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TYLER, Texas (KETK) — Hollytree Country Club was a sea of burnt orange for Saturday night’s 2026 Tyler-Smith County Texas Exes Scholarship Dinner.
Close to 180 people packed into the country club for the event, which celebrates class of 2026 high school graduates from East Texas who are UT-bound by awarding them scholarships.
UT athletics director Chris Del Conte was the guest speaker at this year’s event, and took some time beforehand to share why it was important to him to speak at the event.
“It’s important to me because we have so many young kids going to go to the University of Texas from Tyler and the region. For me, to come out here it’s more thanking them for choosing Texas and we have a lot of Longhorns out here and to just come by and say, ‘Hello.’ Thank them for their support as well. It’s always important to reach out. They always come to us. We need to come to them as well,” Del Conte said.
Del Conte also spoke about UT Athletics winning the most recent Directors’ Cup, which recognizes the top college athletics department in the United States.
“To win that five out of six years, the year we didn’t win took second, it’s just the depth and breadth of your overall athletic program. Being an athletic director is not being in charge of just football, you have your entire program. So for us to win just tells you that were the very best athletic program in the country top to bottom. I’m really proud of our coaches and student-athletes,” Del Conte said.
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