“The Texas Way” Initiative Seeks to Improve Sportsmanship Behaviors at UIL Athletic Events

A new initiative seeks to curtail the rising problem of ejections and other incidents of misbehavior by fans, athletes and coaches at Texas high school sporting events.

“The Texas Way” initiative is a collaborative effort by the Texas High School Coaches Association (THSCA) and the Texas High School Athletic Directors Association (THSADA), in partnership with 2Words Character Development.

Three Goals
The initiative’s three goals are to:

• Improve the level of sportsmanship at UIL sporting events.
  
• Decrease the number of ejections at UIL sporting events.
  
• Strengthen communities and the relationships between coaches, athletes, officials and fans.

“Since Covid …”
“Since COVID, we have looked at where our ejection numbers are; how our coaches, athletes, fans and officials have acted — and it’s gotten to the point where we felt like we needed to do something about it,” THSCA Executive Director Joe Martin said, adding:

“We didn’t just want to talk about it. We wanted to make something happen, and we wanted to make something happen on a big scale.”

THSADA Executive Director Rusty Dowling said improving sportsmanship is his organization’s top initiative.

UIL Athletic Director Ray Zepeda, who was on hand to support the initiative’s launch during a recent summer conference, noted that over the past five years, there has been a 100 percent increase in athlete ejections and a 40-to-50 percent increase in ejections relative to coaches and fans.

More info:
https://www.thsada.com/member-resources/the-texas-way/