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.
Few thoughts:
This didn’t only happen at Keller. I know for a fact that it has happened at other championship high schools in the past.
if you strip a title, do you potentially give it to someone who did the same thing? If a school did it without winning a team title, but had athletes who won an individual title, or scored any points, what do you do? Is it fair to just penalize Keller? Do you give a title to the next school when scoring would be different if we excluded everyone who did this? You can’t know?
if UIL over-corrects on making sure this doesn’t happen again, does that negatively affect participation in high school swimming… Read more »
Dumb rule to begin with.
What is the “UIL”?
The University Interscholastic League. It’s the organization that manages public high school athletics in Texas.
For those not in TX, all HS coaches must be FT employees of the school district. I am guessing the club coaches did not meet this criteria which is what causes an issue with them coaching the athletes during school. Also, Keller families may not realize that they are supposed to have to follow UIL rules (i.e. super team recruitment). I’m sure UVA will share this article on their feed;)
The issue here is that this Keller coach refused to do her job, any job asked of her or anything for the kids. Not the kid’s fault! They showed up and did what they were told. Perhaps why she got fired!
This is very weird. How can they practice during school hours? Don’t they have to go to academic classes? I can see before school starts in the morning and after school ends in the afternoon, but during school hours?
At least one team I competed against in HS had a first period aquatics class that was just practice with an easy A.
In Texas, most varsity programs (and many JV programs) practice during the school period as a “PE” period. Also you get a grade in your sport at a lot of schools.
When I was in HS there (at a team that was contending for state titles every year), varsity practiced in the AM and finished practice about 15 minutes into the school day, then had 30 minutes to get dressed, eat, and pragmatically finish the homework we didn’t do the night before. JV started practice 10 minutes into the last period of the day and then for an hour or so after.
There were very rare exceptions where someone either wanted to take an advanced class that was only offered… Read more »
UIL needs to educate or retrain high school coaches on the rules. Kids know that they need to pass classes to participate and show up to practice. It is not their job to train up on UIL rules. There are so many schools in Texas that have allowed kids to train elsewhere or with the club. You only need a honest audit to verify this situation. So whose fault is that? Are the kids OR high school coaches to blame for allowing it? UIL needs to investigate all schools in Texas and treat everyone the same. There are kids in Texas high schools whose parents specifically change zip codes to be on the winning team. I can think of at… Read more »
Talk about overregulation. Jeez Texas…
There’s an ongoing controversy over the soccer title that’s possibly more surreal.
From what I am reading, the kids at the club practice were supposed to be in a class, getting grades… not being coached by their club team during school hours. Essentially, the club team was taking advantage of the on campus pool for training. The violation is an academic violation… the kids weren’t in a fake academic class or maybe just not attending the gym class and going to swim practice anyways. Remember, the kids were training DURING school hours.
They were supposed to be at the Natatorium, off campus, training with the high school coach during the athletics period. They were just training with the club coach instead. They share the pool. High school coach just never ran anything. The kids were not skipping academic classes.
This would happen at my high school. The USA Swimming coach was sneaking in during morning practices and trying to coach his athletes. I think he eventually got banned from campus.
Don’t the people in charge know the rules?
Sounds like the person in charge, Jamie, had issues working.
Bingo. An athletic director didnt engage.
a dislike? lol Must be the ex-coach or her mommy. Anyone else is pretending.
Could be an “aquatics class”
Athletics are a class in Texas.
Was the problem that they swam with the club coach during HS hours?
If they had done the same workout at the same time but under the direction of the HS Coach they would have been okay (trying to understand the rules)?
Was the HS coach not available during the hours that they were in the pool practicing?
Can’t answer the first question because I am not investigating this situation.
Most likely, I think as long as it is the hs coach coaching them then there isnt a problem. Could be wrong though.
This one I would have best knowledge of, UIL requires that coaches also be full time emplyees of district, so either teacher or something else full time. So most likely the HS coach did not have time to help coach.