Solid First Day for UIL’s New Athletic Director

On his first official day on the job, Ray Zepeda, the newly appointed Director of Athletics for the University Interscholastic League (UIL), addressed a crowd of Athletic Directors and Administrators at the 52nd Annual Texas High School Athletic Directors Association (THSADA) conference, He was introduced by Executive Director Dr. Charles Breithaupt and Deputy Director Dr. Jamey Harrison, who made it clear they were excited about him joining the UIL staff and mentioned that Zepeda has been working for several months, although his official term began on June 12th. He will oversee the UIL athletic department, administer athletic activities for UIL member schools and work with stakeholders to promote interscholastic athletics across Texas.

In his talk, Zepeda made it clear how pleased he was to have the opportunity "to serve the coaches, athletic administrators and student-athletes."  He was quick to announce that Grace McDowell from Frisco ISD would be joining the staff as Assistant Athletic Director for the UIL. He also gave props to Dr. Susan Elza saying she did a fantastic job and that he would pick up where she left off and try to improve upon it.

He made a promise that he repeated a couple times during the talk saying he would provide Collaboration, Communication, and Consistency and then explained how he would accomplish that.  He expressed the importance of utilizing the Previous Athletic Participation Form (PAPF), learning and following the District Executive Committee (DEC) process as well as the safety training provided by UIL within the Coaches Certification Program (CCP).

Zepeda went on to encourage directors on the importance of using Game Administrators at every level - not just the varsity level required by regulation.  The thinking is that if you train participants on proper behavior from the very early levels, there will be far less issues come up.

Another important area of focus for Zepeda that he acknowledged was not an official part of the UIL's mission, but certainly "has everything to do with us" was to encourage the hiring of "great coaches." He admitted they were "so hard to find" but encouraged them to "as difficult as it is to not settle for the average coach, go get the great one."

He even closed with a statement to "honor Dr. Elza" by saying, one and only one, curse word... "we're gonna work our ass off for you!" The applause was only interrupted when Zepeda added, "if we're not improving then you need to hold us accountable because the only reason I was interested in this position was to be in service to you guys - because we know how important your jobs are!"

Chris Doelle