By ANDREW CRUM | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
A few months ago, the University Interscholastic League released its new enrollment numbers for the upcoming reclassification.
The numbers released have Class 6A at 2190 and above, Class 5A between 1150-2189, Class 4A at 505-1149, Class 3A at 225-504, Class 2A at 105-224 and Class 1A at 104 and below.
After some debate and speculation, schools will finally get to see which district they will be placed in for the 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years during the UIL reclassification and realignment meeting today in Edinburg.
The biggest change the UIL has made for the realignments is dividing Class 5A schools into two divisions for football. Enrollment for Division I will be 1840-2189 while Division II is 1150-1839. Four schools in Brownsville Independent School District could see the most change.
Brownsville Veterans Memorial (1,959 snapshot enrollment), Lopez (2,120), Pace (2,099) and Porter (2,112) were in District 32-5A for the last two years and should stay together in the new District 16-5A, Division I based on enrollment. However, their district foes will most likely be different. Donna North (2,310) moves up to Class 6A, but Donna High (2,195, although it was said to be a miscalculation and is expected to be lower) is expected to remain in 5A. Joining those five teams could be three schools that move down from Class 6A: PSJA Memorial (1,952), PSJA Southwest (1,925) and La Joya Palmview (2,162). But the new district is likely to expand to 10 teams with Rio Grande City (2,132) and Mission Veterans Memorial (1,933).
“There’s a lot of excitement about realignment,” Brownsville Veterans coach David Cantu said. “We anticipate being in a large district with the possibility of up to nine district football games. The challenge will be tremendous, but we’ll all be in the same boat and all the games will matter.”
With several new district opponents, coaches look forward to new challenges.
“Of course, it’s always exciting when you go up against programs you’re not familiar with,” Porter coach Carlos Uresti said. “I think it gets the kids excited to go up against new schools and a challenge for the coaches.
“It’s a challenge, but like anything else you just have to get to work and get the kids ready.”
Especially since some of these teams were playoff opponents in past seasons.
“I like the change in district,” Pace coach Danny Pardo said. “We’ve seen them in the playoffs, but now they’re in our district. I like it. I like the fact that we’ll see them during the regular season … I’m excited.”
The other two Brownsville schools, Hanna (2,745) and Rivera (2,421), are expected to remain in Class 6A and in District 32-6A with Los Fresnos (3,386), Harlingen High (3,012), Harlingen South (2,358) and San Benito (3,088). Weslaco High (2,670) and Weslaco East (2,239), which are currently in 32-6A, could move to 31-6A to replace the loss of schools which moved down a class.
Port Isabel (692) is expected to remain in Class 4A and in District 16-4A, Division II, with Orange Grove (531), Progreso (560), Raymondville (595), Rio Hondo (629) and West Oso (613).
Regardless of class, changes are coming, and while some coaches are looking forward to the shift, others have a different outlook.
“We kept our Southmost rivalry moving forward with Lopez,” Uresti said. “On the contrary, it might start new ones moving forward with the new teams. PSJA Southwest returns to our district from two years ago so that’ll be fun. (Head coach) Mike (Evans) and I go way back to junior high in Brownsville. We played against each other in junior high and high school growing up.”
Increased travel costs for longer road trips as well as fewer non-district opponents are two issues for coaches.
“The travel will be a little more … I don’t like traveling that much,” Pardo said. “Playing nine teams, you don’t have a chance to mess around with lineups (in non-district). We don’t have much control over it, so we just have to get ready and go. In a big district, if you start out bad, you still have a chance to turn it around and make the playoffs if you win the right games.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.