posted May 18th, 2021 - Yesterday's Spaceland Toxix update, which covered the 2021 season opener of the Texas Skydiving League, reached quite far back in time, as far as Demo McDonnell and Rich Delgado at the beginnings of their 4-way careers.

The same update also mentioned TSL Director Scott Latinis who was already quite far ahead with his own 4-way training and competition by then. He witnessed the start of the Texas Skydiving League by Joe Hazel in 1997, in the summer after the Florida Skydiving League was launched in 1996/1997.

TSL team Convergence then represented their league at the first NSL Championship in November 1998 at Skydive DeLand. The three league winners, DeLand Genesis, Convergence and Mr. Pink were treated to their participation at the first NSL Championship by SkyVenture Orlando, including travel expenses, accommodation, banquet dinner, and jump tickets.

Scott Latinis competed with Houston Pyro4ic at the USPA Nationals 1998 at the end of October, shortly before Convergence would travel to Florida in November. DeLand Genesis and Mr. Pink of the Georgia Skydiving League attended both events. Genesis won USPA bronze medals and followed up with the 1st place at the inaugural NSL Championship.

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NSL Championship 1998		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	9,G,11	21,10,18	24,20,1	O,B,15,17	22,14,M	16,19,6	2,A,H,P	5,4,3	Q,13,12	D,8,K,C	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Genesis	13	11	14	16	11	9	16	12	11	11	124	12.4
2	ZSpot	15	9	11	15	10	11	13	10	12	11	117	11.7
3	Frost	14	10	10	13	12	10	15	11	7	14	116	11.6
4	Convergence	10	10	9	9	9	9	11	9	9	9	94	9.4
5	Fluid Motion	10	5	8	12	7	5	7	7	11	10	82	8.2
6	Optik Nerve	9	5	10	9	8	8	11	7	4	8	79	7.9
7	Mr. Pink	7	1	4	10	8	7	10	6	6	9	68	6.8
8	Space Center FX	21	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	21	2.1

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The Texas Skydiving League had their own website that was linked to the NSL Network, and the early leaderboards of the first years are not available in the NSL News archives. The first TSL leaderboard in the NSL News archives was showing the league's results of the 5th meet in the TSL 2000 season (August).

However, the NSL News coverage of the TSL events began earlier, as well. The Texas Skydiving League was a part of the NSL Network, and the scores were still compared with all the other leagues and teams in the network. Florida, Texas and Georgia hosted their monthly 4-way meets in 1997 and 1998, before several new leagues joined the network in 1999 (Midwest, Missouri, New York/Ranch, Northeast, Virginia).

The Texas Skydiving League went into hibernation at the end of the 2000 season before Dallas Thunder member Ryan Smith brought it back to life in 2004. Scott Latinis was his 4-way team mate, together with Dave Burton and James "Bu" Klinge.

The Texas Skydiving League came to the next halt when Dallas Thunder and Ryan Smith discontinued at the end of the 2006 season, and it took three years until the next comeback in 2009. This time it was Eric Boyd who took charge of the league and maintained it with a smaller number of regular meets. Christy West and Scott Latinis began to bring back the Texas Skydiving League to a more regular presence in 2017, and the only break ever since was caused by the corona virus crisis.

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Texas Skydiving League August 2000		1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	22,23,11	7,15,J	H,L,19,18	1,4,O	12,9,17	P,6,F,M	Total	Avg
1	San Marcos Fast4ward	9	12	11	10	13	14	69	11.5
2	Terminal Ecstacy	7	11	10	10	7	12	57	9.5
3	Sofa Kings	7	9	7	9	7	9	48	8.0
4	Houston Sunrise	5	8	5	8	6	9	41	6.8
Rank	A Class	15,7	J,H,L	1,O	P,6	F,M,2	A,20	Total	Avg
1	San Marcos Millenium	7	11	10	8	9	9	54	9.0
2	Spaceland IV	5	9	8	7	9	7	45	7.5
2	Slow Motion	5	8	8	9	10	5	45	7.5
4	Da Vinci's Dream	5	7	5	8	6	8	39	6.5
5	Austin Powered	5	6	7	4	7	7	36	6.0
6	Tablescraps	4	3	6	6	5	7	31	5.2

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NSL News on 16 February 1999: The Texas Skydiving League has updated the website

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Joe Hazel, director of the league, recently published the new design. The Texas Skydiving League is going into its third season already, and once again it's going to be very successful. Texas, Georgia and Florida were the first 4-way leagues affiliated with the National Skydiving League. This year, the number of leagues may go up to a total of ten. At the NSL Championships 1998, Texas was represented by league champion Convergence.

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NSL News on 24 February 1999: Texas Skydiving League decided to apply a handicap system for this season

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League director Joe Hazel collected feedback from competitors in Texas to make the best and most popular decision. The handicap system and the qualification rules for the NSL Championships 1999 will be the same as for the Florida Skydiving League. The handicap will be 85% of the raw-point average. Medals will be given to the first three teams in the handicapped overall class and also to the open class winner with the highest raw average.

Another set of medals will go to the most improved team in Texas. Only the team with the highest raw average will qualify for the NSL Championships 1999. Joe Hazel is expecting nine to ten teams to register for the whole Texas Skydiving League season. Registration deadline is March 31st.

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NSL News on 15 April 1999: Convergence trained for three days at Skydive Sebastian last weekend

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Convergence is the 1998 champion of the Texas Skydiving League. The team decided to continue for another year and train hard to win Intermediate Class gold medals this year's USPA Nationals. Convergence ended up in the unfortunate 4th place with a 9.6 average in 1998, two points behind the bronze medals. Convergence placed 2nd at the NSL Championship 1998, shortly after the USPA Nationals, this time with a 9.4 average.

This year, Convergence is out for an average significantly passed the 10.0 benchmark. The three-day camp in Sebastian was hard-core training. Veteran coach Craig Buxton worked with the team for the three days. In addition to the full training days, Convergence visited SkyVenture Orlando every evening for one complete hour - wow. The results will hopefully, and undoubtedly, show soon. The Texas Skydiving League season starts on May 22nd with the first meet at Skydive San Marcos.