Top changes to UIL under Charles Breithaupt

Charles Breaithaupt has seen growth — on and off the playing fields  — during his 50 years as a coach and administrator for Texas schools.

From advances in the health field to expansion of the high school football playoffs, the executive director of the University Interscholastic League has had his pulse on many key changes during his five decades in high school athletics.

Beithaupt’s final day with the UIL is Aug. 31. He became just the seventh executive director in the 100-year history of the UIL when his predecessor, Billy Farney, retired in 2009. Breithaupt also had a long tenure as a high school basketball coach, which included a state championship with Hardin-Jefferson in 1991.

Breithaupt sat down with the American-Statesman to discuss several milestone moments during his five decades with the UIL.

When Breithaupt played football for Buna High School nearly 60 years ago, only one team from each district in Texas made the playoffs. It reminded him of the traditionally-tough Atlantic Coast Conference basketball tournament. Duke, North Carolina and Maryland were always tough — their battles in the 1970s were legendary — but only the winner of the ACC Tournament received an NCAA Tournament bid.

Breithaupt recalled there was “a lot of controversy” when the UIL added a second playoff team in 1982. Oddly enough, Beaumont West Brook finished in second place in its district that year, but went on to win the Class 5A state title game, beating Hurst Bell 21-10 for the championship.

The UIL eventually expanded to three teams in the playoffs, but that idea didn’t last long because championships earned a first-round bye. Some coaches argued that their teams were rusty when they eventually played and the UIL eliminated that problem by expanding to four teams in 1998.

“This keeps everyone alive until the last game of the regular season,” Breithaupt said.

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Throughout the rich history of high school football in Texas, championship games have been held at first-rate venues across the state. Royal-Memorial Stadium in Austin and the Astrodome in Houston were fan favorites. And so were Floyd Casey Stadium in Waco, Kyle Field in College Station, the Alamodome in San Antonio, Bobcat Stadium in San Marcos, the Mustang Bowl in Sweetwater and Ratliff Stadium in Odessa, to name a few.

Breithaupt had a better idea. That all changed when every state championship, including six-man games, were switched to a single site. For the most part, those games have been played at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, home of the Dallas Cowboys, the past 12 years.

“Thinking out loud, we always said we need to play all of our championship games and treat them like it’s the World Series for everyone,” he recalled. “We want it to be the best play and the best place and the best time and the best value for our schools. A common site for football became a showcase but some coaches were against that early on. Now everyone wants to be part of it.”

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It didn’t take long for the idea to catch fire. In the Class 5A state championship in 2013, 54,347 fans were on hand to watch Allen defeat Pearland 63-28 at Jerry World.

“Even the six-man games were played at AT&T Stadium instead of San Angelo,” he said. “Nothing wrong the San Angelo but it’s not the showcase of AT&T Stadium.”

With approximately 170,000 high school students playing football in Texas, safety has always been a chief concern. Under Breithaupt’s watch, the UIL introduced a new branch to the UIL with the addition of a medical advisory committee in 2001.

Its purpose is to examine the health and safety of students involved in extracurricular activities. It works hand in hand with the UIL Legislative Council to address sports medicine issues as they impact rules and the health and safety of all participants.

Here are a few of the advances the medical advisory has addressed during the past 24 years:

2005: Implemented preseason practice regulations.

2010: Considered modification to concussion-management protocols based on emerging information.

2011: Restricted the length of practices during two-a-day preseason workouts.

2013: Required athletes to fill out sudden cardiac awareness forms.

2013: Placed limits on full-contact practices for football.

2018: Required coaches to have tackling certification for grades 7-12.

2019: Required schools to report catastrophic injuries that occur during practices or competition to the UIL.

2024: Required rapid cooling zones be present at any UIL contest or practice where the Web Bulb Globe Temperature is 80 degrees or above. (WBGT is a measure of heat stress in direct sunlight.)

“We divided (the medical advisory committee) into four different categories: the head, the heart, the heat and the medical history of the child,” Breithaupt said. “All those things were analyzed by medical doctors to see that we had our bases covered. They changed the physical examination form, they changed the medical history form just to make sure we had all the protocols right to cover everything.”

