The startup of the UIL season began November 4  at the practice meet hosted by Lindale High School. Teams in the area competed in various events including speech and debate, journalism, computer science, current events, literary criticism, social studies, ready writing, science, number sense, calculator applications and mathematics.

“I think the way our students have responded over the past couple years and going to state have been good motivation for this year,” UIL coordinator Rory McKenzie said. “We benefit so much from UIL because our administrators care so much.”

Lindale won 14 team awards at the meet, kicking off the beginning of an exciting season. These meets take place mostly on weekends to give coaches and team members insight as to how they measure up to other teams in the area and how they can improve their skills.

“The key is having smart and self-motivated students,” UIL science coach Duane Walton said. “The schools that excel in the academic events often have one class period every day where they work on their UIL event similar to our speech and debate students here. That is a major factor in their success.”

Teams coordinate practice times and attend practice meets to prepare for the UIL district competition in March in hopes of advancing to the regional and state competitions. The school district also allows coaches to plan UIL pull-out days that take place during school hours so that teams gain sufficient practice time and preparation.

“Several UIL events are very beneficial to academics at this school,” junior Brina Kuslak said. “UIL science is more beneficial to me due to the fact that I am currently taking AP Physics and AP Chemistry. Mr. Walton has supplied us with practice problems and basically course outlines for all these subjects, and UIL Science helps me maintain high grades in my science classes and prepares me for future ones.”