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11/1/2009 - UIL's attempted take over of TASO
11/10/2009 - UIL prohibits officials from working varsity games
11/11/2009 - TASO disputes UIL's push for oversight
12/03/2009 - TASO files lawsuit against UIL
12/03/2009 - Texas Sports Officials Fight UIL Takeover

For Immediate Release: Contact: Gary Schumann

December 3, 2009 Office: 512/347-1604 Cell: 512/431-6544

Texas Sports Officials Fight UIL Takeover

Austin, Tex. – The Texas Association of Sports Officials (TASO) has filed a lawsuit in Travis County District Court to block the University Interscholastic League (UIL) from what TASO sees as an unauthorized takeover of sports officiating in Texas. The lawsuit charges that the UIL not only is attempting to exercise powers that it does not possess, but that its proposed rule changes would create monopoly control over sports officiating and impose an illegal occupation tax.

The attempted takeover marks a serious rift in an otherwise cooperative relationship that has spanned 33 years. Until now, Section 1204 of the UIL’s constitution and contest rules has allowed school districts to use officials registered with the UIL or TASO for their varsity and play-off games. At the UIL’s Legislative Council meeting on Oct. 26, however, the organization approved new language striking all reference to TASO-registered officials in its rules and requiring officials to sign with the UIL to officiate varsity or play-off games. The new rules, adopted in final form on Nov. 6, take effect July 1, 2010.

Although the UIL constitution states that it subscribes to the Texas Open Meetings Act, the TASO lawsuit alleges that the amendment was not publicized prior to the meeting, nor was TASO’s leadership notified of the planned change, even though two UIL representatives serve as ex-officio members of the TASO Board. The lawsuit also alleges that the changes were not posted or published as required by the UIL Constitution. Adding further insult to injury, the lawsuit alleges that UIL assistant athletic director Tony Timmons, at a recent meeting of Houston basketball officials, made clear his desire to coerce officials into joining the UIL, stating, among other things, that it would be “bye-bye” for those officials who did not comply with the new UIL registration scheme.

“It is a sad day when an organization such as the UIL that professes fair play and rule enforcement is not even able to follow its own rules,” said Austin attorney Gary Schumann, who brought forth the lawsuit on behalf of TASO.

“Although the UIL has the right to regulate its own members and their activities – the law will not allow it to use this power in a back-door fashion to regulate other professions and trades,” said Schumann, a partner in the law firm Savrick, Schumann, Johnson, McGarr, Kaminski & Shirley, L.L.P. “What are they planning to do next? Require that all the sod farmers throughout the state register with the UIL if they want to provide sod to football and baseball and soccer fields?”

At issue is what power, if any, the UIL has to regulate and/or tax sports officials, who contract with and are paid by individual school districts. As it currently exists, the UIL’s legal status is unclear. Its only governing documents are its own self-drafted constitution. Over the years, various courts have wrestled with whether the UIL is a private association or a state administrative entity. Most courts have concluded that the UIL is simply a “voluntary-member association of Texas public schools.” The courts have further noted that there is no statute creating the UIL or empowering the University of Texas to create the UIL. The UIL professes to be a non-profit organization. But the lawsuit alleges that the Texas Secretary of State has no record of the UIL ever having filed any documents to create a non-profit corporation.

The lawsuit further alleges that in 2003, Rep. Joe Nixon (R-Houston) introduced House Bill 580 to abolish the existing UIL and replace it with a legitimate state agency having clearly defined powers. In a hearing on his Bill, Nixon said that in its current form the UIL does “not legally exist” and “has no legislative oversight” and “is not subject to sunset review.” Nixon’s bill, however, failed to become law.

TASO, in contrast, has a clearly defined mission and a long and distinguished history of advancing the ideals of good sportsmanship and fair play through qualified officiating and encouragement of respect for the authority of officials. Its roots go back to the late 1930s, when the Southwest Conference (SWC) recognized the need for training sports officials and developing local officials’ associations. The Southwest Conference Official's Association (SWOA) was established to handle football and basketball officiating duties. Many high school sports officials joined the SWOA ranks in those early days, even though the association’s original focus was to train collegiate officials.

