Tips to Help Academic Meets Run Smoothly
By Treva Dayton | Wednesday, February 10, 2010 11:46 AM
February is flying by, and we’ve already passed the deadline for setting up academic and One-Act Play district meets. Although we are still dealing with a few instances of incorrect information, meets are now posted on the UIL Web site. Contact information for regional hosts is also available online, and we will post links to the regional handbooks in the near future. Regional academic meets are April 22-24, with almost all academic events except OAP being held on April 24 and/or 25.
Setting Up the Academic District Meet
Academic district directors or meet hosts have already entered meet information in the online system, but some have failed to click the correct ‘Status of the Meet’ link from the pull-down menu on the meet setup page. ‘This meet is closed to schools and public’ is the default setting, which you would use before you are ready for schools to use the entry process. However, meet directors must change the status to ‘schools may enter contestants in the meet’ to allow academic coordinators to enter students in events.
Academic coordinators don’t need to be in a rush to enter contestants, though. You can’t know the eligibility status of students this far in advance, and hopefully there are still opportunities ahead through invitational meets or intra-school practices for those still striving to make the ‘team’ to show how much they have improved.
Speech and Journalism are listed as ‘events’ because team points are combined from several contests. Enter the same date and time as the first journalism events.
The same is true for the subjects in the science contest. Use the same date and time as the science contest. Biology, chemistry and physics are included in the system as sub-events so that both the top scorer and the second-place scorer in each subject can be correctly identified by the computer, should an alternate need to be notified. The results for each contestant will be entered by subject (as they have always been graded), and the system will total the points for overall place in the science contest for both individuals and teams.
When your entry deadline has passed, meet directors should change the status to ‘meet schedule is posted and available for review.’ Additional entries would be considered late entries. Any substitutions after that date could not be entered by competing schools and would need to be sent to the district academic director, but the public could still view the schedule.
Entering Contestants
Academic coordinators entering their school’s contestants need a UT EID but do not need to be authorized by our office. Be careful to type students’ names correctly. Use upper and lower case, and enter last name first, followed by first name. Proof for correct spelling. Unless a student actually prefers initials to a name, don’t use initials. Whenever possible, enter substitutes in each event. They will appear on the contest roster as eligible to compete if a replacement is needed.
After Results Are Official
Once events have been verified and official results announced, the meet director or district chair must change the status of the meet to ‘Meet results are posted and available for review’ so they can be seen by the public. If you forget this step, expect lots of phone calls.
The wild card team is the best second-place team score in the region. Not all second place teams advance. Only the team with the highest score among all of the second place teams in the region in team events will advance to the region meet.
Districts must post results online by 5 p.m. of the Monday following the second district week. By the Tuesday following the second district week, the UIL will post a list of tentative wild card entries to region. After schools have a chance to ‘verify’ that our unofficial wildcard teams are correctly indentified, and they are announced as official, no changes will be made. The final list will be posted no later than Thursday after the second district week.
Wild card qualifiers will not be notified directly. All coordinators should check the posting, even if you think it’s a long shot. Your team’s second place score may be better than you realize.
Here’s hoping you have a smooth and successful academic spring meet!