BY NATE KOTISSO | THE MONITOR
EDINBURG — During the last round of realignment in 2016, Class 5A coaches were thrown for a loop when they opened their UIL packets and saw three Laredo schools in District 31-5A.
As the clock struck 9 a.m. Thursday, coaches made a mad dash to grab a packet at the front of the Fort Ringgold Room inside the Region One Education Services Center. This time, the Valley’s 5A football coaches weren’t surprised at how their new districts came together.
District 16-5A Division I will consist of the 10 Valley teams most thought the UIL would decide to make one district: Brownsville Lopez, Brownsville Pace, Brownsville Porter, Brownsville Veterans, Donna High, La Joya Palmview, Mission Veterans, PSJA Memorial, PSJA Southwest and Rio Grande City.
“It’s been a long time since the Valley has had a 10-team district,” Donna High coach Ramiro Leal said. “I remember having 10-team districts back in the 1980s, where you’d have one non-district game.”
The downside for 5A Division I coaches like Leal is the reduction of non-district games from three to one.
“You don’t have a lot of preseason games to see how your personnel looks before district,” Leal said. “Injuries are going to be big. Last year, we lost two quarterbacks. If you lose quarterbacks, and all these games count as district games, you’re going to be behind the eight ball. Staying healthy is going to be key.”
A handful of the Valley’s 5A teams released their tentative schedule, including Rio Grande City and Mission Veterans. The UIL won’t etch each team’s district and non-district schedule into stone until Feb. 21.
Mission Veterans’ tentative district slate begins with two road games in three weeks against PSJA Memorial (Week 2) and Rio Grande City (Week 4).
“That doesn’t scare us,” Mission Veterans coach David Gilpin said. “We’ve been on the road to Laredo, Odessa, San Antonio and Corpus Christi. We could travel all 10 games. We did that last year, didn’t we? If you prepare and organize for travel down to the minute, from the minute you get on the bus to the minute you get off it, there’s no down time. We don’t worry about it.”
Entering realignment, the chatter among coaches expected to compete in District 16-5A Division II was that the district could be as small as six teams or max out at nine teams with the possible additions of Laredo Cigarroa, Alice and Corpus Christi Calallen.
However, the UIL said Thursday the six Valley schools that make up Division II (Edcouch-Elsa, Mercedes, Roma, Sharyland High, Sharyland Pioneer and Valley View) will only accommodate the addition of Laredo Cigarroa, presenting a seven-team district.
“We focus on ourselves,” Edcouch-Elsa coach Bradly Chavez said. “You could plan a strategic way into the playoffs, but at the end of the day, you have to play people. We’ll play whoever is on our district schedule, and we won’t worry about the rest.”
With a six-game district schedule, the Yellow Jackets are primed for serious challenges in their four non-district games. E-E will face Corpus Christi Veterans, Weslaco High, Los Fresnos and Edinburg North.
Three of Edcouch-Elsa’s four non-district opponents were playoff teams in 2017. Corpus Christi Veterans and Los Fresnos both went three rounds deep into the postseason.
“We tried to give our kids the opportunity to go out and compete at a high level,” Chavez said. “At some point, you’re going to have to play a Corpus Christi team in the playoffs. We want to play top-tier teams that will help prepare us for our end goal: Dallas.”
For teams like Edcouch-Elsa and Mercedes, the idea of traveling to Laredo is a new one.
“We’ve traveled to Roma before,” Mercedes coach Roger Adame Jr. said. “Laredo will be new, but we’ll adjust well to it. We’ve traveled to Calallen in preseason before, so traveling won’t be something new for us. We haven’t played (Laredo) Cigarroa before. We’ll be excited to play them.”
Sharyland Pioneer and Sharyland High are now in a district that leaves space for more non-district opportunities, and both programs are taking advantage. Pioneer will face all 6A schools starting with Harlingen High out of the gate in Week 1 followed by La Joya Juarez-Lincoln, Mission High and Brownsville Rivera.
Sharyland High will contend with four playoff teams from 2017: Brownsville Pace, McAllen Memorial, La Joya High and Brownsville Hanna.
“It’s a tough schedule,” Sharyland High coach Ron Adame said. “The last one against Hanna is really going to prepare us, because they have a lot coming back from that team that almost beat (Edinburg) Vela in the playoffs.”