By 1977, the Texas football, basketball, and baseball officiating associations had joined together to form the Southwest Officials Association (SOA), a statewide governing body for high school officials. The SOA umbrella soon expanded to include volleyball, softball and soccer. Operating under the TASO name since 1999, the Austin-based professional trade association registers Texas sports officials, provides educational materials and training, promotes the professional interests of the officiating trade, and advocates on behalf of its members. TASO also conducts formal disciplinary hearings and oversight of its member officials. Its more than 12,000 members officiate at varsity and sub-varsity games throughout the state.

“Most of our members have been doing this a long time,” said TASO Board Chairman George Coit. “We do it because we love the sport and are concerned about the student athletes. We want the kids to have a fair and equal chance to win or lose. To do that, we need to have the best quality of officials out on the field.”

The TASO lawsuit, filed Dec. 3 in Travis County District Court, requests a temporary injunction against the UIL until the legal issues surrounding the UIL’s new rules are resolved.

“We don’t think the UIL has the power to do any of this, and we don’t want our members feeling pressured to pay what may be an illegal fee to protect their jobs until the court sorts this out,” said Coit.

On the surface, the UIL changes apply only to certain varsity sport contests, but TASO says the new rules requiring sports officials to pay a special fee and register with the UIL would have a much deeper and widespread impact.

“School districts don’t contract with a few sports officials for each individual varsity game and a whole different set of officials for each sub-varsity game,” said Coit. “They don’t have time to do that and it’s not efficient. They use the same group of officials for all their games. So if our members decide to hold off on paying the UIL fee, which essentially duplicates the fee they already pay the TASO association, they risk being shut out of all the games, not only the varsity ones.”

The TASO lawsuit states that the UIL, by virtue of its mandating a sports official registration fee and its stated intent to form a “UIL Officials Department,” is seeking to usurp the functions of TASO and force all sports officials in Texas to submit to the UIL as their representatives for obtaining insurance, lobbying, and looking after the interests of their profession. TASO’s attorney notes that UIL currently has no authority to undertake any of these “trade association” activities it now advertises on its website.

“If the UIL wants to engage in such significantly new operations, they would have to amend their constitution with the approval of their membership,” said Schumann. “They haven’t done this. Instead, a few of their staff members have initiated what seems to be a poorly thought-out raid on a respected professional trade association.”

Schumann believes this situation, which is being forced upon Texas sports officials, is a clear conflict of interest.

“It is impossible for the UIL to operate as the sole advocacy group for sports officials in everything from obtaining insurance to lobbying, as the UIL’s website now implies it will be doing, because the UIL’s true allegiance is to their members, which are the school districts,” said Schumann. “That’s why the UIL currently has the sole power to set the pay scale and working conditions for sports officials – they are negotiating the pay scale on behalf of their member schools. But now the UIL seems to think it can play both sides. That it can hold down the official’s pay per game and then run around to the other side of the field and operate as a pseudo-TASO entity and pretend it is representing the best interests of sports officials. It doesn’t work that way.”

For its part, the UIL rules state that some of the fees that it will impose would be “to help offset costs of programs for officials.” This explanation, however, makes little sense to TASO, whose individual sports divisions already produce training programs and educational materials that are highly respected within the sports official profession.

“I have a hard time imagining the UIL taking over this function,” said Coit. “For example, we just printed 6,000 copies of our new baseball mechanics manual. The baseball division’s budget, which comes from TASO membership fees, paid for the printing expenses, but developing the manual was something our people did on a volunteer basis over the course of three years. They weren’t getting paid for it, but these experienced officials knew the manual needed to be done and they wanted to make sure it was done right. There’s a lot that goes into officiating a game properly. You don’t accidentally end up in the right spot to call a play. This is all stuff sports officials have to learn. That’s why we focus so much on training.”

Of specific concern to TASO is the fact that the UIL rules, as newly approved, require all sports officials to register with the UIL if they want to practice in their profession and give the UIL the unfettered right to charge sports officials an unlimited amount in “fees” to offset the cost of the programs and services that the UIL in its sole discretion intends to provide.

“In short, the UIL is essentially empowering itself to charge an ‘occupation tax’ on a historically independent profession, without any limit or cap on its powers, and without giving sports officials any say in the leadership that would be controlling them and charging them fees,” said Schumann. “The fact is the UIL has absolutely no right to tax and regulate TASO’s membership. It is not a governmental agency and the legislature has given it no authority to impose fees, tax, regulate, require registration, or act as the sole or exclusive trade association of an independent profession.”

