UIL DENIES HENDERSON PROTESTS | Upholds umpire’s reversal; Community keeps the ‘win’

After protests were filed by Henderson High School’s softball program with the governing body of high school sports, after a mess of an ending in a playoff game in Athens, the word is in.

And the word is – nothing.

The University Interscholastic League, which oversees high school sports and other extracurricular activities in the state of Texas, has denied those protests filed after Henderson lost its softball playoff series in a most questionable way to Nevada Community on Saturday in Athens.

The official word: “After the game is complete, there is no avenue to protest game results.”

ETBlitz.com has covered the story from the beginning, although we had hoped for a different outcome.

Explaining what happened once again, briefly.

Community had won the first game of the best-of-three with Henderson, 6-4. Henderson bounced back and defeated Community, 12-10, in a wild game two.

Game three began Saturday morning, and was close. Softball games under UIL rules normally go seven innings, and the team leading when the seventh inning is concluded wins the game.

Community was at bat, with Henderson leading 4-3, in the bottom of the seventh. The Lady Lions had recorded two outs. The next out would have won the game by that score.

In the ensuing at-bat, a Community player at third base tried to steal home. In the attempt, she ran out of the base path, trying to avoid the tag. She was tagged by Henderson first baseman Jayda Brown, but continued on to home plate. The umpire in charge of the contest ruled she had been tagged, third out recorded, end of the game.

You can see the play here on this video, which has been on ETBlitz.com all weekend, and circulated on social media.

Here is the official Henderson High School game video that the players react accordingly, that the game is over and Henderson has won, 4-3, and Community has lost. This angle gives viewers a better look at the runner rounding third.

After the umpire’s ruling that Henderson had won, the runner began to gripe that she had been “obstructed.” The coach for Community joined in, and officials huddled. They reversed the umpire’s original decision, and on top of that, ruled that the Community base-runner was safe, that the game was tied at 4, and would continue into extra innings.

In three innings played after that, Community won, 5-4.

Henderson submitted its protests today, which were nullified by the UIL.

That means Community will continue on to the third round of the UIL Class 4A, Division I playoffs, and play Sanger – and that Sanger will likely have a lot of fans in Henderson, Texas.

That’s when Henderson began to get its protests in order, and filed them Monday. Strangely, on the UIL’s own 4A-Division I bracket, Community appeared as a 2-1 winner over Henderson — and then on the round three bracket, it said Sanger would be playing Henderson.

Lady Lions coach John White spoke to ETBlitz.com Sunday, and we had those comments earlier today. Here they are again:

“What people don’t realize – nothing against Community, they’re a scrappy team, they’re good, and every team goes through things to get to where they are. But the process these girls have gone through the last couple of years: having a brand new coaching staff, learning how to do things our way, and expectations; the amount of hours of work that they’ve put into it, into attendance, grades, even speaking in the community – for it to just be taken from them and all be over something like this, it’s just not right,” Henderson softball coach John White, in his second season, told ETBlitz.com on Sunday.

“…The thing I’m most proud of these girls – after all that, the class they showed, shook the other team’s hand, no trash talking, no nothing. They did their job, and did all we could ask of them.”

Henderson’s 2025 softball roster:

2 – Junior – Taniya Vanzandt

3 – Senior – Addy Davis

5 – Senior – Addy Standley

6 – Sophomore – Colbie Rountree

7 – Senior – Brinklee Bowman

8 – Sophomore – Anna Cheek

10 – Freshman – Charlie Fruge

11 – Freshman – Karis Lee

12 – Junior – Mckenna Moon

13 – Senior – Chloe Ellis

14 – Freshman – Kenidii Hogg

16 – Junior – Kaitlynn Brooks

21 – Junior – Jalynn Brown

22 – Senior – Kristina Jackson

23 – Senior – Jayda Brown

• – Junior – Jacie Boothe

Some statistics confirmed by coach White:

• Chloe Ellis –  190 strikeouts on the season (and over 500 for her Henderson career).
• Jacie Boothe – 118 strikeouts on the season.
• Addy Davis, .470 average.
• Chloe Ellis, .432 average.
• Addy Standley, .430 average.
• Anna Cheek, .356
• Taniya Vanzandt, .388
• Mckenna Moon, .370
• Jacie Boothe, .360 average / eight home runs.

The Lady Lions have a 25-8-1 record.

ETBlitz.com editor / publisher will have more on this momentarily in his opinion column, “What’s Causing All This.”