List of University Interscholastic League events

The University Interscholastic League, the main governing body for academic, athletic, and music competition among Texas public schools, sanctions many events for students in grades 2-12.

In addition to individual and team awards in the separate contest events, schools are also eligible to win an overall district academic championship award and/or an overall district spring meet sweepstakes award (the latter combines the results of the academic events with the results of singles tennis, doubles tennis, mixed doubles tennis, individual track and field events, relay track events, and team golf). Generally, points are awarded to each school for individuals placing first through sixth place and for teams placing first or second, plus additional points for certain academic contests. Overall academic championship awards are also given at the regional and state level using the same point system.

Schools also compete for the Lone Star Cup, which is awarded to one school state-wide in each conference. Points for the Lone Star Cup are awarded in a different manner than for the academic or spring meet championship awards described above and include results of state-level academic, athletic, and music competitions.

For fine arts and journalism contests, the UIL has not adopted an "amateur rule.” Thus, students who have acted or performed music professionally or who have written for a local newspaper may still compete in UIL-sanctioned contests provided they are otherwise eligible.

Academic Events

High School

Academic events at the high school level are held in the spring. Advancement is from district to region to state except in Cross-Examination Team Debate, where advancement is directly from district to state, and in One-Act Play, where advancement is from district to area to region to state. Furthermore, districts with eight or more competing schools may hold “zone” competitions in One-Act Play in order to select schools to advance to the district level. There is no division of competition by grade level in high school academic events; all students in grades 9-12 that compete in a particular event compete against each other.

Events below are for individual competition only unless a team component is specifically noted. Sanctioned high school academic events are:
*Accounting (team and individual)
*Calculator Applications (team and individual)
*Computer Applications
*Computer Science (team and individual)
*Current Issues and Events (team and individual)
*Literary Criticism (team and individual)
*Mathematics (team and individual)
*Number Sense (team and individual)
*Ready Writing
*Science (team and individual)
*Social Studies (team and individual)
*Spelling and Vocabulary (team and individual)
*Speech (award given to the top overall school in speech events; does not qualify students for advancement beyond the results of each included event)
**Cross-Examination Team Debate
**Lincoln-Douglas Debate
**Extemporaneous Informative Speaking
**Extemporaneous Persuasive Speaking
**Poetry Interpretation
**Prose Interpretation
*Journalism (award given to the top overall school in journalism events; does not qualify students for advancement beyond the results of each included event)
**Editorial Writing
**Feature Writing
**Headline Writing
**News Writing
*One Act Play (team plus individual awards that do not lead to advancement)

Discontinued academic events include:
*Keyboarding (replaced Typing, replaced by Computer Applications)
*Shorthand
*Slide Rule (replaced by Calculator Applications)
*Typing (replaced by Keyboarding)

Elementary and Junior High

Elementary and junior high school district academic meets may be held in either the fall or the spring, but not both. Elementary and junior high students competing in academic events cannot advance beyond the district level. Within each event students compete against other students of their own grade level, though rules do allow students to compete against older students if they wish. Each event is offered for different grade levels as noted.

Sanctioned elementary and junior high school academic events are:
*Art (grades 4-8)
*Calculator Applications (grades 6-8)
*Creative Writing (grade 2)
*Dictionary Skills (grades 5-8)
*Editorial Writing (grades 7-8)
*Impromptu Speaking (grades 7-8)
*Listening (grades 5-8)
*Maps, Graphs & Charts (grades 5-8)
*Mathematics (grades 6-8)
*Modern Oratory (grades 7-8)
*Music Memory (grades 3-6)
*Number Sense (grades 4-8)
*One-Act Play (grades 6-8)
*Oral Reading (grades 4-9)
*Ready Writing (grades 3-8)
*Science I and II (grades 7-8)
*Social Studies (grades 5-8)
*Spelling (grades 3-8)
*Storytelling (grades 2-3)

Athletic Events

UIL athletic competition is held in grades 7-12.