TASO is also asking the court to curtail the UIL from travelling around the state to meet with local TASO divisions and chapters. In these meetings, the TASO lawsuit alleges that the UIL has made substantial misrepresentations in an effort to coerce and intimidate TASO members into leaving the association and registering with the UIL rather than TASO. TASO further claims that the UIL has put pressure on local TASO divisions and chapters to turn over TASO monies and assets to the UIL. And, according to TASO, the UIL has tried to obtain proprietary TASO membership and contact information from the venders who provide “sign-in” software to TASO chapters.

“Basically, we’d like their guys to stop bad-mouthing our association and threatening our members until the court figures out what power the UIL has,” said Coit. “We’re hearing a lot of troubling things from our members, including that representatives of the UIL may have convinced some of our local chapters to turn over TASO dues money to the UIL. If this has happened, it would be illegal.”

The TASO lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order and temporary injunction to: (1) block the UIL from enforcing, implementing or taking any action to pursue the adoption of the Nov. 6 changes to UIL Rule 1204; (2) prevent the UIL, its employees and agents from taking any action to compel, coerce or encourage any person not to register with TASO as a sports official or to register with the UIL in lieu of registering with TASO as a sports official; and (3) bar the UIL, its employees and agents from charging or collecting

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any fee, tax or other revenue directly from any sports official as a condition of engaging in the officiating profession.

“It’s a shame that TASO finds itself in this position,” said Schumann. “We always advise our clients that litigation should be the last resort to resolving a problem. Unfortunately, the UIL’s improper efforts to push through this power-grab over Texas sports-officiating left my clients with no options other than filing this lawsuit.”

For more information about the TASO lawsuit, contact Gary Schumann at 512/347-1604 or 512/431-6544, or email gary@ssjmlaw.com

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TASO is a nonprofit organization of Texas high school sports officials with approximately 12,000 members in 196 chapters throughout the state. The TASO Board is comprised of the president and president-elect (or vice president) of each of six sports consisting of volleyball, football, baseball, softball, basketball and soccer. TASO member sports officials operate as independent professionals under the umbrella of their own association, voting on their own rules, dues, regulations and procedures. and are paid directly by school districts, which retain them on a game-by-game basis. TASO member officials are not paid by the UIL, retained by the UIL and are not in any capacity agents or employees of the UIL.

Savrick, Schumann, Johnson, McGarr, Kaminski, & Shirley, L.L.P., is a full-service law firm based in Texas. Its ten Austin attorneys and four Dallas attorneys, along with its staff of legal assistants, handle a broad range of legal matters including business and real estate law, construction law, family law, complex insurance coverage issues, and litigation.

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Dear ;

The Texas Association of Sports Officials (TASO) today filed a lawsuit against the University Interscholastic League (UIL) to stop the UIL from arbitrarily taking over sports officiating in Texas and imposing an unauthorized tax on sports officials.

The lawsuit, filed in Travis County state district court, seeks a temporary restraining order blocking the UIL from implementing and enforcing rules it adopted on Nov. 6, 2009. The new rules prevent officials from calling sports contests unless they register and pay a $50 “fee” to the UIL.

We filed this lawsuit reluctantly. After it became clear the UIL is dead set on taking over sports officiating and creating a monopoly for itself, it was decided TASO has a responsibility to the Texas officiating community to file this lawsuit.

We will not stand idly by while the UIL threatens to destroy a system that has proudly and effectively served the students athletes, parents, fans and school districts of Texas for more than 75 years.

The key issue in the lawsuit is whether the UIL has the authority to regulate and tax sports officials, who now contract with and are paid directly by independent school districts. Further clouding the issue is the UIL’s legal status; is it a private entity or a state administrative agency?

Previous court rulings concluded the UIL is a voluntary, member association of Texas public schools and noted there is nothing in state law that creates the UIL or authorizes the University of Texas to create the UIL.

Although the UIL portrays itself as a non-profit organization, there is no record of the UIL ever filing any organizational documents with the Texas Secretary of State, something all non-profits must do.

The lawsuit also asks the court:

Ø To prevent the UIL from coercing or encouraging any person to register with the UIL instead of TASO as a sports official.

Ø To bar the UIL from collecting any fee or tax from any sports official as a condition for officiating games.

