Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools

The Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, or TAPPS, is an organization headquartered in the Lone Star Tower at Texas Motor Speedway Fort Worth, Texas.^[1][2] It creates rules for, and sometimes administers, almost all athletic and academic contests for non-public high schools in Texas. (Texas, unlike most states, has separate organizations for public and private schools, but public and private schools may schedule each other in competition.)

Activities range from football and other sports to academic and fine arts competitions.

As of 2012 TAPPS organizes competitions for over 200 private schools in Texas.^[3]

TAPPS was established in the 1970s in order to coordinate athletic competitions among Christian schools.^[3]

Controversies

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In 2010 Iman Academy Southwest, a Muslim school, submitted an application to join TAPPS. TAPPS responded by asking Iman to complete a questionnaire with questions like "Historically, there is nothing in the Koran that fully embraces Christianity or Judaism in the way a Christian and/or a Jew understands his religion. Why, then, are you interested in joining an association whose basic beliefs your religion condemns?" Iman Academy SW did not fill out the questionnaire and the attached application, and TAPPS denied Iman SW admission into the league. Iman SW did not appeal the decision.^[3]

In 2012 TAPPS came under harsh criticism after it refused to reschedule a semifinals basketball game scheduled for 9 p.m. on Friday March 2 despite the fact that Robert M. Beren Academy, an Orthodox Jewish school, asked that its players not play on Jewish Sabbath.^[4] The school had won the regional championship to advance for their first trip to the semi-finals.^[5] An appeal was made by Beren academy but denied by TAPPS under its bylaws set in the 1970s. TAPPS received legal pressure and pressure from Mayor Annise Parker of Houston as well as hundreds of letters.^[4] TAPPS eventually relented and allowed the game to be rescheduled under this pressure.^[3][6]

The controversies with Iman Academy Southwest and Robert M. Beren Academy drew much attention nationwide through the New York Times and caused many to call for a review of the association.^[7]

In 2015 a school within the Association (Lutheran High School North) caused controversy by discriminating against one of its students on the basis of orientation finally forcing this student to leave and creating a substantial amount of media coverage.^[8][9][10]

In 2015 the TAPPS Winter Division 1 Soccer State Championship Game was stopped by Trinity Christian Academy coaches and Athletic Director to protest a yellow card that was issued by the referee to a John Paul II player. The TCA AD left the field of play and met with the TAPPS Executive Director. They walked back to the JPII bench together and the TAPPS Executive Director issued an Administrative Red card to the player, over ruling the referee in charge of the game. This violates TAPPS section 134 "NO PROTESTS. A protest base on a game or contest official's decision will not be considered" and TAPPS section 27 "...may not protest a contest judge's / referee's or other official's decision". The cause of the controversy was that after scoring a goal to go up 1-0 with 32 minutes left in the game the player removed his jersey on the way to the bench and was issued a yellow card for this unsportsmanlike behavior. JPII was forced to play 10 v 11 for the remainder of the game and lost 1-2.^[11][12]

Groupings

Like the UIL, TAPPS aligns member schools into districts by geography and enrollment size for various contests. Each contest has a slightly different alignment based on the participating schools, but most follow the same basic framework. The districts are mostly decided behind closed doors by TAPPS every even year, and are an attempt to keep schools within a certain distance of their home town when attending competitions. Like the UIL, the districts are the first progression to the state championship.

Schools are further broken down with a letter classification to separate them from other schools of varying sizes. The purpose is ensure that schools compete only with others with similar size talent pools and resources. TAPPS's general classifications are 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, and 6A; unlike the UIL, whose official designations are strictly alphabetic, TAPPS officially uses alphanumeric designations for its classifications. The largest schools are classified as 6A, and the smallest are known as 1A. However, TAPPS uses different classification schemes in some other competitions (also by enrollment; lower numbers indicate lower enrollment unless otherwise indicated):

• Fine arts and academic competitions: Standard classifications, except that Classes 1A and 2A are split into one subgroup for music and another for other arts and academics (A similar combining occurs in baseball and softball).
• Football: Divisions I and II for six-man football; Divisions I, II, III, and IV for the 11-man game
• Soccer: Divisions I and II
• Swimming: Divisions I (Class 5A schools), II (Class 4A schools), and III (all smaller schools)
• Wrestling: A single classification, as only 13 TAPPS schools (as of 2005) sponsor that sport

TAPPS includes 8 other sports under the normal 1A through 6A alignments:

• Baseball
• Softball
• Cross Country
• Golf
• Softball
• Tennis
• Track and Field
• Volleyball

See also

• List of private schools in Texas

References

External links

• Official website
• 2018-2020 alignment