At the junior high level (grades 7-8), there is no athletic competition beyond the district level. Sixth grade students may only compete in athletics if they will be too old the following year to compete on a seventh grade team or if a junior high school has too few seventh and eighth grade students to field a combined team. With only a few exceptions due to disability, sixth graders are not allowed to compete in individual sports.

High school students compete at freshman, junior varsity, and varsity levels, with only varsity teams being eligible for advancement to the playoffs beyond the district level. Students may only compete at the high school varsity level for four years and must be under the age of 19, though the age restriction may be waived by state-level officers in certain circumstances. In addition, varsity athletes must adhere to a whole host of other rules that encompass parent residence, amateur status, non-recruitment, and steroid testing.

Sanctioned sports are:
*Baseball (co-ed, though traditionally for boys)
*Basketball (boys’ and girls’)
*Cross Country (boys’ and girls’, team and individual)
*Football (co-ed, though traditionally for boys)
*Six-Man Football (co-ed, though traditionally for boys; only available for the smallest of Conference A schools)
*Golf (boys’ and girls’, team and individual)
*Soccer (boys’ and girls’)
*Softball (girls’ only)
*Swimming (boys’ and girls’, team and individual)
*Tennis (boys’ and girls’; team, singles, and doubles)
*Track and Field (boys’ and girls’, team and individual)
*Volleyball (girls’ only)
*Wrestling (boys’ and girls’, individual only)

In schools that offer only boys’ basketball and/or boy’s soccer with no corresponding girls’ teams, girls may participate on the boys’ teams. Girls may also participate in baseball but may not compete in both baseball and softball in the same season.

Football and volleyball are held during the fall semester. Basketball overlaps both fall and spring semesters. Baseball and softball are held during the spring semester, but the playoffs will overlap into the summer. All other sports are held during the spring semester.

Advancement for football, volleyball, basketball, soccer, baseball, and softball is from district to bi-district to area to region to state semi-final to state final. Advancement for all other sports is from district to region to state.

Music Events

The basic geographic groupings for music competitions are called “regions” instead of districts. Unlike districts, which only contain schools of a single conference, music regions contain schools of all sizes. This is because most music competitions award ratings to schools and students based on their individual performances instead of ranking schools or students against one another, so it is not necessary to hold separate contests for the different conferences. The exception is in marching band. For advancement purposes, the 28 regions are grouped into five to seven “areas.” In odd-numbered years, schools in Conferences A, AA, and AAAA may advance from region to area depending on their rating at the region competition, and in even-numbered years schools in Conferences AAA and AAAAA may advance. At the area competition, bands are ranked against the other bands in their own conferences and the top bands from each area in each conference advance to the state competition.

Sanctioned music events are:
*Marching Band
*Solo-Small Ensemble Performance (for band, orchestra, choir, and twirling)
*Medium Ensemble Performance (for band, orchestra, and choir)
*Concert Performance (for band, orchestra, and choir)
*Sightreading (for band, orchestra, and choir)
*Music Theory

Marching band contests are held annually in each region in the fall, and all other music contests except Music Theory are held in each region annually in the spring. Marching Band, Concert Performance, and Sight Reading are open to both high school and junior high school groups, though junior high schools cannot advance beyond the region level in Marching Band. Solo and ensemble competition is only offered at the high school level, but seventh and eighth grade students may compete in ensembles provided that a majority of the ensemble members are in grades 9-12.

Students who earn the highest rating at the region Solo-Small Ensemble contest may advance to the Texas State Solo & Ensemble Contest. The Music Theory competition is held only in conjunction with this state level event; thus, advancement from the region level is not required to compete in Music Theory. There is no competition beyond the region level for Concert Performance, Sightreading, or Medium Ensemble Performance.

External links

* [http://www.uil.utexas.edu/policy/constitution/academics/07_08sec900_902.pdf UIL District Meet Rules]