The UIL, Texas High School Coaches Association (THSCA) and Fox Sports Southwest held their yearly press conferences on Monday during the annual THSCA Convention in San Antonio to address the state of high school athletics and specifically football in the state of Texas in front of several dozen media members at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in downtown San Antonio.

The beginning of the press conference highlighted the work of THSCA Executive Director D.W. Rutledge who is retiring after a distinguished career where he was an assistant coach for a state title team at Converse Judson, he posted an incredible 198-32 record as a head coach at Judson winning four state titles. After retiring from coaching, Coach Rutledge moved into his role as the THSCA Executive Director where he’s held that role for 15 years.

The 2018 convention saw some schedule changes for 2018 as the convention moved to Sunday-Tuesday, instead of Monday-Wednesday and it appears those schedule changes have been a big hit with the coaches as over 12,000 coaches were registered by the close of business Sunday and that number could rise to near 13,007 after the final tally Monday.

Coach Rutledge mentioned some other primary concerns that THSCA is working with the UIL, the NCAA and all the FBS head coaches in the state to try and continue to promote their “Straight Line Recruiting” initiative where the high school coach remains the key point of contact between the college and the family of the student athlete.

The UIL staff of Dr. Charles Breithaupt, Jamey Harrison and Dr. Susan Elza took to the podium to address a few topics from a UIL perspective. The first announcement was that in partnership with Fox Sports Southwest “Football Days in Texas” returns and will return going forward for the first Friday night of the season. This year’s games are Brock at Brownwood which will be at 5:30pm and the nightcap kicking off at 8:30pm will be Lufkin at Longview.

Dr. Elza then discussed the 27 UIL presentations and certifications that are going on at the convention this year, including the mandatory concussion training and the Atavus tackling certification which will be required by December 2019. The UIL advised the plan for instant replay at the UIL State Championship games is still to have it implemented from Class 1A all the way up to Class 6A, and the plan is to have college replay officials work in the booth during the title games.

The 2018 football season will be the debut of the split division alignment in Class 5A and the UIL advised that the Class 6A superintendents will be surveyed to determine their interest in the split division concept at that level.

Finally the UIL clarified once again the new rules regarding ejections from football games starting in 2018, if a player is ejected from a game for unsportsmanlike activities and/or fighting that player will also be required to sit out the first half of the next game. That rule does not to apply to any players who are ejected for targeting penalties.

Fox Sports Southwest took to the stage as Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Managing Editor Greg Tepper emceed the press conference that highlighted the two live broadcasts for Fox Southwest’s “Football Days in Texas” along with the ten live look-in games listed below:

DeSoto at Odessa Permian

The Woodlands at Cypress-Fairbanks

Galena Park North Shore at Katy

El Paso Parkland at El Paso Burges

Sherman at Denison

Euless Trinity at Waco Midway

Silsbee at Port Neches-Groves

Lubbock Coronado vs. Lubbock Estacado

Stephenville at Argyle

Gilmer at Atlanta