The Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, or TAPPS, is an organization headquartered in the Lone Star Tower at
Texas Motor Speedway
Texas Motor Speedway is a speedway located in the northernmost portion of the U.S. city of Fort Worth, Texas – the portion located in Denton County, Texas. The reconfigured track measures with banked 20° in turns 1 and 2 and banked 24 ...
Fort Worth
Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. Accord ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
. It was formerly headquartered at the Salado Civic Center in
Salado, Texas
Salado ( ) is a town in Bell County, Texas, United States. Salado was first incorporated in 1867 for the sole purpose of building a bridge across Salado Creek. In 2000, the citizens of Salado voted in favor of reincorporation, before which it was ...
.
Founded in 1978, TAPPS governs athletic, fine arts, and academic contests for the majority of non-public high schools in
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
.
As of 2021 TAPPS organizes competitions for over 230 private schools in Texas.
History
TAPPS was chartered in 1978 with a membership of 20 schools. As of 2022 TAPPS lists their school membership at 230 with a combined enrollment of over 40,000 students. As early as 2013, TAPPS was using a proprietary software called TAPPSter to provide schools with online management tools for athletics and fine arts departments. In 2019 TAPPS signed a State Management contract with Rank One to serve schedules and game results to schools in their membership.
Controversies
In 2004, Darul Arqam, a Muslim school in Houston, submitted an application to join TAPPS. Khaled Katbi, who represented the school, had a meeting with TAPPS on November 4, 2004, and did not report any unusual questions. However the school subsequently received a letter which included a questionnaire with "Why do you wish to join an organization whose membership is basically in total disagreement with your religious beliefs?" and "Why do you think that the current member schools of TAPPS will not be biased against your school, based on the fundamental difference in your religion and Christianity, since about 90% of TAPPS schools embrace Christianity?" In response the
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
of Texas stated that TAPPS should be investigated.
In 2010, Iman Academy Southwest, another Muslim school in Houston, 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.
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
Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical st ...
.Pilon, Mary. "Texas Association Criticized for Ruling on Jewish Team." New York Times. The New York Times Company, 29 Feb. 2012. Web. 15 Feb. 2014. The school had won the regional championship to advance for their first trip to the semi-finals. 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
Annise Danette Parker (born May 17, 1956) is an American politician who served as the 61st Mayor of Houston, Texas, from 2010 until 2016. She also served as an at-large member of the Houston City Council from 1998 to 2003 and city controller fro ...
of Houston as well as hundreds of letters. TAPPS eventually relented and allowed the game to be rescheduled under this pressure.
The controversies with the Muslim schools and Beren drew attention to the point where the Texas Catholic Conference called for a review of the association.
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.
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 (in February, around the same time as the UIL's biannual redistricting), 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.
Due to the wide variety of sports that some schools do and do not offer, and because some schools are single-sex, TAPPS uses several different classifications for sports (generally the larger the number the larger the school):
*Volleyball, basketball (boys and girls): 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, and 6A
*
Football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...
: Divisions I/II and III for
six-man football
Six-man football is a variant of gridiron football played with six players per team, instead of the standard 11 or 12. It is generally played by high schools in rural areas of the United States and Canada.
History
Six-man football was developed ...
(in I/II the schools are grouped together into districts, but in the playoffs they have separate brackets); Divisions I, II, III/IV (in III/IV the schools are grouped together into districts, but in the playoffs they have separate brackets), plus League (divided into two zones) for the 11-man game
*
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
Divisions I through V
*
Soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
: Division I for Fall, Divisions I through III for Winter
*
Softball
Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...
Nolan Catholic High School
Nolan Catholic High School is a private, coeducational, college preparatory school, formerly in the Marianist tradition, and is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas. It serves grades 9-12, has an average student population of ...
(Fort Worth)
=District 2
=
*
Bishop Lynch High School
Bishop Lynch High School is a college preparatory school of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dallas founded by the Dominican Order in Dallas, Texas, United States. The school serves grades 9–12. It opened in 1963 with 365 students and now has over ...
