The UIL doesn’t believe a storm waiver will result in a recruiting problem.
Coaches say giving storm victims chance to play quickly important
There is a character from the “Friday Night Lights” television series named Ray “Voodoo” Tatum.
On the show, Tatum is a statechampionshipwinning quarterback from Louisiana, displaced to the fictional town of Dillon by Hurricane Katrina. He was recruited to Dillon — against the rules in the show and in reality — which is later discovered and puts one of the team’s wins in jeopardy of forfeiture.
The belief that the University Interscholastic League’s new waiver for displaced students following Tropical Storm Harvey opens the door for many “Voodoo” Tatums is real. Necessary measure
However, the UIL believes it has enacted something that was necessary while still discouraging anyone from unfairly taking advantage of it.
This waiver, announced last week, allows for student-athletes displaced by the storm to participate in athletics quickly at their new school rather than lose that opportunity because they’ve been forced to evacuate to another city or area of town. It will mostly affect the fall sports – football, volleyball and cross country.
The Dallas-Fort Worth area has been used as a safe haven for evacuees, and those hit hard by the storm in Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange have found homes in parts of Houston.
The waiver, though, conjures up conversation around one of high school football’s well-known secrets — recruiting.
“We’re not ostriches,” Dickinson coach John Snelson said. “We don’t sit around with our heads in the sand. We know things like that happen. But my initial thought is that I think that that’s good that kids are going to have an opportunity to participate in athletics wherever they are so they can continue to learn these valuable life lessons like we’re all learning right now.”
It’s not a completely new concept. The UIL had a similar waiver during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. That was under different circumstances, too, considering Texas schools were accepting students from another state (Louisiana).
The early response to it has been positive. Cypress Falls coach Chris Brister said he welcomes displaced student-athletes with open arms and wishes the ones who are forced to leave well.
Montgomery coach John Bolfing said, obviously, he hopes to see no recruiting going on at any point. This was not just a positive move from the UIL but perhaps the only move.
The human aspect of the rule is tipping the scales with the possibility of recruiting resting on the other side.
During a time when the hurricane has destroyed many homes and turned many lives upside down, coaches believe sports can be a sense of normalcy. There’s shouldn’t be any roadblock to that, if possible.
UIL deputy director Jamey Harrison agrees. He wasn’t with the UIL during Katrina, but he knows there were issues when it came to recruiting. Rule a safeguard
He said with each past hurricane or storm comes lessons and reform for the next time a waiver is needed — like now. He calls the 15-day rule a safeguard. Student-athletes can’t compete in varsity games for 15 calendar days. If they are able to return to their original school at some point in the year — which they’re encouraged to do if possible — there is no waiting period.
But an even bigger determent against recruiting? The schools themselves. The rules against switching schools for athletic reasons don’t change. There is even a disclaimer on the waiver form concerning that.
“We don’t have to police it fortunately because our member schools will do that for us,” Harrison said.
It’s difficult to tell the true impact of the waiver will have this fall.
The UIL just posted the forms online Tuesday afternoon. Harrison said there have been many questions over the waiver and some requests have been turned in and even accepted, but he expects the requests to increase over the next day or so.
It could affect any place anywhere, but it could start in the areas most affected by the storm.
Humble ISD is trying to deal with Kingwood High School’s flooding, which will force its students to share a campus at Summer Creek High School.
Humble ISD athletics director Troy Kite said the waiver is what should be done in times like this.
“Could some people take advantage of it?” Kite said. “You know what? I’m not worried about that at all. Right now, I’ve got 2,700 kids at Kingwood High School that can’t go to school because they don’t have a building.”