UIL Could Make a Decision Monday on the Fall Sports Season

School districts across Texas that have opted for virtual learning during the first several weeks of the fall semester have put the high school sports season in an even more uncertain position than before.

El Paso, which holds nine school districts, saw health officials and local leaders order all public and private schools to not open until Sept. 8. Austin-Travis County passed a similar model Tuesday, which impacts seven school districts. Houston ISD will opt to virtual learning for the first two weeks as well.

Aside from El Paso schools starting virtual learning until at least Sept. 8, school districts across Texas are joining in postponing the start of classes.

As the UIL weighs out the options on what to do for its fall sports activities across the state, Thomas Jones reported on Thursday that the UIL will make an announcement on Monday regarding the start of the high school sports season.

Locally, all summer strength and conditioning high school programs stopped since most school districts returned for voluntary on-campus workouts in June. UIL has a target date in place to have football and volleyball programs start practice on Aug. 3. But if local orders prohibit high schools from practicing, the UIL will be unable to have a set start date for the season.

For the football season, this impacts the first week of scrimmages (Aug. 13) and the start of the season (Aug. 27). The current order in El Paso limits non-district football schedule, which gets underway the first two weeks of the season on Aug. 27-29 and Sept. 3-5.