Texas Homeschoolers Showcase Athletic Endeavors

By Bob Herman

In a country with nearly 14 million high school students, homeschoolers may not receive the same attention as other high school students due to their small number. But that number is growing.

According to a 1999 National Center for Education Statistics study, there were approximately 235,000 homeschooled high school students in the United States (about 1.7 percent of all high school students at the time). In the 2003 study, the figure increased to 315,000 homeschooled high school students (about 2.2 percent of all high school students at the time).

What gets lost in the shuffle is how these students are still able to participate in high school athletics if they don't actually attend a high school.

In the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas, however, a volunteer athletics association has helped local homeschooled kids have those athletic opportunities.

The Home School Athletic Association (HSAA) was formed in 1995 when a small group of home school fathers and their sons fielded a junior high recreational league baseball team and scheduled a few games against area private schools.

"The biggest problem was gaining credibility with the community," HSAA Vice President Tim Day said. "Without the cooperation of schools to play, we are no more than a recreational sports program. Even today, we guard our reputation with the utmost care by ensuring that we operate with integrity, class and consideration for our opponents."

HSAA President David Sileven and Day explained that the Christian-based HSAA is led by a volunteer, nine-member Board of Directors and serves about 250 local, homeschooled athletes in basketball, baseball, football, soccer and volleyball at the high school and middle school levels. A volunteer commissioner for each sport also selects the coaches, organizes the teams, sets the budget and oversees the day-to-day operations of each sport.

"Our organization has been experiencing a 15-percent annual growth in numbers of athletes and volunteers," Day said. "We are constantly being asked to add sports. Our goal is to add no more than one sport per year."

One of the HSAA's fastest-growing sports is football, which is now in its second year. The team finished the fall season with a 5-5 record.

Boys and girls basketball are more popular from a participation angle, but Sileven and Day explained that football takes the cake when it comes to filling up the bleachers and uniting parents and fans.

"Our football program really has been a magnet that has pulled our association together," Sileven said.

Because football programs involve a large number of players and coaches as well as the equipment and necessary money to back it all up, the HSAA administrators realized it was the toughest sport to organize.

"To have a quality football program requires a group of competent, dedicated coaches to effectively manage a large group of players and teach the proper fundamentals," Day said. "Once the program is established, though, it is fairly easy to find players eager to play."

The high school sports player fees range from $300 to $650 per player per season, and availability of practice and game facilities has presented some challenges since affordable and quality sites are hard to find.

"For the outdoor sports, we use city parks and sometimes rent from private schools," Day said. "For the indoor sports, we rent from recreation centers, churches and private training facilities.

"The public-school facilities are taxpayer-funded. All taxpayers should have some access, within reason, to those facilities, including homeschool sports teams."

The state of Texas has a restriction that no homeschooled students can play for the public school they potentially could attend, which is a big reason why the HSAA was created. This is not a universal mandate or a universally agreed-upon opinion, but the HSAA actually endorses that position.

"Our position is that each school team, whether public or private, should represent only the students who attend that particular school," Day said. "Because homeschooled students do not attend the public school, they should not be given the privilege to play for that school's team. We do not allow public school students to play for HSAA sports teams."

In the end, homeschooled students still make up a small percentage of the total high school population. Non-club sport athletics are hard to come by, but the HSAA has offered its outlet for more than a decade. It has even aided in the creation of new homeschool sport organizations in the North Texas area.

Both the HSAA administrators and the volunteer parents look forward to the association's long-term success, which particularly relies on the volunteers' continued efforts.

"Fortunately, we have an organizational structure in place that allows for growth and doesn't depend upon just a few individuals to make it work," Day said. "Most homeschool parents are very hands-on and want to help. It is the volunteers who will keep this organization solvent and growing."

Bob Herman was a fall semester intern in the NFHS Publications/Communications Department. He is a junior at Butler (Indiana) University, majoring in journalism (news editorial) and minoring in Spanish.