By ANDREW CRUM | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
EDINBURG — The University Interscholastic League decided to shake up things in Class 5A with two divisions in football.
As a result, four Brownsville schools — Brownsville Veterans Memorial, Lopez, Pace and Porter — found out they will be a part of the new District 16-5A, Division I for football during Thursday’s biennial reclassification and realignment meeting for the 2018-20 school years.
And with several other Rio Grande Valley schools fitting similar enrollment numbers between 1,840-2,189, there wasn’t much of an option other than put them all together. Joining the aforementioned Brownsville schools will be Donna High, Rio Grande City, Mission Veterans Memorial and three schools that dropped down from Class 6A to 5A, PSJA Memorial, PSJA Southwest and La Joya Palmview to form a 10-team district.
It’s a mix of reaction from the coaches regarding different aspects of having such a large district. Scheduling though for once, was much easier.
“It made this day as a coach pretty easy,” Lopez coach Jason Starkey said of having to find just one non-district game to go with nine district games. “My schedule is set and I don’t have to run around and find games like I know some of my colleagues have to do right now with a smaller district than anticipated.”
But Starkey said he was sad to say goodbye to some former district foes.
“Honestly, I’ll miss Mercedes and Edcouch-Elsa because I respect the leaders of those programs and it was great to engage in those atmospheres and those type of games,” he said. “I’m welcoming the others … we’ve never played Rio Grande City, so that will be a nice little road trip. I’m a fan on getting on the bus and going for a drive.”
With only one non-district games and nine district games, it requires teams to get ready much quicker in the offseason.
“The sense of urgency when we’re able to start will be up a few notches as far as trying to get ready as quick as we can,” Brownsville Veterans coach David Cantu said. “The spring will be more critical, and in August we can’t waste any time. It will have to be as efficient as possible. We’re used to on average having three non-district games to work the kinks out, but all the teams will be in the same position.
“The fact that they all matter so much, so early, is definitely a difference.”
Although Pace coach Danny Pardo sees it from a little different perspective.
“We have a lot of kids coming back so it doesn’t affect us too much,” he said regarding an earlier start to the district season. “By the time we get to Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, we have a generally good idea where we want kids, it’s just minor tweaks later on.
“It doesn’t change the way we do things. We still play the same number of games, they just count a little more this time.”
Starkey was also an advocate for a nine-game district season.
“I like the attitude of the second game we’re playing for keeps,” he said. “It’s a college atmosphere … every game matters. I feel in the past Lopez has been ready to play early and if anything we’ve struggled to maintain that through the year. I’m excited. I welcome the challenge, it will be new and different, but I think it will be good.”
It’s a chance to play different competition in different places, although the travel cost will be a little more based on the distance between some of the schools.
“I’m looking forward to it,” PSJA Southwest coach Mike Evans said. “I’m excited for our kids to play a lot of different places, see a lot of the Valley. We didn’t have a lot of travel last year between Pharr and Edinburg, so this will be a lot of travel.” Cantu agreed with the variety of venues.
“Personally, I love to play different teams and be in different stadiums,” he said. “I’m very happy it worked out this way.”
The coaches were adamant about avoiding zone play within district. None of them seemed to like the idea of only playing half of the district teams and getting the playoff teams from the records during those five games.
There are some familiar faces and foes among the newly formed district. Evans will face some family members and some former coaches, sometimes during the same game. Evans father, Dave, is the defensive coordinator at Brownsville Veterans under Cantu, the same position he held before he left for the top job at
PSJA Southwest. Evans brother, Marc, is a coordinator at PSJA Memorial.
“We’re a competitive family,” Mike Evans said. “So we’ll enjoy the competition.”
Cantu is also looking forward to the interfamily battles.
“They’ll be a couple of those family feuds … I guess we’ll call them that,” he said. “They’re all competitors, so they’re all going to want bragging rights at home … it does make it more interesting.”
Last season, Lopez lost to Mission Veterans in a tight, bi-district playoff game. This upcoming season, they’ll meet again, but this time as district opponents.
“I’m excited and I know the kids will be too to play Mission Veterans,” Starkey said. “That was a great playoff game. We have tremendous respect for them … so we’re looking forward to lining up across from them again.”
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.