This summer, the University Interscholastic League revealed two startling statistics.
As many as 15,000 athletes could transfer to Texas high schools this school year, either changing schools within the state or moving in from out of state. And less than 1% of all transfers were ruled ineligible last year.
The UIL, which governs public school extracurriculars in Texas, prohibits students from transferring for athletic purposes. On Monday, the organization approved a proposal allowing its state executive committee to investigate schools with an inordinate number of Previous Athletic Participation Forms for new students, which determine a student’s eligibility to play varsity sports.
At the organization’s legislative council meeting in Round Rock, UIL deputy director Jamey Harrison said a more mobile society has created the need for new guidelines to ensure that schools are following longstanding transfer rules that have been in place since 1981.
“We are in an entirely different world than we were from really not that long ago,” Harrison said. “We have some keystone eligibility rules that we need to keep at our core, and a lot of that is related to having a community and educational basis to our activities and having as level of a playing field as we can possibly provide to schools. There are some instances where that doesn’t feel like that is happening anymore.”
The girls basketball team at Oak Cliff Faith Family, a charter school, has made headlines and angered Dallas-area coaches by adding at least eight high-profile recruits as transfers this offseason.
The UIL had planned to hear Monday a proposal brought by the public calling for charter and STEM schools to be removed from the traditional classification system, but it did not announce any action.
The organization did approve a rule that requires any transfer in grades 9-12 to complete a new student eligibility questionnaire before competing at any level of athletics. This will provide data to help the state executive committee determine what constitutes an “inordinate” number of PAPFs, Harrison said, because some schools aren’t completing PAPFs for new students who they think won’t play varsity sports.
The UIL also updated requirements for filing a PAPF because it said some schools aren’t filing timely PAPFs when new students transfer.
Another approved proposal addressed oversight of local district executive committees. Coaches have long questioned their fairness because they are made up of schools in the transferring athlete’s new district, which compete against one another for playoff spots. They say schools might fear retribution for voting against other schools’ athletes in hearings.
The proposal allows the state executive committee to impose penalties on DECs when they aren’t following rules consistently. The SEC will be able to appoint an independent individual to oversee DEC meetings.
The UIL also approved an amendment to prohibit students who have been found to have changed schools for athletic purposes from competing against a varsity team without approval of the UIL athletic director.
All of the new rules will go into effect Aug. 1, 2025.
“I think we were guilty of trying to find a simple solution to remarkably complex challenges,” Harrison said. “What we learned is it’s going to take a more complex set of solutions. The rule changes are just the first step. They will help us learn and really focus what steps two and three look like in the near or not-so-near future.”
New UIL executive director
UIL executive director Charles Breithaupt is retiring at the end of this school year. The UIL said Monday that it hopes to have his replacement in place by March 1.
Breithaupt has been the executive director since 2009 after previously serving as associate director and director of athletics for the UIL.
Good news on officials
Michael Fitch, executive director of the Texas Association of Sports Officials, shared some positive statistics Sunday at a time when there is concern about a shortage of officials statewide.
Fitch said his organization now has 17,000 members and is back to its pre-COVID numbers. Membership was up 6% last year, with the number of basketball officials growing by 20%. Volleyball membership was up about 10%, and football saw a slight increase.
Shot clock update
The push for an adoption of a shot clock in Texas high school basketball continues. Johnnie Carter from the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches said his organization surveyed boys and girls coaches statewide and that 62% were in favor of adding a shot clock.
In 2021, the National Federation of State High School Associations announced that states could adopt a 35-second shot clock for high school basketball games beginning with the 2022-23 season. In January, the NFHS said that 27 states were using a shot clock in some capacity last season.
No action taken
Also Monday, the UIL denied, rejected or took no action on proposals to:
- Add girls flag football as a sanctioned sport;
- Add mixed relays in every relay at track and field competitions;
- Add boys volleyball as a sanctioned sport;
- Sanction rugby as a UIL sport;
- Put limitations on audio and visual effects in a stadium or arena;
- Allow certain pyrotechnics at athletic events;
- Allow certain noisemakers at athletic events;
- Allow Guardian Caps, a helmet cover intended to reduce concussion risk, during football competitions.
- Allow schools to use tethered drones in football games at stadiums that have a seating capacity of less than 30,000. Louisiana allows the use of drones at games, but they can’t fly over the playing surface or any other people, and they must be kept at least 10 yards behind the end zones and not along the sidelines and at least 30 to 150 feet in the air once launched.
Find more high school sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
