Prep Eligibility Rule Creates Texas-Sized Controversy

Friday nights in Marathon, Tex., aren’t the same now that the football season has ended prematurely at the hands of the town’s high school teachers.

Half the members of the football team in the West Texas community of 800 failed at least one class, making them ineligible to play for the next six weeks under the state’s no pass, no play rule.

The legality of the statute may ultimately be determined by the U.S. Supreme Court. For now though, controversy is raging in this state obsessed with prep football.

“It really hurts this town,” Gary Lamar, Marathon High School coach, said. “This is a football town. That’s all they have here.”

The rule, passed during a special legislative session last summer, bars students from participating in extracurricular activities for six weeks if they have failed a class in the preceding six-week grading period.

The activities aren’t limited to the playing field. In Dallas, the H. Grady Spruce High School Apache Marching Band abandoned all plans of marching during halftime after 26 of 48 band members failed at least one class.

“I had eight trumpet players before,” Don Patmon, band director, said. “I have one now.”

The remaining 22 members, dubbed the “The A Team,” now assemble in front of the drill team each game and play a single tune.

Statewide, the rule benched 15% of high school varsity football players, according to the Texas High School Coaches Assn., the only group that monitors the failing rates of football players.

Failure rates among non-varsity players were higher, about 25% in the junior varsity and 38% for younger players, the coaches’ group said.

Earlier this summer, State District Judge Marsha Anthony of Houston threw out the no pass, no play provisions, but her decision was overturned by the Texas Supreme Court. An appeal of the state high court ruling is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Anthony refused to grant an injunction Wednesday requested by attorney Anthony Sheppard that would have barred schools from enforcing the rule until the federal court decides its constitutionality.

The judge set a Nov. 18 trial date, however, to hear testimony on the merits of the case, which now is a class action suit involving Texas’ 1,100 school districts.

Sheppard contends the rule “impinges on the fundamental rights of students.”

“It affects more than sports,” he says. “We do not think regulation of extracurricular activities is a compelling state interest.”

But Gov. Mark White, who appointed the panel that suggested the rule, disagrees, saying Texans should put academics before athletics.

“There is more at stake here . . . than a district football championship,” White said. “What is at stake are jobs for those young men and women when they get out of school. The real issue is going to be no learn, no earn.”

Within the Houston Independent School District, Texas’ largest, 637 of 2,771 athletes were removed from the rosters, including 416 of 1,371 non-varsity football players. Already, four Houston schools have scrapped freshman football schedules.

In the San Antonio area, 790 athletes cannot play because they failed at least one class.

John Kincaide, athletic director for the Dallas Independent School District, said 123 of 765 varsity football players were declared ineligible.

Schools in Texas’ Panhandle fared better, with 40 of 101 schools not losing a varsity football player and 30 losing only one, officials said.

Some students now are taking easier courses to guarantee passing and circumvent the rule.

“They have figured the game out,” says Jack Green, an assistant band director at Spring Woods High in Houston.