In what one expert called a “reverse public records lawsuit,” one of the state’s most prominent youth sports associations has filed a lawsuit against one of Middle Tennessee’s largest local weekly newspaper companies after a journalist asked for records relating to a high school football player.
The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association filed a request for a declaratory judgment in Davidson County Chancery Court on Sept. 24 against Main Street Media of Tennessee, a Middle Tennessee network of 13 local newspapers.
The filing came after Blaine Kellar, a sports reporter at the Robertson County Connection, made a request for records with the TSSAA seeking a letter sent from Sumner County Schools to the organization regarding a student athlete’s
“hardship eligibility.”
A new state law allows middle and high school student athletes to transfer schools once during their school careers without losing athletic eligibility, provided the move occurs between school years along with other requirements.
A “hardship eligibility” letter, if granted, can provide exceptions to some requirements, like the one-transfer rule or the ban on transfers made during school years.
Though court filings do not name the student who was the focus of the request, Main Street Media said it was Jameer Alexander, a senior football player for Gallatin High School.
According to Main Street Media, Alexander, who started the 2026 football season at Station Camp High, was ruled eligible by the TSSAA to play for Gallatin.
The paper explained that their interest in the document was “strictly in explaining to the public how high school athletic rules are being applied, especially when a mid-season transfer raises obvious questions under the state’s one-time transfer law.”
Dave Gould, owner and publisher of Main Street Media, told The Tennessean the paper was “surprised and shocked” to be implicated in court over what seemed to be a routine records request.
“We're interested in learning more about the reasoning behind why they allowed a Sumner County student athlete to be eligible for transfer, because he has transferred twice,” Gould said. “There's been so much focus on these transfer rules. And this comes up as a big issue among parents, families, schools, coaches and everything else. So we thought it was of real interest to understand why this happened.”
TSSAA lawyers, within the court filings, state that the association is required to comply with open records laws, citing a 2014 case in which another newspaper sought records regarding tuition assistance for athletes at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville.
The case found that the group is the “functional equivalent” of a government agency and subject to public records laws.
However, the TSSAA argues that providing this document to Main Street Media would reveal confidential identifying information and redactions would not be sufficient to protect the student’s privacy.
Rick Colbert, legal counsel for the TSSAA, repeated these confidentiality concerns to The Tennessean.
"TSSAA frankly does not care if the requester has the document, which I made abundantly clear in a video conference with the requester and his editor before this lawsuit was filed," he said. "In fact, TSSAA filed a motion to expedite the proceedings to get a speedy resolution so that if the document may be lawfully disclosed, it can be provided to the requester as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the requester's employer appears to be approaching this matter adversarially, which TSSAA never intended it to be so. TSSAA simply wants to ensure it handles the record in a way that does not violate the law."
Deborah Fisher, executive director at the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, called the lawsuit a "reverse public records lawsuit."
“I’ve never heard of this happening against a Tennessee news organization,” she said.
Fisher said the tactic of suing a records requester to establish that a government, or government-equivalent, body is exempt from open records laws is a dangerous and expensive precedent.
“It's alarming because the effect of this is, if you're a government entity, and you're being paid on the taxpayer dime, if someone wants a public record and you want to avoid them possibly suing you and getting it, you can just short circuit the whole thing and file against the requester,” she said. “If you’re just an ordinary citizen, that can wrack up thousands of dollars in court fees quickly.”
The athletic association is asking the court to determine whether the group needs to disclose the document.
“We're not going to take this lying down,” Gould said. “So we're going to respond aggressively. When something like this happens, you know it's not necessarily about our company or our newspaper. It's really about the media in general. So we feel we have a responsibility to really stand up.”
The lawsuit is strikingly similar to another filed in the same court over access to public records.
The Beacon Center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan legal group, alongside the Goldwater Institute, a public policy think tank, has filed a lawsuit against the Tennessee School Boards Association, a state-recognized organization that represents public school boards across the state, on Sept. 22.
The lawsuit came after the association sued a Haywood County man for requesting public records in April such as lists of TSBA members, records related to TSBA membership dues and records about the group’s lobbying activity.
Angele Latham’s role covering First Amendment issues at The Tennessean is made possible by a collaboration among Freedom Forum, Journalism Funding Partners and the USA TODAY Network. Freedom Forum does not provide editorial input. Reach Angele Latham at alatham@gannett.com, on X at @angele_latham and on TikTok at @angelelatham.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TSSAA sues TN newspaper over request for athlete's records
