Steve Savarese
Executive Director AHSAA
Steve Savarese, who has been coach, teacher, athletic director and administrator in high school athletics for more than 42 years, became the executive director of the Alabama High School Athletic Association in 2007.
He is currently serving on the NFHS Network Board of Directors as its chairman and was an original member of the NFHS Holdco Board. Savarese has been a presenter at numerous NFHS meetings, including the annual Summer Conference and the NFHS Legal and Finance meetings.
“I am honored to be a part of Real Men Wear Pink program,” said Savarese. “We lost our mother as a result of breast cancer and this is very personal for me.”
His leadership has put AHSAA championship events on solid ground financially with his boldest moves being the rotation of the popular Super 7 state football championships between the University of Alabama’s 100,000-seat Bryant-Denny Stadium and Auburn University’s 85,000-seat Jordan Hare Stadium and the AHSAA expansion to its current seven-classification system.
A man of strong faith and conviction, Savarese was inducted into the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2010 and into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2019. He is an outspoken, nationally recognized leader on issues dealing with high school educational athletics. He is a member of two other halls of fame.
Before becoming the AHSAA executive director, Savarese was one of the nation’s most successful high school football coaches and athletic directors. His football coaching record was 281-98 in 33 years — 26 in Alabama and seven in Kansas. His Daphne team won the 2001 Class 6A state championship. He also coached Douglass (Kan.) to a state title in 1978. He was a finalist for NFL High School Coach of the Year Award and has received numerous coach-of-the-year honors.
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