The periodic emails that Coach Hicks sends out to all of the head coaches on his email distribution list (Coaches Directory) are now available to view from this site. To access the past emails, please go the the menu item above "Coaches Emails" of use this link (https://txprepsoftball.net/index.php/coaches-emails). Coaches do not need to be subscribers to be able to receive and access the emails.
Twenty years ago, coaches started asking Coach Hicks, who was chairperson of the TGCA Softball Committee at the time, if he knew of any schools looking for games on certain dates. Hicks emailed everyone on the committees if they had openings and they sent him theirs and he started sending these out to the committee. The committee members started emailing their coaching contacts and they would email Coach Hicks with their openings. Before long, this became a daily email from Coach Hicks as the email list started growing exponentially from 25 to 100 to 200 and more to the point that the list was over 750 coaches.
Coach Hicks would cut and paste all of the open date requests to a daily email which he would put together and send out early each morning before he left for his morning bus route. A couple of coaches suggested that Coach Hicks start a website where he could post all of the openings and that is where Texas Prep Softball began. The site began as a place for coaches to get their open dates posted, but also where news and updates could be found, and eventually records, standings, directories, scores, and even a forum page (for a couple of years) were available and now comprise the current website.
The site and emails we're always funded by Coach Hicks until when he decided to retire from education as an assistant principal at A&M Consolidated HS in 2015. Coaches asked Coach Hicks to continue the site and wanted to contribute to keeping the site online and help him for the time that he took to keep the site running. Quite a few numbers were suggested to Hicks on how much to charge, but he felt that $10 per year would help him be able to pay for the server spaces and support and take care of the time that he took to maintain and add to the site.
While the subscription fee gives coaches access to the Open Dates / Open Scrimmages / Open Tournaments pages and Coaches Directory, the rest of the site and the periodic emails are provided to the coaches and public free of charge as Coach Hicks wants this site to continue to provide news, updates, and a place for Texas HS softball coaches, players, and fans to be able to come to get information and exchange ideas / network with each other.
Hopefully the site helps everyone in their support of our great sport and is a resource that all of our softball coaches, players, and fans can use.