This lawsuit was filed because we are hearing a lot of troubling things about what the UIL is telling our members and we would like the court to determine exactly what power the UIL has.

A copy of the complete press release will be posted in the Members Portal by Monday.

Sincerely,

George Coit

Chairman, TASO Board of Directors

TASO disputes UIL's push for oversight of officials

More than a coin flip at stake with outcome

By SAM KHAN JR. Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

Nov. 11, 2009, 11:00PM

Within the span of two October days, the landscape of high school sports officiating in Texas changed like it never had before.

Two organizations — the University Interscholastic League and the Texas Association of Sports Officials — had engaged in a lengthy, multi-layered battle. Over the course of the UIL's Legislative Council meetings Oct. 25-26 in Austin, the UIL took one large step toward ending the battle.

But many TASO members swear the fight isn't over.

Welcome to the new battleground for high school sports in Texas, where the war is fought in meeting rooms rather than on a field or a court — though those playing the games likely will be impacted by the end result.

When the UIL's standing committee on athletics and legislative council approved an amendment that, for the first time, would require officials to register with the UIL to officiate its games, it sent shock waves throughout the state.

For 33 years, section 1204 of the UIL's constitution and contest rules stated schools were to use officials registered with TASO for its varsity games. That changed Oct. 26. The amendment, if it receives final approval from the state education commissioner, goes into effect July 1, 2010.

Money or accountability?

The UIL and its executive director, Dr. Charles Breithaupt, felt this was a necessary step to improve accountability among officials.

“There really are no people that they answer to,” Breithaupt said of TASO at the UIL's athletics standing committee meeting Oct. 25. “Not the Texas Education Agency, not the state legislature or not to anyone else. I think the school superintendents ought to have a say about who works their games.”

Many TASO members believe the decision is a money grab by the UIL, which will require officials to pay $50 dues annually to register with the league. There are an estimated 15,000 officials registered with TASO, which also requires its members to pay a base fee of $50.

Leaders within TASO are fearful their organization will slowly wither away.

“The UIL is stating that what they are doing doesn't change the structure of TASO and that TASO can still operate as it has done in the past. This is a complete farce,” said Bradley Batt, vice president of TASO's Houston chapter of basketball officials. “All officials in the past have paid $50 in state dues to TASO and that is what TASO has used to operate its business. Now that the UIL is changing 1204 to require all varsity games to be officiated by ‘UIL registered' officials and requiring $50 in annual dues, no official is going to pay TASO anything. With approximately 15,000 officials, it's easy to see why the UIL is doing this — it's $750,000 in easy money.”

Others are afraid it will also cripple TASO in the process.

“TASO acts as an independent voice for the officials and if this goes through, that voice will be silenced,” said Mark Klecka, secretary for TASO's Houston baseball chapter and former past president for baseball at the state level. “We have a lot of unpaid volunteers that do work and are loyal to the organization and they will not continue to provide those services if this happens .”

Reactions vary widely

The current setup, with officials operating independently without oversight from the UIL, is rare across the nation. According to the UIL, 44 states govern all aspects of officiating in the state high school sports association offices and four other states at least require officials to register with the state association.

Breithaupt said the UIL's intention is not to take over all operations — scheduling, recruiting and training — but rather to provide the league a way to keep in contact with officials and apply and enforce its rules and regulations.

“Once people get over the hysteria of it, they'll see that the UIL has supported the officials more than any other organization,” Breithaupt said. “ I see very little change as to how the games are going to be scheduled. It'll be done as it always has through the local chapters.

“To us, that doesn't mean that TASO goes away. ”

The battle has heated up in the last year. The UIL said it has met with TASO members on more than 30 occasions in the past nine months to resolve issues raised by schools but were unable to reach a compromise, which eventually prompted the UIL's decision.

Currently, there's opposition from some groups and compliance from others.

When the Houston football chapter of TASO met Oct. 26, many members voiced their loyalty to TASO, saying they won't register with the UIL. Some veteran officials said they will retire instead.

The local basketball chapter voted to register with the UIL. Out of 46 basketball chapters around the state, 27 others have voted to do the same.

If there isn't a resolution and the membership splits in July, it could have an adverse impact on the number and quality of officials calling games.

“There already is a shortage of officials,” Klecka said. “It's going to make the problem worse.”

