Below is an email from our Steering Committee with answers to common questions asked by homeschool organizations regarding eligibility
Do the TAIAO general rules apply to all sport teams/activities that operate under our organization? No, they only apply to the sports that you have registered in TAIAO. So, if you register football then the rules apply to both your JH and Varsity teams. However, if you do not register track then the TAIAO rules do not apply. Â
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The reason this extends to JH is because you cant hold back freshman to play in JH simply because you know that they will not get reps in Varsity. It gives your program an advantage that traditional schools do not have.Â
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TAIAO is concerned this is the approach that homeschool programs will take and will be addressing it this summer so as to clarify the current rules by adding an automatic two year suspension from the league in all sports for programs that take this approach.
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Are homeschool teams expected to follow TAIAO rules when playing non-TAIAO opponents? Yes if the team is registered for a Varsity sport. For example, lets say that Homeschool Team A does not want to register baseball for a varsity sport. Then when it plays TAIAO teams it can use whatever rules it wants to abide by (which means it could play super seniors) but it would not be able to compete in the TAIAO playoffs. Â
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The reason it could not play super seniors against non-TAIAO teams is because we use the Maxpreps rankings and schedules to seed for tournaments in almost all of our sports. So, teams playing ineligible players would have an advantage.Â
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You simply have to choose whether you want to play in TAIAO or not. As TAIAO grows, our teams will have less trouble scheduling games against teams that play super seniors.
How will TAIAO rules be enforced? Is there a person/group that looks at rosters (and form submissions) and informs a member organization if something is wrong? We enforce the rules all the time. We do our best to look at rosters but it is each organization’s responsibility to enforce the rules. We have a predominantly volunteer staff and not the resources to check everyone. This season we discovered a football team playing a super senior in week 8. They were banned from the playoffs as a result.
The fact is teams that are good will get more scrutiny than teams who are not a factor in the playoffs. We will treat them the same when issues of eligibility are raised but it’s more likely successful teams will get greater scrutiny from other programs who bring these issues to our attention.Â
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We have been getting JH rosters (although not everyone is complying) and we screen shot all Maxpreps rosters each season. In the end, each organization needs to take responsibility and not punt it to TAIAO.
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Does TAIAO have any process to inform onboarding teams of its rules and remediation/exceptions for teams that may not have previously been under the rules?  I am sure you know the story of God sending the stranded flood victim the car, boat and helicopter which he refuses then dying and standing before St Peter wondering why God had not answered his prayers.Â
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TAIAO sent out two emails to the known ADs, brought this up at every summer meeting for the past 5 years, has numerous times enforced the eligibility rules, posted it on our website, highlighted it in our rules, and still organizations claim ignorance.
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Unfortunately, it will probably take a few more programs being denied entry into the playoffs before the eligibility rules are adhered.Â
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Are tryouts permitted or not? Tryouts are not allowed. You can hold practices and invite athletes to attend but you must accept players in the order they register and not close your registration early in an attempt to prevent athletes from playing in the sport.Â
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Of course there are exemptions to this rule. For example, you state that your volleyball team will take the first 16 applicants. I have twice seen programs reported for having “tryouts” when in reality it was a come and see if you want to play the sport. Not a culling of athletes based upon skill.
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The “cannot turn 19 during academic year” seems unusual. It appears that in other leagues, as long as kids are 18 prior to Sept 1, it’s fine. That would indicate that turning 19 during their school year is OK. Is TAIAO handcuffing itself here? Why is this different?
Homeschoolers really do not understand the rules when it comes to eligibility in other leagues. The 19 year old rule is to allow for exceptions in UIL and TAPPS. You have to show that the athletes were held back before entering 6th grade. UIL does not allow you to “hold back” a 7th grader and then have them play as a 19 year old later.Â
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The fact is that 18 on or before Sept 1 and playing varsity sports is RARE. Most kids are identified as needing academic assistance before the age of 9 and held back between K-3. So, rare that it’s not an issue in UIL.Â
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Also so rare that any UIL school district caught trying to circumvent it is heavily penalized in all UIL competitions… that is why nobody does it. The same is true for TAPPS.
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We would actually be hamstringing ourselves if we allowed 19 year old athletes to play. When we were a young league we had some UIL and TAPPS schools questioned the age of our athletes. This is why we moved to be more aggressive in combating the FACT that homeschool teams like were stacking their programs with super seniors (guess what.. winning all the titles too!)
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We are now a league filled with more private and charter school programs. They join because we assure them that they will get a competitive playing field. This means 17 year old turning 18 in their senior year.