The former associate executive director of the Alabama High School Athletic Association has filed a federal gender and age discrimination lawsuit against the AHSAA, claiming that she was passed over for the executive director’s position because she’s a woman and was later demoted and fired when she filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint.
Kim Vickers, who served at the AHSAA in leadership positions for the past decade, said in her lawsuit that current executive director Heath Harmon, who the AHSAA board hired instead of Vickers in June 2024, was so less qualified for the position that Vickers was forced to essentially train him how to do the job and explain rather rudimentary aspects of the day-to-day operations.
Vickers filed her first formal EEOC complaint in July 2024 and then supplemented it in October 2024. She filed her final complaint on June 25, 2025, a few days after she was terminated. She was granted a Notice of Right to Sue by the U.S. Department of Justice in May.
Vickers’ termination, she claims in the lawsuit, followed several months of retaliation by Harmon for her initial EEOC complaints. Initially, Harmon demoted her—an action he said was required by a long-standing federal court decree requiring the AHSAA’s top two positions be filled by individuals of different races—but also began shutting her out of meetings and removing her from committees, Vickers’ lawsuit states.
Her firing in June came after a confrontation with Harmon following his decision to remove all three female members, including Vickers, from the Classification Committee.
“(Vickers) told Harmon in his office that it was obvious that he was excluding women from anything he considered ‘important,’” the lawsuit states.
Shortly thereafter Harmon informed Vickers that “it’s just not working out,” the lawsuit states. When Vickers asked if she was being fired because she filed the EEOC complaints, she said Harmon simply stared at her and refused to answer.
Had Vickers been hired as executive director, she would have been the first female to lead the AHSAA in its 104-year history. However, the lawsuit states that the AHSAA’s current board president—which is listed as Terry Curtis from UMS-Wright—stated during a radio interview during the search process that the board was “looking for the right ‘guy’” to fill the role.
Vickers is asking to be reappointed to her position with back pay and compensation for punitive and various other damages.
