Editor’s note: this story has been updated since it was first published.
There will be no state champions in spring sports in Texas this year.
The UIL and TAPPS on Friday announced they have canceled the remainder of the 2020 spring sports seasons, an unprecedented move amid the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
The decisions came hours after Gov. Greg Abbott announced that all Texas schools are to remain closed to in-person learning for the remainder of this school year. The Southwest Preparatory Conference, which governs 17 private schools, including eight from the Dallas area, announced in early April it had canceled its spring season and championships.
The UIL and TAPPS had been holding out hope that they could hold state championship events at some point. But Friday, both organizations made it official that seniors throughout Texas have competed in high school sports for the last time.
“Our staff had been working hard on plans to resume activities this spring, but without schools in session, interscholastic activities cannot continue,” UIL executive director Charles Breithaupt said in a news release. “Our highest priority during this challenging time is ensuring the health and safety of our students and communities and making progress in the containment of COVID-19 in Texas. We are now turning our attention to the 2020-2021 school year.”
The UIL has amended its spring sports schedule before. In 2009, that included a two-week suspension of activities to accommodate concerns about the H1N1 swine flu spread.
The UIL, the governing body for public schools in Texas, will not crown 2020 state champions in boys basketball, baseball, softball, track and field, soccer, golf and tennis. Class 6A and 5A football programs will not hold spring football practices. TAPPS had already held its state tournament for boys and girls basketball before schools were shut down.
TAPPS said that its leadership will continue to develop guidelines and parameters for return to activities over the summer months and into the fall of 2020. The private school organization will share those plans in the next few weeks through webinars, Rank One notifications and posts on the TAPPS website.
Since March 12, when the UIL suspended the boys basketball state tournament during the semifinals in San Antonio, the timeline for a return to sports — and to normalcy in daily life — has been in continual limbo. Madison, which had six seniors on its roster, was one win away from its second straight Class 3A state championship after beating Coldspring-Oakhurst 90-73 in the semifinals, but the state’s top-ranked team won’t have the opportunity to play San Antonio Cole in the title game.
“It’s somewhat disappointing, but it’s somewhat understood with everything that is going on right now,” Madison coach Damien Mobley said. “We understand the health issues and the issues of the public and our families is more important. I feel bad for the seniors. They had worked so hard.”
The UIL first decided on March 13 to pause all sanctioned events from March 16-29. Days later, the organization included practices, which it initially left to school discretion, in the suspension.
Soon after, the UIL extended its suspension to May 4. Abbott’s ensuing executive order to shut down all schools through May 4 forced the UIL to then announce an indefinite suspension of all athletic and academic activities.
During the virtual UIL medical advisory committee meeting April 5, deputy executive director Jamey Harrison said the organization still had plans “that would allow us to complete all of our state championship activities for this academic year, should that opportunity present itself.”
“As a head coach, you want to keep your kids up and continually tell them there is still hope for a season,” said Argyle baseball coach Ricky Griffin, whose team loses four senior starters. “You hope that the end of it wouldn’t be like this, but unfortunately that’s just what needs to happen right now.
“I feel for our seniors. I know their hearts are broken, because they wanted to give us a third straight state championship. They worked really hard in the offseason to get themselves ready to do that.”
Argyle in Class 4A and Southlake Carroll in 6A were both trying to win a third straight state title in baseball. In track and field, DeSoto was trying to become the third girls team in UIL history to win at least five consecutive team state championships, and Arkansas signee London Culbreath of McKinney North was attempting to win her fourth consecutive Class 5A state titles in the 1,600 and 3,200 meters.
“Let’s be honest, I’m deflated today,” McKinney North girls track coach Jessica Richards posted on Twitter. “There is a bigger picture than sports, but that doesn’t make it any easier today.”
As of April 5, at least 10 other states’ high school sports governing bodies, including that of athletic hotbed California, had already canceled their remaining sports events for the 2019-20 school year. As the highly contagious COVID-19 continues to threaten global health and economics, the UIL has joined the growing list of sports organizations to cancel spring operations.
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