At least one local athletic director believes the two organizations still coexist.

“I hope that the officials will see that TASO still is a viable need,” Fort Bend ISD AD Keith Kilgore said.

sam.khan@chron.com

The University Interscholastic League (UIL) recently decided to prohibit officials from working UIL varsity games unless the officials register with the UIL and pay the UIL a $50 fee.

This proposal could dramatically change the officiating system for high school sports and it threatens to put the Texas Association of State Officials (TASO) out of business.

Although the new requirement is set to begin with the 2010-11 school year, the UIL is using intimidation and strong-arm tactics in effort to stampede officials into registering early with the UIL.

In short, the UIL is “locking out” some officials from working the current round of football playoff games unless they are already UIL-registered or commit to register with the UIL . This shameless tactic makes it clear that the UIL’s true goal is total control of our 5,400-member officiating system that has proudly and effectively served the student athletes, parents, fans and school district of Texas for more than 75 years.

The leadership of TASO is fully committed to resisting any type of work stoppage or boycott that would disrupt the football playoff schedule. Our first responsibility is to the student athletes and these games mean too much to them to be put in jeopardy.

TASO officials are more than willing to work the football playoff games – just as we have for decades, if the UIL will only allow us to do so. The UIL lockout of veteran officials threatens the stability of the system and could easily ruin the season for thousands of Texas’ hardest working student athletes.

I urge you not to allow anyone to coerce you into registering with the UIL until the TASO leadership has an opportunity to discuss this further with the UIL. The UIL needs TASO officials more than we need the UIL and this point will be clearly demonstrated if our membership stays strong to our organization.

In the meantime, please contact your superintendent, state senator and representative, school board members and the Texas education commissioner and voice your support for TASO.

This is to update you on recent events regarding TASO and the UIL. As most of you know, the UIL has, for several months, been engaged in a tenacious effort to get TASO chapters, first in basketball but now in all sports, to leave TASO and join the UIL. The UIL claims that it began registering officials not to destroy TASO, but to provide an alternative for school administrators and officials who are dissatisfied with TASO. It further asserts that it was necessary to take control of officiating because TASO lacks adequate procedures to assure the accountability of officials and because some TASO chapters have pressured school districts to pay more than is allowed by the pay scale in section 1204 of the UIL Constitution & Contest rules.

The TASO leadership has strongly resisted this takeover effort on numerous grounds. First, TASO is best suited to deal with matters pertaining to officiating, including their training and testing and the many logistical issues that arise daily. The quality of officiating will suffer if the UIL takeover succeeds, and this will harm sports and student-athletes, which must be the primary consideration. Second, if TASO disappears, which could happen if the takeover succeeds, officials would lose their only independent spokesperson. The UIL, which answers to school administrators, will not be an advocate for officials. Third, there are accountability procedures in place, and we can document instances in which they have been applied. Fourth, while there may have been instances in which chapters insisted on higher fees than section 1204 permits, careful scrutiny and oversight can prevent this from happening again.

Section 1204 provides that UIL-member schools may use officials registered with TASO or the UIL in varsity games. On October 26, despite protests from TASO representatives, the UIL Legislative Council approved an amendment to section 1204 that will, if approved by the Commissioner of Education, require officials, effective in 2010/2011, to register with the UIL to receive varsity and playoff assignments. Under this amendment, according to the UIL Executive Director, officials may register with TASO as long as they register with the UIL; he knows, however, that there would be little incentive to do so, which would result in TASO withering away. The Executive Director has also noted that the amendment only deals with varsity assignments; so, if TASO remains, its members would handle sub-varsity assignments. As you know, however, most contracts with school districts call for chapters to work varsity and sub-varsity games, so something would have to give in this area. In sum, under the amendment to 1204, the UIL would get officials’ dues and its officials would work playoff and varsity games; TASO would handle sub-varsity assignments and the day-to-day work involved in dealing with officials. What a nice arrangement for everyone.

At the Council meeting, TASO representatives protested the strong-arm tactics that UIL staff members have used to get TASO chapters to defect. Among other things, chapters have been told that UIL-registered officials will get preferential treatment at playoff time and athletic directors have been threatened with game forfeitures if they use TASO officials, even though section 1204 permits this. We also noted that the tenacity of the takeover effort – which several athletic directors have said they are disgusted with – undermines the Executive Director’s claim that he only wanted to provide an option for people dissatisfied with TASO. Someone who merely wants to afford an alternative would not resort to the tactics that the UIL Officiating Director has been using. Finally, we noted that most of the chapters that have left said they did so only because of the lure of preferential treatment and the fear of retribution by the UIL if they did not defect.

