CFISD's Zepeda Named UIL Director of Athletics
Ray Zepeda, athletic director for CFISD, has been named the University Interscholastic League (UIL) director of athletics. Zepeda, who has been with CFISD since 2013, will take over his full-time role with the UIL on June 12.
The UIL facilitates educational extracurricular academic, athletic and music contests throughout the state of Texas. As director of athletics, Zepeda will oversee the organization’s services to 1,253 member schools for 14 different sports.
“Ray Zepeda is a visionary leader who has helped develop CFISD into one of Texas’s preeminent athletic districts,” said Dr. Mark Henry, CFISD superintendent of schools. “Thousands of athletes and coaches have been positively affected by his leadership, and I look forward to seeing his influence spread throughout the entire state as UIL director of athletics.”
Zepeda has 30 total years of experience in public education, including 19 as a head coach and athletic coordinator.
His career began in 1993 as a middle school athletic coordinator and head football coach in Corpus Christi ISD. After one year, he moved on to a varsity football assistant coaching position with Ray High School, where he served two years.
He arrived in Houston ISD in 1996 as an assistant football coach for Milby High School, serving three years before accepting a defensive coordinator position at Galena Park High School in Galena Park ISD in 1999.
Following five years in that role, Zepeda was named athletic director and head football coach at Mathis High School in Mathis ISD. After two years, he returned to Galena Park High School as the campus athletic coordinator and head football coach. In his seven years there, he helped the Yellowjackets reach the playoffs three times—a significant achievement for a program that had qualified for the postseason in only four of the previous 40 years.
Zepeda came to CFISD as an associate athletic director in 2013 under then-athletic director Ed Warken. In that role, he collaborated with the facilities and construction department to develop the entire athletic facility improvement component of the $1.2 billion bond package in 2014—an effort that included major renovations to Pridgeon Stadium and the construction of CFISD’s first district natatorium. He also helped develop the first athletic-academic performance tracking program in CFISD that helped high school athletic programs experience a 10% reduction in the academic failure rate and a 15% improvement in the A/B honor roll rate.
Upon Warken’s retirement in 2016, Zepeda was promoted to his current athletic director role, leading more than 17,000 athletes and 750 coaches in Texas’s third-largest school district. During his tenure, CFISD programs have achieved 16 team state tournament appearances and won seven UIL state championships. The overall failure rate for 10,000-plus high school athletes has dropped to single digits and the A/B honor roll rate has reached nearly 50%. He helped supervise athletic construction related to the passing of a $1.7 billion bond issue in 2019, including the construction of 22 turf baseball and softball fields and several renovations to campus-based athletic facilities and complexes.
Under his leadership, CFISD has hosted the UIL State Wrestling Tournament for the last eight years, as well as the Class 6A Region III Basketball Tournament for seven years and the Class 6A Regional Swimming and Diving Championships for six years. He helped open two Class 6A comprehensive high schools and two middle schools, while managing the district’s first-ever transition into two separate UIL competitive regions (Region II and III) for the past five years.
Zepeda has served as a UIL District Executive Committee chairman of multiple competitive districts for each of his seven years as CFISD athletic director. He has testified before the Texas House of Representatives’ Public Education Committee for proposed legislation regarding student-athlete cardiac safety.
Source: Cypress-Fairbanks ISD
