I won't speak for Ornery - nor would I want to - he gives those of us who support the UIL a bad name. But I will give my reasons for supporting UIL for whatever they are worth. These are only my opinions but they are shared by some - not all by a large shot - in my chapter:
1. It is my hope that the UIL will hold "problem" officials ACCOUNTABLE - yes, the "A" word. We have at least two officials in my chapter that are very poor at what they do - no one wants to work with them and they give the chapter and avocation a bad name - they have been removed from other sports officiating groups yet my chapter is scared to do anything to them because they are minorities. It is a travesty they are still allowed to officiate football. I think UIL will have the guts to address such officials.
2. Training - it has been non-existent with TASO in years gone by. Our chapter trainers have had to beg, borrow and steal (mostly from this site) to come up with training material. Until TASO had their backs against the wall on this issue, they had nothing. It is my belief that training will improve a great deal under UIL - my basis for this belief is that it can't be any worse.
3. Oversee better allocation of playoff games. It is the "perception" that the big 3 chapters in Texas get anything they want - the smaller chapter get leftovers or a few games thrown their way to appease the crowd. My chapter got great games this year - AFTER this mess hit the fan and TASO realized there were other chapters in the state and they were not happy.
4. The Superintendents and AD's want a change - not all - but in my personal opinion, a majority. Regardless of what we think - it is their schools, their programs and their money. If we had taken care of business (TASO) in years gone by, we wouldn't be in this position. I still say go back and read TASO related posts prior to the lawsuits and UIL registration stuff - many of you who support TASO were also very disgruntled with them. If it means we regain the support and respect of the Supe's and AD's - just to fill out a free UIL form - then I'm all for giving it a try.
5. Other sports that have given TASO a bad name - look at the mess in Tyler basketball - own members turning the chapter into the Texas Attorney General. Baseball threatening strike. Fill in the blanks. I'm not sure if TASO will ever recover in those areas of the state. I think we need to give another organization a chance to clean house.
6. Website - although very small in the scheme of things, the TASO website is a joke and most of you know it. Getting any info from this site is very difficult. I personally go to the Houston chapter site because it is exemplary. TASO can't even get membership cards out or update a website - how do we (I) expect them to better officiating? I'm willing to give UIL a chance.
Again - just my reasons.
You bring up very good points on why to go UIL. Throughout this whole ordeal no one has ever claimed that TASO does not have any problems. I just dont trust a state agency to fix the problems. Especially with a plan that no one has seen, that is different depending on who you talk to (supers, AD, Coaches, officials), and that did not include all stake holders in developing. Dialogue is a good thing in these matters so I will address every one of your concerns to the best of my ability.
1. Accountability. Yes that seems to be the big problem that coaches and AD's identify as being magically fixed with UIL. Here is my problem. By becoming a state agency the UIL will have more hoops to jump through to get rid of bad officials. They are state employees or registerees however you want to call them. There will be a documentation and an appeal process associated with getting rid of them. I do not know anything about your local chapter. If you do not have internal measures already in your chapter to get rid of bad officials then that is on your local chapter not TASO state not UIL.
2. Training. Another big fail by TASO state (has anyone seen any new huddle videos lately?
). Here is my problem with that one. 95% of the TASO big wigs that are capable of creating the training are staying with TASO. TASO owns all training books. Where will UIL get the material? The material will cost money. Where will they get that money....dues?
3. Better allocation of playoffs (for matters of disclosure I am in Houston). Yes Houston gets more games. As a percent of membership it is not that big of a difference. Houston has 750-800 members another chapter might have 150. Is it more then 600 percent of games? Houston also has 1.5 regions of 5A schools, and 1.5 regions of 4A schools that they service in the regular season. What TASO state could do is require every school or schools that request UIL officials to fill out a request online stating what they want and then make that information available to all local chapter leadership.
4. Yes they want change, Yes TASO historically especially in other sports has been lacking in communication. I dont think the UIL plan has any solvency and will create more problems.
5. An analogy for this one... If a school has 5 bad teachers out of 55 do you re-constitute the school. No you put systems in place to fix the 5 and get rid of them. TASO has no system. What are the UIL systems going to be?
They refuse to post them.
6. This is not a small problem but a huge problem. The new generation of official is very web savvy and TASO state does a horrible horrible job on their website. This hurts in recruiting and training. If it helps you any my Umpire runs the Houston website and he has offered to run TASO state to no response. However he refuses to run and UIL houston. Here is one for you how much cheaper would Zebra Ware be if it was run through the state?
Keep up the dialogue. Dialogue is good. Feel free to butcher any of my responses.
Coby Rhoden
Houston TASO Football (referee)