The medical advisory committee, led by Dr. Jesse DeLee, an orthopedic surgeon from San Antonio, doesn’t make rules, but it makes proposals to the Legislative Council, which is the rule-making body of the UIL. “There hasn’t been a time when the UIL hasn’t approved a medical advisory committee proposal,” Breithaupt said.

Rolling with the times, the UIL has implemented modern technology to make its job easier. It’s become a digital world and that applies to high school sports in Texas.

The most notable technological change is the way the UIL handles it biennial reclassification and realignment. It’s a massive task, considering the state has more than 1,500 public high schools and Texas is a state that contrasts large metropolitan areas with parts of the state that have wide-open spaces.

In 2024, the UIL paved the way for the use of in-game video tablet technology at high school football games. The premise is to allow technology in the coaches’ booths and locker rooms but not on the sideline. Teams are allowed to use video and data — including computers, tablets, iPads and smart phones — during the game and at halftime.

One of the fast-growing and popular sports for girls is softball, which had its first state tournament in 1993 at Pleasant Valley SportsPlex in Austin. For the record, Pasadena Dobie won the first softball championship, beating Tomball 1-0. As an added bonus, Kevin Costner put on a hitting exhibition against various pitchers at the ’93 state tournament. The only pitcher he couldn’t hit was Dobie’s Christa Williams, who would eventually become one of the greatest pitchers in Texas Longhorns history.

The tournament would eventually find a permanent home at McCombs Field on the UT campus, which opened in 1998 at a cost of $4.5 million. The first UIL state tournament there was in 2006.

As part of the UIL’s mission to keep student-athletes safe, Breithaupt said, concussion protocols for all sanctioned sports were introduced in 2011 as part of Texas House Bill 2038. Also known as “Natasha’s Law,” it mandates that all student-athletes receive a concussion acknowledgement form for athletes in grades 7-12.

The UIL contracts with a third-party company, the National Center for Drug-Free Sport, to administer the testing. Tests do not include detection for recreational drugs such as cocaine or marijuana.

A pilot program for high school water polo in Texas was created for the 2021-22 school year. It marked the first time the UIL added a sanctioned sport since wrestling made its debut for the 1998-99 school year.

As for the future, look out for the following sports to seek entry into the UIL: lacrosse and girls flag football.

Earlier this summer, representatives from the Texas Girls High School Lacrosse League and the Texas High School Lacrosse League will make its pitch to the UIL Legislative Council to make lacrosse a sanctioned sport. The issue was tabled. Currently there are 90 boys teams and 66 girls teams playing at the club level. It has been a club sport in Texas since 1989.

Also, there’s a push to make girls flag football a sanctioned UIL sport. The Cowboys recently got involved by creating flag football tournaments at 11 high school districts throughout the state, including the Austin Independent School District. Many of the participants in the Austin tournament said they believe the sport is overdue to be played in Texas. Flag football was tabled as well.

During a hot and muggy night in College Station, the heat proved to be unbearable for one member of the Westlake football team. It’s been 19 years since Chaparrals offensive tackle Matt Nader, who was a Texas pledge, went into cardiac arrest during a game at A&M Consolidated.

Thankfully, he was revived by some fast-acting trainers and emergency personnel who rushed to his aid. Nader’s life changed in an instant (he would never play football again) but the incident sparked a change that still resonates throughout public schools in Texas.

Dr. Paul Tucker, an Austin cardiologist, used an automated external defibrillator to shock Nader’s heart back into rhythm. Nader’s testimony at the state legislature helped make Texas the first state to require AEDs at high school sporting events. The UIL, meanwhile, would later decide to make defibrillators a requirement at all of the state’s public schools.

“Sudden cardiac death is one of the leading causes of death and is treatable,” Nader said. “I want to continue to raise awareness about the importance of quick action and the use of AEDs in public spaces. Ensuring people understand how to use these life-saving tools is key.”