One of the crown jewels in the newly blue Texas crown is the University Interscholastic League, or UIL.
The University Interscholastic League was created by The University of Texas at Austin to provide leadership and guidance to public school debate and athletic teachers. Since 1910 the UIL has grown into the largest inter-school organization of its kind in the world. The UIL continues to operate as part of the University of Texas, under the auspices of the Deputy to the President for Governmental Affairs and Initiatives.
The UIL exists to provide educational extracurricular academic, athletic, and music contests. The initials UIL have come to represent quality educational competition administered by school people on an equitable basis.
Delegates to the state meet in 1917, in front of the capitol.
The Texas University Interscholastic League divides public high schools into conferences (1A through 6A) based purely on grades 9–12 student enrollment figures submitted during a biennial snapshot day.
Conference
Enrollment Range (Grades 9–12)
Typical Profile
Total Member Schools
6A
2,215 and above
Massive suburban and metro high schools
~251
5A
1,305 – 2,214
Large suburban/mid-sized city campuses
~250
4A
550 – 1,304
Regional county seats and outer suburbs
~226
3A
246 – 549
Small towns and rural consolidated districts
~230
2A
105 – 245
Small rural communities (11-man football)
~225
1A
104.9 and below
Very small rural schools (6-man football)
~223
The Four-School “Outlier” District
The UIL generally aims for districts of six to eight schools, but in sparse regions like West Texas and the Trans-Pecos, it routinely drops district sizes to the state constitutional minimum of four schools.
Because four teams automatically qualify for the playoffs in most team sports, every school in a four-team district is essentially guaranteed a postseason berth.
This limits mandatory home-and-away district travel to just three opponents, leaving coaches free to schedule non-district matchups that make geographical sense rather than driving five hours on a school night.
Organizational Structure
The UIL has about 50 to 60 full-time employees, who are considered University of Texas employees. They operates on an annual budget of roughly $15 million to $16 million, funded largely through state championship ticket sales, corporate sponsorships, member school dues, and broadcast rights rather than direct state tax appropriations.
The UIL’s headquarters in on Manor Road, in Austin, approximately 10 to 50 miles from WLBOTT HQ. It is on the far eastern frontier of the UT campus.
It is unknown if their headquarters has a cafeteria. They did not respond to the emails we did not send. Their HQ does not exactly scream ¡Bienvenido!
Artist’s rendition of the UIL HQ cafeteria:
Not to worry, the UIL HQ is just down the road from the Salty Sow.
Is there a cause for concern?
Anyhow….
The UIL sponsors a lot of cool stuff. In addition to sports, they oversee a variety of academic and artistic competitions.
One Act Play
Probably the most entertaining, and complicated UIL contest is the One Act Play.
The UIL One-Act Play contest is a competition where similarly sized Texas schools present an 18-40 minute play and may be adjudicated by a panel of three judges or a single judge. The contest is held on a single day and open to the public. […] Because of the wide participation and diversity of plays produced certain rules and guidelines have been adopted by the State One-Act Play Office. These rules are in place to ensure safety, satisfy legal standards, and make the running of the contest practical.
The purposes of the One-Act Play contest are to foster appreciation of good theatre, satisfy the competitive, artistic spirit with friendly rivalry among schools, learn to lose or win graciously, promote interest in theatre during adult life and increase the number of schools which have adopted theatre arts as an academic subject in school curricula.
The plays must come from an approved list (some exceptions), but this list is long, long, long. There is an opportunity for plays not on the list:
If the play you are considering does not appear on one of the approved lists which follow, then it must be submitted to the office of the State Drama Director for the play appraisal committee’s approval prior to the deadline.
Directors shall eliminate or reject profane references to a deity and obscene language, actions or scenes from the approved production. […] Firearms or Explosives. No starter pistol, real gun, rifle, pellet gun, air gun or pistol shall be used in any way, regardless of whether or not the firing pin is removed. Toy, wooden or model firearms may be used. Discharge of a firearm, cap pistol, starter pistol or any type of explosive or the use of combustible materials in connection with a contest play shall not be permitted.
One of WLBOTT’s elders distinguished himself in high school through his talents in number sense.
What is number sense?
Eighty problems. Ten minutes. The UIL Number Sense contest is a fast-paced, 10-minute mental math competition that challenges students to solve 80 sequential problems without scratch paper, calculators, or erasures.
Larry White is the long-time head of the UIL number sense contest. He has a colorful history of the Texas UIL number sense competition, going back to the genesis in 1917, the first UIL competition in fall of 1943 through the spring of 1946.
Here are some puzzlers from Mr. White’s chronology, from a letter written in 1922:
If the velocity of sound is 1142 feet a second and the number of pulsations 70 per minute, what is the distance of a cloud if 20 pulsations are counted between the time of seeing a flash of lightning and hearing the thunder?
John Jones divided his estate among two sons and three daughters, the latter sharing equally with each other. The younger son received $2,200.00 which was 5/11 the share of the elder who received 11/36 of the whole estate. Find the share of each daughter.
If a blacksmith gets 1 cent for the first nail used in shoeing a horse, 3 cents for the second, 9 for the third, and so on, what will he get for shoeing the horse if he uses 32 nails?
Answer to #3: The blacksmith will receive $9,265,100,944,259.20.
Elder G:
Total global household wealth stands at approximately $470 trillion to $500 trillion.
To put that $9.26 trillion blacksmith bill in perspective:
~2% of all personal wealth on Earth: If you gathered every house, plot of land, stock portfolio, bank account, and retirement pension across all 8 billion people on the planet, shoeing that one horse would claim about one out of every fifty dollars.
Almost 10% of total liquid money: Global “broad money”—actual currency, savings, and checking deposits ready to spend—totals around $100 trillion. The blacksmith would clean out nearly a tenth of the entire world’s circulating cash supply.
Larger than most national economies combined: At $9.26 trillion, that single horseshoeing fee is greater than the total annual economic output (GDP) of every nation on Earth except the United States and China. It would buy the entire annual GDP of Germany and Japan put together.
Anyhow…
Look who showed up as state number sense champions!
A few samples (elementary / high school):
Mariachi Contest
We’ve added the UIL mariachi competition to our WLBOTT calendar. The contest will be held just 50 miles from WLBOTT HQ.
There are two categories for mariachi performances: traditional and experimental. In the traditional category:
The ensemble must consist of a minimum of 7 and a maximum of 24 performers which includes at least: 3 Violins, 1 Trumpet, 1 Guitarron, 1 Vihuela, and 1 Guitar. Vocalists are optional; however, if utilized, must be instrumentalists performing in the ensemble. Any other combination of instruments may be added to the above instrumentation.
Demonstrates the mariachi performance tradition but with no instrumentation requirements. The ensemble must consist of a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 24 performers that includes any combination of traditional and non-traditional mariachi instruments and vocalists.
(1) Summary. The study of chess teaches analytical thinking, pattern recognition and creativity, which in turn improve student performance in reading, writing, history, geography, and math.
(2) Contest Format. Students will take an objective test containing approximately 20 chess puzzles, plus a tiebreaker section. Answer formats may include fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice and/or true/false. Thirty minutes will be allotted for the testing period and an additional five minutes will be allotted for the tiebreaker, exclusive of time required for instructions.
