Texas' University Interscholastic League is hoping to reduce the number of ejections at prep sporting events after reviewing numbers that showed a rising number of spectators, players and coaches were removed from games last season.
According to UIL athletic director Ray Zepeda, the group saw 3,199 total ejections during the 2022-23 season, up 50 percent over the last five year. Among the sports that were listed, 1,179 were recorded in soccer, 1,057 in football and 335 in baseball.
Zepeda is hoping for change.
"I think you saw those numbers and it was a pretty good increase in the number of ejections whether it be athlete ejections from contests, or officials ejecting spectators from contests," Zepeda told the Caller Times. "We've seen a pretty dramatic rise over the past five years, and I think the data I presented showed that."
The UIL is now working with coaches, athletic directors and officials to figure out what can be done to reduce the number of ejections.
"This is educationally based athletics we have happening and it's hard to have positive outcomes when you don't have positive atmospheres," Zepeda said. "So we are going to start with ourselves first, with our coaches, with our member school districts to try to maybe police that up a little bit better.
It may be to have a specific strategy for coaching, sportsmanship not only with our athletes but also with their parents as well. We hope that's going to make a big difference."
Zepeda said that working with officials to provide them the resources they need will be important, as will increasing the overall number of available officials.
"We are also going to lean into our official associations and see how can we better partner with them and work with them to get a better handle on the competitive atmospheres in and around our contests," Zepeda said.
