Most high school UIL coaches are also core class teachers, meaning their time and focus is divided. Most of the UIL groups do not get much practice time at school outside of invitationals because time simply doesn’t allow it, and they don’t have allocated UIL classes.
UIL Academics needs more practice time during school hours than the rushed and often-interrupted academic period and the virtual meets which cause students to miss class.
The speech and debate group and journalism have dedicated classes to learning and practicing their events, whereas events that are science, math or English related don’t get specific study practice or time. Part of the reason journalism and speech and debate advance to state often is because they receive year-round daily practice. Speech and debate can prepare their cases, debate each other and receive feedback on their speeches. Journalism writes for the newspaper with weekly stories. If core class teachers also had a dedicated class to the events they coach, more teams or individual competitors could advance to state. A successful school in UIL Academics, Salado, has a class period for UIL Academic. For the benefit of the competitors and teachers, LHS should implement a class period for students in UIL.
Additionally, opening up a few UIL dedicated classes for students to put on their schedules may allow for better outreach to students, especially the younger ones, who are genuinely interested about what UIL events are offered. Boosting curiosity and accessibility will allow for these groups to receive dedicated, passionate competitors which makes their chances of advancing better. Sometimes, people forget about events that are not heavily advertised to them such as calculator events. If the school is unwilling to allocate class periods to UIL, then they should make UIL more advertised and marketed toward students during class meetings and orientations. The school and coaches should actively communicate, support and connect with students to emphasize student engagement.
Lastly, UIL coaches are sometimes sponsors to clubs and teach On-Ramps and AP classes, and students deal with extracurricular activities and jobs after school. Therefore, it would be easier for students to spend their school time practicing without interrupting a teacher’s class to practice, being overwhelmed with having to arrange their schedule accordingly for afterschool practice or only getting a small amount of time to practice during academic period. It would lighten the load on teachers who coach UIL, sponsor clubs and teach rigorous AP or On-Ramps courses to have allocated time built into their work day to help students. To add to that, it would make it so students who participate in the virtual meets aren’t missing class or lunch to finish up contests. Having school time to practice for UIL will alleviate stress on students and teacher’s schedules.
The school should allow students and teachers more time to practice for UIL during school hours to alleviate stress on schedules, become advanced in their events and to engage the competitors. Allowing for students to hone their skills and focus will get more students advancing past district competitions.
