The UIL is bending over backward to do this. They don't have to.
In the past similar questions arose about athletes having to live in the attendance zone of the Dist. in which they compete. The UIL rule has stood in all cases so far. This prevented "recruiting". Here is part of the local news paper article.
August 08, 2010 6:53 PM
Jeremy Roebuck
The Monitor
McALLEN – A Sharyland school bus arrives at McAllen’s Lamar Academy each day to pick up just one student.
David Santos – an enrollee in the McAllen school system’s International Baccalaureate program and a member of the Sharyland High School boys swim team – makes a four-mile trek between both campuses to practice for a school he doesn’t attend and with teammates he will never see in class.
It’s a trip the state body governing high school sports requires of Santos and dozens of students who attend charter schools and specialty campuses across the state if they want to compete in varsity athletics — but one Santos hopes will end this year.
Earlier this month, he and three other students enrolled in the McAllen academy filed suit against the University Interscholastic League seeking the opportunity to join sports teams for the traditional high schools in the McAllen district.
“If it’s football, if it’s tennis, if it’s golf, whatever it is,” said their attorney, Bobby Garcia. “They should be able to play sports in the district they attend.
Each of Garcia’s clients in the suit enrolled at Lamar to join the McAllen school district’s International Baccalaureate program, a rigorous academic curriculum designed to grant students a head start in college courses.
But the campus does not have a sports program.
The students argue they should be able to join teams at McAllen’s other three other high schools, but under UIL eligibility rules, only full-time students at any given campus are allowed to compete for that school.
Because Lamar draws teens from across the Rio Grande Valley, its enrollees would be attending different school districts had they chosen not to join IB.
UIL has traditionally accommodated those teens by allowing them to join athletic programs in their home school systems.
It’s the only fair way to ensure students do not choose particular charter or specialty schools as a way of picking the districts for which they want to compete, said Kevin Heyburn, an assistant Texas attorney general representing UIL in the suit, in court filings.
But for Santos, this set-up results in a daily schlep back and forth to Sharyland during the swim season.
Sharyland school district’s Athletics Director Richard Thompson, who supports the current UIL rules, said he’s happy to have Santos on the high school team.
Thompson said he has made accommodations like the daily bus rides to and from Lamar to make sure the kids can compete in their home school district.
“We actually drive over and pick him up at the IB academy and take him to the Boys and Girls Club swimming pool where we practice,” he said. “We want him to compete for us because he lives in our attendance zone.”
This poster is strongly in disagreement with their lawsuit. If they win then it will cause turmoil across the state.
Edited by Exporter, 09 August 2010 - 05:33 AM.
