Sharyland marching bands reprimanded for UIL violations

After the UIL Area Marching Band Contest last weekend, the UIL Region 15 Executive Committee held an emergency meeting Tuesday to discuss allegations brought by Brownsville ISD toward Sharyland ISD high school bands for violating UIL practice rules, which resulted in a reprimand.

The 5A Area G Marching Band Contest was held at Tiger Stadium in Mercedes on Saturday.

Of 25 teams competing, only five bands were selected to advance to the state competition. Those five bands in order were Roma High, Sharyland Pioneer, Brownsville Lopez, Sharyland High and Rio Grande City High.

UIL Executive Secretary Ruben Adame held the emergency meeting via Zoom which instantly attracted just under 500 people to view it.

Both school districts were given 10 minutes to share their information to the committee for their case with about 10 minutes afterwards for the committee members to ask questions. After, the committee would go into executive session to discuss and go back into open session with a decision.

Executive Committee Chair Guillermo Pro said the purpose of the meeting was to address two specific allegations against two Sharyland bands.

One was that the two bands passed or exceeded the allotted time for practice during school and second was that the bands had used the facility that was the site for the area competition before the contest, which is believed to give the bands an unfair advantage.

Mary Solis, principal at Porter Early College High represented BISD. Sharyland ISD Superintendent Elaine Howard represented both high schools.

“I have reason to believe that based on the evidence that was presented to me, that two competing high school area bands were in violation of the limits on practice and performance,” Solis said.

Solis started by going over UIL practice policies. The policy stated that practice is limited to one hour during the school day and that students may not be permitted to miss an academic class to practice. She claimed both marching bands were pulled out of class and exceeded practice times to travel to Tiger Stadium.

Solis then mentions an anonymous report showing the Sharyland band trailer at the contest stadium on Oct. 22. Providing pictures and timestamps, it showed the trailer in the parking lot next to the stadium.

“We are seeking enhanced penalty factors due to intent and harm,” she said. “In cases where category A violation is found to be deliberate and have been provided competitive advantage to the violator, the penalty for a Category A violation may be enhanced, and an enhanced penalty for such violators may include forfeiture of a contest disqualification, reasonable conditions and/or position of a probation period of up to three years.”

Howard started by stating she was only made aware of the situation at 4 p.m. that day and did not have as much time as Solis to prepare.

“I respect their right to make this petition,” she said after the meeting. “I disagree strongly with their request to ask for an elevated consequence of banning our students from performing at State. I do believe that this was a last ditch effort to try to have our students removed from the state competition.”

Howard stated that the band practice did not exceed 90 minutes but time used to travel did impede upon the portion of the students instructional day. Upon becoming aware of the concerns, Howard initiated a formal internal investigation which includes reviewing band practice schedules and district procedures.

“Sharyland ISD accepts full responsibility for the violation and asks that disciplinary action be limited to a reprimand so as not to unfairly penalize our students,” she said. “On behalf of our school district and our over 200 students participating in these activities, I do not believe it is appropriate to impugn our students for actions that they have no control over.”

Having time for questions after, Pro asked both representatives if having Sharyland bands go to Mercedes to practice gave them an unfair advantage?

Howard said no and that the band were already in possession of the advantage because of the skills that they had in preparation for the competition.

“We were bombdiggity before all of this started, and we will be bombdiggity afterwards,” she said after the meeting. “We have some of the most amazing programs and amazing talented students in this state, so I’m not worried about anything about it being an unfair advantage.”

Solis said yes, that it was a clear advantage and that everybody else was at a disadvantage for not practicing at the stadium.

After some technical difficulties, the executive committee came out of closed session with no votes taken, but a motion to reprimand the two Sharyland bands for UIL rule violations passed.

“As per UIL rules, after a contest has been decided, we cannot change the results or the outcome of that contest,” Pro said.

The almost 500 people viewing the meeting blew up the Zoom chat with their disagreement.

“I absolutely respect their decision, though I want to just remain steadfast that I don’t believe that we have broken any laws or rules,” Howard said after the meeting. “I will implement and execute any changes necessary to bring our programs into alignment with their expectations.”

At the end of the meeting, Solis asked for guidance to request an emergency meeting at the state level.

The state marching band contest for 5A bands is scheduled for Nov 4 at the Alamodome in San Antonio.