Keller High School, the reigning Texas UIL 6A girls and boys state champion, is under investigation by the UIL for alleged rule violations, The Dallas Morning News reported on Friday. The news comes two weeks after the school’s head swim & dive coach, Jamie Shults, resigned. Shults did not respond to SwimSwam’s request for comment two weeks ago. Keller also declined to comment beyond confirming the resignation.
Three people with direct knowledge of the situation told The Dallas Morning News Keller athletes trained with Lakeside Aquatic Club “during school hours and at a school facility.” Club coaches coaching athletes during a designated high school practice is a violation of Section 1202 of the UIL Constitution, which mandates that high school coaches be “full-time employees of the school board of the school which the team represents.”
Further, multiple parents who requested that the paper not identify them for fear of retaliation, reported Keller athletes enrolled in an athletics class but used that time to train with their club team instead. One parent reportedly provided screenshots of messages “that appear to be from Lakeside Aquatic Club head coach Jason Walter to Keller swimmers, detailing their workout schedule during school hours.”
In Texas, high school coaches must be full-time employees of the school district. It is common for athletics to be a class where athletes receive a grade and with practices that takes place during the school day. If a club coach who was not a full-time employee of the district was coaching a high school practice, that could be a violation of UIL rules.
The UIL confirmed the investigation in an email to The Dallas Morning News, writing “following standard procedure, the ISD was notified and asked to investigate the matter and report back to UIL. Keller ISD is cooperating, and we are awaiting their findings.”
If Keller High School is found guilty, the school may be required to vacate the state championship titles it won in February. Senior Maximus Williamson played a key role in the Keller High School boys’ victory, setting National High School records in the boys’ 100 freestyle (41.54) and 200 freestyle (1:30.46). Williamson earned the 2025 UIL Boys 6A Swimmer of the Meet honors after winning his two individual titles and helping his team sweep the three relays.
Many of the Keller High swimmers represent Lakeside Aquatic Club during the club season, including Williamson. The Dallas Morning News put the count at 19 boys and 15 girls from the school’s 2024-25 roster.
The win in February was the Keller boys’ third consecutive state title. The girls’ program won as well, making Keller just the third school in state history to sweep the girls’ and boys’ state titles in the same season. Shults was named the 2025 Section and UIL Boys Swimming and Diving Coach Of The Year after leading the team to its historic accomplishment.
An alum of the program, Shults took over as Keller’s head swim & dive coach from her mother, Linda Shults, who held the position for 14 years before retiring in 2022.
UPDATE
The investigation is complete. The biggest takeaway is that The Dallas Morning News exaggerated the story to dramatize the separation with the Shults family. Big headlines do help drive readership.
Enjoy your summer.
It’s funny how parents of Keller kids are justifying breaking the rules and thinking their swimmers didn’t have an advantage by being coached by one coach with one style who knew where the swimmers were in the training cycle and had full control of the training. The training must have been more streamlined and effective without the tug of war between HS and club. The kids who were following the rules had to swim with their HS teams in the mornings then go to club and swim tired in the afternoon; neither was ideal for those kids.
IF Keller parents complained about the Keller coach, they likely shot themselves in the foot; clearly not understanding the benefit the kids… Read more »
As a graduate I can confirm that the majority of parents and swimmers involved in LAC knew this was going on and wanted to say something but feared retaliation
Wow. Thanks for explaining. It is actually rather sad.
Questions on UIL rules (1) it doesn’t appear that full time students have to enroll in HS swim class to be eligible to swim in UIL HS swim competitions. Do HS coaches/admin have the authority to disallow swimmers who are not enrolled in swim class? (2) what is the benefit of enrolling in swim class after student has fulfilled the PE requirement for HS graduation?
For all the controversies that I have read, isn’t it better to just not sign up for HS swim class, train at club exclusively, and represent respective HS in swim competitions only?
This is the case for most top tier hs swim programs in Texas, the issue with Keller was that the other three schools in the district had to practice with their hs up to five days a week in the morning and then go to club in the afternoon while Keller HS kids only had afternoon and occasional mornings with club.
That is the issue in other regions as well.
Good club coaches do not have to force their swimmers to attend practice. High level swimmers with long term goals prefer to train with their club coach. HS swimming is free. Club swimming is not. I coached in Texas and can tell you the majority of the HS swim coaches had little or no experience coaching or swimming. Even the coaches with swimming background were hired right out of college. How many HS Head football coaches can you name that were hired first year out of college. That tells you what HS AD’s think or know about swimming. Again, the UIL should end the season just before thanksgiving break and send those coaches back to the classroom or give them… Read more »
Wait so you’re saying you have club coaches who don’t say things like “If you miss too many practices you’re off the team”?
We should honestly just pull swimming out of schools altogether.
(But club coaches love it when the schools build the pools for them right?)
Club swim coaches have to be collectively the least self aware group of human beings on earth. Does a single one of them have any idea that a great big interconnected world exists outside of themselves and their programs?
There are 4 categories of swimmers in Texas. High School only, High School / Club, and Club only. The 4th are the swimmers that go to Club and only hand full of HS practices. I did not have to penalize or threaten the kids that attended all of the high school practice and shaved / tapered 3 times in 2 months. They penalized themselves by doing that routine and most after 9th and 10th grade quit High School altogether.
By the way, USA Swimming is the Connector between learn to swim and the Olympics. Our frustration in Texas is because well aware of what is takes to swim in college and at the international level. Texas High School Swimming… Read more »
Agree! HS season is way too long!
How to make TX high school swimming better:
1. Give it a defined season like everywhere else. Sept-Nov (best) or Nov-Feb. It would be a dream if all high schools had the same swimming season, like every other sport!
2. High school coach, high school AD, and club coach need to agree to schedule for the shared swimmers, particularly the elite ones who are competing at a higher level and with more on the line.
3. Referring to No. 2, shared swimmers should not exceed what is even allowed by the NCAA for D1 swimmers with regard to training hours.
If swimmer is getting a grade for participation, high school coaches can contact club coach, who… Read more »
Agree 100%. How do we have our voices heard? Petition?
For better or worse this has been happening for years. I swam for LAC and KHS in the 2008-2012 time period. Can probably count on one hand the number of times I actually attended HS practice as my “first period” in the morning. At that time, the LAC team traveled to the old FloMo pool (45 minutes away)for AM practice and had afternoon practice at the Keller natatorium. The LAC team was made up of swimmers from several high schools (Keller, Carrol, Central, Timber, Marcus, etc.) All that to say, I didn’t personally know this was even a rule….it was just the norm. No “serious” HS swimmer was practicing with their HS team in the mornings.
To the coach that didn’t do her job, to the parents who knew and didn’t want her to do the job but complained about her for years and to the administration who ignored anyone that tried to stop the mess. This is your wake up call. The swimmers showed up and did the work. They practiced 8 hours a week LESS than SLC and likely other schools and now they are falling on the sword of adults that failed them. Was it worth it?
Man Texas HS swimming is a mess