By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
EDINBURG — The UIL’s biennial reclassification and realignment came and went Monday morning with few surprises as it pertained to Edinburg Vela.
The No. 2-ranked football team in the RGVSports.com poll in 2015 will move up from District 31-5A to 31-6A, where it joins sister schools Edinburg High, Edinburg Economedes and Edinburg North, along with PSJA High, PSJA Memorial and PSJA North. Gone are Weslaco High and Weslaco East, which shifted to District 32-6A.
PSJA Southwest could join 31-6A, as well, after receiving unanimous verbal approval from 32-5A athletic coordinators Monday to move up with its sister schools.
“I think our community and the city of Edinburg are going to be excited,” Vela athletic coordinator and football coach Michael Salinas said. “Looking forward to the challenge of being in 6A with Edinburg and Pharr. Traditionally, those guys have played good football. And we’re just trying to refocus and look to new opponents in 2016.”
The move comes on the heels of the 2014 realignment and reclassification in which Edinburg Vela, then a second-year school, fell 150 shy of the 2,099 cutoff to move up to Class 6A. At the time, though, Edinburg CISD had asked the UIL to have Vela move up to 6A, before then-athletic director Joe Filoteo reportedly rescinded the request a couple weeks before the announcement.
Vela’s departure now, in part, helped pave the way for 31-5A to incorporate three schools from Laredo (Cigarroa, Martin and Nixon), providing a series of challenges for its Valley counterparts, mostly notably the commute.
“Fortunately for us, we weren’t in that district because of the travel,” Salinas said. “Furthest we’ll go now is PSJA (High).”
In moving up to 31-6A, Vela goes from being the largest school in its district to one of the smallest. Late last year, Vela reported a 2,215 snapshot figure — just 65 over the 2,150 cutoff for Class 6A. Should the UIL approve PSJA Southwest’s request to join 31-6A, Vela would have the third-smallest enrollment in that district behind PSJA High (2,205) and Southwest (2,075).
As such, Salinas said depth could be a concern for his program, especially as it prepares to graduate its first four-year class. The SaberCats will also see their non-district schedule shrink from four games to three, and their district slate balloon from six games to seven.
“You have a little less time to sort of put the pieces of the puzzle together (before district), so that’s why for us spring ball is going to be really, really important,” Salinas said. “We’re going to have to have a great fall camp with some of the guys who have to gain valuable experience early.
“With three non-district games, we’re going to have those questions answered in a hurry.”
Similarly, Weslaco High and Weslaco East will adjust to a new scenery in 32-6A with Brownsville Hanna, Brownsville Rivera, Harlingen High, Harlingen South, Los Fresnos and San Benito.
Weslaco High football coach Tony Villarreal said he anticipated the move, but was surprised the UIL settled on two nine-team 5A districts in the Valley.
“That threw a monkey wrench into the deal,” he said. “At one point, I had zero non-conference games available. It was very, very difficult to do those games, but we scrambled around and found some.”
Villarreal said he was hoping to maintain their rivalry game against Donna High, “but they went a different direction.”
The new-look district reunites Weslaco with the Brownsville schools, Los Fresnos and San Benito — all of whom were in the same district as the Panthers within the past two realignments.
“To be honest, there’s no dog in that district,” Villarreal said of the new 32-6A, which features five playoff teams from a year ago. “They bring a different dynamic to the deal. I think it’s going to be a meat grinder every week, so keeping kids healthy is going to be key.”