Colin Yielding has been the University Interscholastic League coordinator at Joshua for nine years, and before Joshua, he coordinated UIL at Cleburne for two years. With 11 years of experience under his belt, he’s taken multiple different groups of UIL to state, including his own. Even before he directed UIL, he participated in it.
“I was involved in UIL Academics when I was in high school,” Yielding said. “I competed in a few different events, but I didn’t take it overly serious until my senior year. The accounting teacher at my high school recruited me to join her accounting class in my senior year as she knew I was good at math and wanted me on her team. I joined and that year, our team went to State, where we placed second as a team.”
Obviously, Yielding is excellent at what he does, both when participating and coaching. He works really hard and has proven time and time again to be one of the best UIL directors out there, but he’s not all the reason JHS has been successful at UIL. The district offers UIL academic programs at elementary and middle school levels and this might be the key to the UIL huge success.
“JHS is lucky to have good UIL academic programs at both middle schools and the elementary level,” Yielding said. “It gets the students involved at an early age. Some of the events change in high school, but we try to retain as many students as possible. Getting students involved early makes our job easier at the high school level.”
While participating in UIL gets easier, it also has more benefits. When participating in UIL, students learn and review at their own pace and go deeper into studies. Yielding also says that there are more rewarding experiences than just academics.
“Students get to learn subject matter much deeper than they probably would in a classroom setting,” Yielding said. “They make lifelong memories. They make new friends along the way. If they advance to State, they qualify to apply for TILF scholarships.”
Being the UIL coordinator isn’t without its challenges, though. Between setting up transportation for tournaments and planning them, things can become hectic when being in charge of everything. It also keeps a person very busy; some challenges might be harder than others.
“The hardest part of being UIL coordinator is probably hosting our own tournament. There are a lot of moving parts in hosting 30 to 40 schools, balancing a schedule, judges and 800+ students.” Yielding said. “UIL definitely makes my life busier. Last year, there was a stretch [of time] where I went to eight different competitions over a seven-week [period].”
Because coordinating UIL creates busyness, one would think that a personal life would be put on hold or, at least, hindered when it comes to free time. Yielding says that this isn’t the case. He still has time to spend with his family, as UIL events are only a few Saturdays a year.
“I still have time in my personal life. In a normal year, I probably spend five or six Saturdays doing UIL activities,” Yielding said. “Last year was an exception where I spent 10 or 11 Saturdays doing UIL events. We practice once a week after school during the year, sometimes twice a week.”
Yielding does a great deal to keep the UIL running and deserves much credit for what he does. He works hard to ensure his UIL students do the best they can and move higher and higher within competitions.
