Event draws record attendance
HOUSTON — One of the largest coaching conventions in the country is getting larger.
The Texas High School Coaches Association announced a record attendance of 13,696 at this year’s event at the George R. Brown Convention Center and Marriott Marquis.
The convention will return to San Antonio for 2020, 2021 and 2022, but THSCA executive director Joe Martin said Houston is in the mix for open dates in 2023 and 2025.
“San Antonio has always been the city that we break records in,” Martin said. “We were told you can’t ever do that again. And we did it in Houston. … We use six hotels and 13,000, almost 14,000, people show up. They’ve done a great job in Houston, and it’s a tribute to them and what they’ve done with this convention center and the campus that is here.”
What is dubbed as “Coaching School” acts as an unofficial kickoff to the school year for the high school coaching profession in Texas.
In 87 years of existence, the convention has gone from chalk talks over X’s and O’s to a haven of discussions and panels on various topics concerning prep athletics in this state. Many advancements in Texas high school sports — concussions prevention, social issues and recruiting among them — usually get a litmus test at this convention.
“Over the years we’ve been working hard to try to be more inclusive and meet the standard of our name — the high school coaches association,” said D.W. Rutledge, the former Converse Judson football coach and graduate of HISD’s Sam Houston who recently retired but has spent most of his career building this convention.
“It’s not the boys’ coaches association. It’s not the football coaches association. It’s the Texas high school coaches association. I feel good about the efforts to move that forward. It’s a lot more inclusive now.”
Fond memories of a discarded game
The state’s Division I FBS college coaches are usually heavily involved in the THSCA convention as well.
Sunday night’s NCAA Division I Football Panel discussion, for example, is one the rare instances in which all 12 of the state’s FBS coaches are in the same room together. Giving up such a popular panel to keep an 80-year-old allstar football game was a tough ask in 2014.
It’s the fifth year the game, which brought together high school talent from all over the state, did not accompany the convention. The football game’s beginnings date to 1935 and included a basketball all-star game since 1946. It’s no more as a result of the NCAA rule that prohibits Division I college coaches from attending a convention that includes an allstar game.
“When we dropped it, we were the second-longest consecutive running all-star game in the United States behind Major League Baseball,” THSCA executive director Joe Martin said. “The number of Texas high school football players that played the all-star game and in the NFL is unbelievable.”
High school football all-star games in general are in a peculiar position these days.
The 17-year-old Bayou Bowl was just held last month and remains healthy despite the format change from Texas vs. Louisiana to an all-Houston affair over budget concerns.
Early enrolling at the college level is one of the main reasons high school football all-star games have a different look these days.
UIL sees no need to alter transfer rules
One underlying topic this week at the convention was the nature of transfers in Texas high school athletics in relation to the NCAA becoming less restrictive with its transfer rules.
The University Interscholastic League prohibits transferring from one school to another for athletic purposes.
If it is determined the athlete moved for athletic purposes, he or she must sit out a year.
Decisions can be appealed, first to a district executive committee locally. Some believe that rule can cause unintended consequences — players transferring for economic reasons but still having to sit out, for example — and essentially pits a coach’s word against a family’s.
One argument says families and athletes should feel free to move if need be. Another says some sort of regulation is needed to prevent the culture rampant transferring creates.
The UIL likes where it is at with the current rules.
“The rules we have have served us very, very well,” said UIL deputy director Jamey Harrison. “It’s not a perfect system, but we have a very, very good system. … It’s very grass-roots based where those decisions are ultimately made by the folks closest to the situation who have the most information about the situation.”
Harrison added conversations do take place over what happens at the NCAA level regarding transfer rules, but it’s ultimately up to UIL member schools to take those talks forward.