Prestonwood Christian Academy
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Incarnate Word High School
Incarnate Word High School is a private, Roman Catholic, all-girls high school in Midtown San Antonio, Texas, United States established in 1881. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio and is a division of the University o ...
Brook Hill School
The Brook Hill School is an independent, Christian day and boarding school for students in grades PreK-12 located in Bullard just south of Tyler, Texas
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Hyde Park Baptist High School
Hyde Park Schools is a private Christian K-12 located in Austin, Texas. Hyde Park has two campuses: the Speedway Campus for 4K through 8th grades campus and the Quarries Campus for high school.
St. Augustine High School The name St. Augustine High School could refer to:
In the United States:
* St. Augustine Academy (Lakewood, Ohio)
* St. Augustine High School (Laredo, Texas)
* St. Augustine High School (New Orleans), Louisiana
* St. Augustine High School (San Di ...
Fort Bend Christian Academy
Fort Bend Christian Academy (FBCA) is a private PK-12 Christian school with two campuses in Sugar Land, Texas in the Houston metropolitan area
Greater Houston, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as Houston–The Wood ...
(Sugarland)
*
Frassati Catholic High School
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Lydia Patterson Institute
Lydia Patterson Institute is a Methodist Christian college-preparatory school located in El Paso, Texas, United States. Founded in 1913 it offers programs for Spanish-speaking children, primarily from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua to attend high scho ...
Lake Country Christian School
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Academics
LCCS offers a college preparatory core curriculum. F ...
Pantego Christian Academy
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Texas School for the Deaf
Texas School for the Deaf (TSD) is a state-operated primary and secondary school for deaf children in Austin, Texas. Opened in 1857 "in an old frame house, three log cabins, and a smokehouse", it is the oldest continually-operated public school in ...
(Austin)
*
Veritas Academy
Veritas Academy is the first "University-Model school" opened in Florida. Founded in 2005 by President Rick Hermanns and the administrator, Kira Brown Wilson, under the name Veritas Preparatory Academy it began in Pinellas Park, Florida with 91 s ...
(Austin)
=District 4
=
*
Cypress Christian School
Cypress Christian School (CCS), formerly Cypress Community Christian School, is a private, non-profit, K-12 Christian school located in unincorporated northwest Harris County, Texas, near Cypress and Houston.Faith West Academy (Katy)
* The Woodlands Legacy Prep (Tomball/The Woodlands)
*
Northland Christian School
Northland Christian School is a private, Christian, PK-12 school located in Northwest Houston.
History
Northland Christian School (NCS) was established in the spring of 1974. Seeking to create a school in their community that combined excellenc ...
Calvary Christian Academy
Calvary Christian Academy (CCA) is a private Christian school located in Cresaptown, Maryland in Allegany County. It was established as an outreach of Calvary Baptist Church of Cresaptown in 1973.
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Calvary Christian Academy is a school t ...
The Highlands School
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The last twenty years, The Highlands Scho ...
(Irving)
*
Dallas International School
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Lakehill Preparatory School
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Vanguard College Preparatory School
Vanguard College Preparatory School, founded in 1973, is a private, independent, coeducational, college preparatory day school located in Waco, Texas, United States, for students in grades 7-12. Enrollment, as of the 2022-2023 academic year is 2 ...
The Christian School at Castle Hills
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Covenant Classical School
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St. Paul Catholic High School
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Chinquapin Preparatory School
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Notre Dame Catholic School
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The former headteacher, Fiona Hutchings, was headteacher from 2001 until July 2012. Kate White, the ...
The Winston School
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The Westwood School
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Regents Academy
Regents Academy was an independent school based in Manby, Lincolnshire, England. The school was founded in 1992 by Amanda Franklin and her husband, Stephen Franklin, a pastor in a local church. The school admitted both male and female pupils f ...
The Beren Academy
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...