconee for his senior baseball season.

Grayson and Taylor were investigated after it was alleged the player’s family did not move to the Grayson district, as is required by GHSA rules.

The transfer of players to improve their recruiting profile or to play on better teams is not a problem just in Georgia. Other states also are weighing ways to deal with such issues.

The GHSA this spring considered what was known as the 50-percent rule, requiring students to sit out half of the season at their new school if it were determined their transfer was done for athletic purposes.

In May, the GHSA executive committee voted not to implement the rule for the 2017-2018 school year.

Hines agreed with the decision.

“The 50-percent rule was rushed,” he said. “We didn’t know how much paperwork would be involved and how we would deal with it. So we are going to follow the rules we have in place. We need to ask the right questions, make sure they are legitimate moves.

“We don’t have all the answers now. But we want the integrity of our competitions to be as pure as possible.”