One week after being banned from postseason play and having its coaches suspended by the Texas high school sports governing body,
Oak Cliff Faith Family Academy (Dallas, Texas) intends to leave the University Interscholastic League (UIL) to play a national schedule the
Dallas Morning News reported on Thursday.
According to the report, the school was sending a letter Thursday to the UIL outlining its intentions.
Late last month, the UIL banned Oak Cliff Faith Family Academy head coach Andrea Robinson and assistants Kadi Creek and Jordan Jones for two years and prohibited the school from postseason play for this season and the 2025-26 season.
Oak Cliff Faith Family announced Thursday it would leave the UIL to play a national schedule. The UIL on Oct. 30 suspended coach Andrea Robinson and her coaches for two years due to recruiting and other violations for 18 transfers. (Photo: Robbie Rakestraw)
At issue for the UIL was 18 transfers, many four- and five-star players, to the school in the off-season. The charter school would have been a favorite to win a Class 5A Division II title if all the transfers were ruled eligible.
Following the UIL decision, the players would have had to go through a district committee to gain their eligibility even as Texas has already started playing games.
"We said we've got to be able to participate and we've got to take care of our kids, and our kids are first," Oak Cliff Faith Family Academy superintendent Mollie Purcell Mozley told the Morning News. "We are going to go for a program or a league that will be competitive for us as a district and that also aligns with our core values. We have been in the UIL for 20 years, and this outright prejudice has shaken us, but it has also given us even more resolve to put kids first."
Robinson, who was hired from perennial power DeSoto, had two players from her former school follow her in five-star junior forward
Amari Byles and four-star combo guard
Amayah Garcia. Also transferring in were four-star Alabama commit
Joy Egbuna, four-star sophomore
Finley Chastain, freshman
Kaleena Ozumba and sisters
Gianna Jordan,
Milania Jordan,
Natalia Jordan and
Nadia Jordan from Southlake Carroll.
Mozley told the paper the issue of leaving the UIL went beyond the current spate of transfers, that the school was told past transfers would be reviewed as well.
The move from the UIL also affects the boys basketball team, according to the newspaper.
