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Player, coach ejections have increased dramatically over past decade in Texas, UIL says

Player, coach ejections have increased dramatically over past decade in Texas, UIL says

SAN ANTONIO — The UIL has some starting numbers when it comes to sportsmanship at public school sporting events.

From the 2017-18 school year through the 2022-23 school year, player ejections doubled and reached about 3,200 the last year in that span. They then rose another 10% this past school, to about 3,500.

There has been an almost 50% increase in coach ejections over the last 10 years. Over the past five years, there has been a 45% increase in fan ejections that were initiated by officials.

“Our sportsmanship over the last couple of years, really since COVID, has declined,” said Joe Martin, executive director of the Texas High School Coaches Association. “There is proof in the pudding of ejections for athletes, ejections for coaches and ejections for fans, and in the way we address officials, the way officials address coaches.”

To try and fix the problem, the THSCA announced Sunday at its 92nd annual convention and coaching school that it is partnering with the Texas High School Athletic Directors Association and 2Words Character Development to create a free program called The Texas Way. The goal is to improve sportsmanship, decrease ejections and improve relationships between coaches, athletes, officials and fans.

The goal is to have every high school in the state participate. Coaches will be asked to take a 60-minute, video-based training session, and there is a 40-minute training session for students.

“We are not going to stop our focus on sportsmanship until we get a significant handle on this. It impacts kids, and it is divisive in our communities,” UIL athletic director Ray Zepeda said. “I think we saw improvement as the year went on, which really makes me very optimistic as we roll out and organize specific strategies to address this.”

Michael Fitch, executive director of the Texas Association of Sports Officials, shared a national statistic that states that 70 to 80% of new officials quit the profession by their third year.

“We surveyed our members who don’t come back, both brand new members and experienced officials,” Fitch said. “Of the reasons that we can control, the bad sportsmanship between players, coaches and parents is the No. 1 cost.”

The good news is that TASO now has a little over 17,000 officials for all sports, which is up 6.4% from last year. Football has about 6,200 officials, which is an increase of about 8 or 9%.

“Hopefully it will be a little bit more (this year),” Fitch said. “Since COVID, we are on a little upward trend. It’s not as fast as we would like, but we are headed in the right direction. We just need to do it a little faster.”

The UIL said there are 17 school districts in the state that are offering a class to high school students who are interested in becoming an official. There is also a push to recruit outgoing seniors who won’t be playing college athletics and get them to become officials.

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