The defection of some chapters has raised legal issues and two lawsuits are now proceeding, because the chapters turned over to the UIL dues, computers, databases, and personal member information belonging to TASO. This raises intellectual property, privacy, and theft issues, among other things.

In the last week, several chapters and TASO members have said they will not join the UIL even if section 1204 is amended. Protest petitions are circulating. State legislators have written to the Education Commissioner to protest the amendment and the solicitation tactics that UIL staff members have used. It has also been noted that the Council action appears to have violated the Open Meetings Act, because no public notice of any action regarding section 1204 was given, as well as section 331 of the UIL C & CR, which requires “major” actions to be submitted to a vote of the school districts. It is beyond question that a decision affecting all school districts and roughly 15,000 officials is major. All of this has also been brought to the attention of the University of Texas, which oversees the UIL, and its Vice President in charge of the UIL has expressed her intent to launch an investigation this week.

I realize there may be a temptation to go where the game assignments are. Some TASO members may say it doesn’t matter if they register with TASO or the UIL if they get varsity games and are eligible for playoffs. But it does matter – very much. If you think that officials’ pay, conditions, etc., are not what they should be, consider that what we have is the product of negotiations between the UIL and TASO. Do you think that without TASO we would be where we are now, or that school administrators will open their pocketbooks any more than they have to in order to get people to work their games?

To anyone who thinks it doesn’t matter ifr TASO continues to exist, I wish you had been at the Council meeting. The Council is comprised of school superintendents. After our representatives’ comments, they talked about how TASO wants more money than their strapped budgets can afford, doesn’t want to abide by the pay scale in section 1204, etc. In the meeting of the Athletic Committee, comments were made about how it is high time the UIL got a handle on officials because we always want too much and have threatened walkouts if we don’t get our way. Given comments like these, it doesn’t take much imagination to figure out how eager administrators will be to adhere to existing pay scales, much less increase pay and improve other conditions for officials in the future, if the UIL takes over officiating. Indeed, the Athletic Committee voted unanimously to approve the amendment to 1204 and the Council did the same thing the next day without a question or even a comment.

Then there is the matter of training. It is clear from comments made by the UIL Officiating Director that as long as they get dues from officials, they won’t care about the quality of the product they put on the field. In fact, the TASO leadership believes that one of the main motives behind the takeover is to get the money that officials now pay to TASO. It is has also been reported that the UIL Executive Director has guaranteed the delivery of thousands of Texas officials to the National Federation of High Schools – specifically, football officials who now operate under NCAA rules – presumably to make himself a more powerful player in that organization. Thus, if the UIL takeover succeeds, it is reasonable to expect that an effort will be made to force football to use Federation rules. These are only some of the negative effects that will occur if the amendment to 1204 is finally approved.

All officials need to take a strong stand in opposition to this UIL takeover and the amendment to 1204. School administrators, athletic directors, and coaches – who, when they become aware of the UIL takeover, have strongly opposed it and expressed their desire to stay with TASO – will not be happy if there is no one to officiate their games because the local chapter refused to come under UIL control. If it appears that this will happen on a large scale, the mischief done last week could be undone, and we could return to the relationship we had before the current UIL Executive Director took over. That involved the UIL doing what it does best and leaving officiating issues to TASO, which is best equipped to handle them.

TASO boards, officers, and members have not always done everything perfectly. We are now seeking a permanent director, however, and under the current and new leadership a strong effort will be made to fix whatever is broken. But the organization must continue. It is the best equipped when it comes to training officials and to handling the issues involving them, and it affords officials their only chance to have an entity speak up on their behalf. It best serves the interests of everyone involved in Texas school sports.

I hope that all chapters in all sports will join the chapters that have already done so and express their desire to stay with TASO. That is the only way to make a strong enough statement that the amendment to 1204 might be rejected and things will be allowed to continue as they have. Ensuring that the UIL effort fails, and that TASO continues as a healthy and even stronger organization, is the best way to promote the interests of everyone who participates in Texas sports.