TEXAS — Budget cuts, mental health and extremely hot weather are a few challenges high school coaches are facing across Texas, and those were a few of this year’s hot topics tackled during the annual Texas High School Coaches Association Convention in Houston.

According to the executive team, more than 17,000 coaches and athletes attended the 94th annual event at the George R. Brown Convention Center, as part of their mission of “Helping Coaches to Help Kids.”

Students like Justyce Long, a basketball player at Benjamin O. Davis High School, shared how they appreciate the leadership of a good coach.

“Without a good coach, a dedicated coach, it’s hard to get where you want to get with the game of basketball,” she said.

Bastrop ISD athletic director Eliot Allen was among the thousands of coaches in attendance.

“It’s not just about the performance that you see on the field,” Allen said. “It’s about the education of an entire child. We are part of the educational process.”

The convention included press conferences highlighting the biggest topics ahead of the 2026-27 high school season, including the Texas heat.

“Dell Children’s out of Austin has done a great job of promoting a tool kit for us for heat,” said Joe Martin, executive director for the Texas High School Coaches Association. “We’ve been in collaboration with UIL to help make that available to our coaches.”

He said Dell Children’s is also providing the tools to address coach and athlete mental health issues. Coaches and school staff from around the state collaborated on other challenges.

“The difference of educational opportunities for public school, parents, the evolution of the AI, the remote learning, to deal with all of that, we have an initiative called Educate, Excel and Play, and that initiative speaks to all those things that I mentioned, and it’s just asking our coaches to promote what they do,” Martin said, explaining it goes a step beyond letting their work talk for itself, celebrating the wins and accomplishments.

“We talk all the time about the importance of community-based and education-based athletics. It’s what keeps Texas, Texas,” he said.