By ANDREW CRUM | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
EDINBURG — It always seems that the University Interscholastic League likes to throw a curve into the reclassification and realignment of its schools for the next two years of high school football.
It certainly seemed that way to coaches in District 32-6A and District 16-4A, Division II, during Thursday’s meeting.
Hanna, Rivera and Los Fresnos will remain in District 32-6A with Harlingen High, Harlingen South and San Benito. It becomes a six-team district because Weslaco High and Weslaco East, previously in District 32-6A, moved to District 31-6A. It especially made scheduling non-district games much harder.
“Last year we eight good teams in our district, now we’re looking at six good teams,” Hanna coach Mark Guess said. “It’s still going to be a dog fight to get that district championship and playoff spot. The biggest thing is to find non-district games to get you ready for that tough district. We feel we have a tough non-district schedule as it is, but we’re trying to find that fifth game and not have two open weeks and only play nine games … it is what it is.”
Los Fresnos coach Patrick Brown was having trouble filling his non-district schedule as well.
“Not adding another team to the district is a killer for us,” he said. “Now it means everyone in our district is going to have to go a long distance to play someone.
The only other six-team districts are in El Paso and the Midland area.
“Trying to find a Week 5 game is almost impossible.”
With Weslaco High and Weslaco East on the move to District 31-6A with Donna North (who moved up from Class 5A to 6A), it created a seven-team district.
District 30-6A has eight teams. With a total of 21 teams among these districts and District 32-6A in the Rio Grande Valley, coaches were surprised that each wasn’t finalized with seven teams.
“We didn’t see that coming, it was kind of a blindside,” Guess said. “We figured it would be seven, eight or nine in our district.”
Brown was caught off guard as well. He expected to see three seven-team districts rather than eight, seven and six.
“It doesn’t make sense,” he said. “I would have taken anyone in the Valley (to add to the district opponents). It throws off our plans; this isn’t a vision that any of us could have foreseen. We thought it was more likely to have an eight- or nine-team district.
“It’s mind-blowing that it worked out the way it did, but it is what it is and we’ll make it work.”
In the new District 16-4A, Division II, Port Isabel remains with Progreso, Raymondville and Rio Hondo. West Oso and Orange Grove move to District 15-4A, Division II with other schools in the Corpus Christi area.
Port Isabel, as well as the other three schools, get a free pass into the postseason for the next two seasons. But the problem with only four teams is being forced to fill the schedule with seven non-district games to reach a full season of 10 games.
The Tarpons will have to figure that out as well as the Raiders, Golden Eagles and Falcons will do in the new District 32-6A. The coaches saw the positives and the negatives but weren’t sure which had the upper hand yet.
“Our district is still tough as heck,” Brown said. “But now you’re going to play four or five monsters in pre-district (games) and hopefully you’re not beat up by the time you get to district. On the other hand, it gives you half your season where you’re playing basically scrimmages … you want to win those games, but they don’t count toward district.”
Guess agreed regarding the split season.
“It’s putting us in a tough position, but we have to do what we’ve got to do,” he said. “The only good thing is we have five weeks to get the kinks worked out … its good and bad.
“We’ll do what we can with the cards we’re dealt and make the best of it.”
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.