DENNIS SILVA II | STAFF WRITER
EDINBURG —The University Interscholastic League’s biennial reclassification and realignment is a crapshoot. That was never more evident than Monday, when the UIL, the state’s governing body for high school athletics, threw Rio Grande Valley’s Class 5A some curveballs when it released its arrangement for 2016-18.
Three Laredo schools join reconfigured District 31-5A, as Laredo Cigarroa, Laredo Martin and Laredo Nixon team with Sharyland High, Sharyland Pioneer, Mission Veterans Memorial, Valley View, Rio Grande City and Roma for a nine-team league.
“We all have ideas coming in (to realignment), and then none of it ever happens,” Roma athletic coordinator Max Habecker Jr. said. “We had this situation maybe third of our possibilities, and it ends up happening. It is what it is.”
Projections coming into Monday had PSJA Southwest moving from District 32-5A to 31-5A with members Sharyland High, Pioneer, Mission Vets, Valley View, Rio Grande City and Roma to keep 31-5A at seven teams. That would have swapped Southwest for Edinburg Vela, which moved up to Class 6A.
Instead, the new look adds more travel and teams to 31-5A, and allows Southwest to appeal to move up to Class 6A to join sister schools PSJA North, PSJA Memorial and PSJA High in District 31-6A.
Instead of going to 31-5A, Southwest was realigned in District 32-5A with Donna High, Donna North, Edcouch-Elsa, Mercedes, Brownsville Pace, Brownsville Porter and two Brownsville schools that moved down, Veterans Memorial and Lopez. That turned the eight-team 32-5A into a nine-team district.
“The whole plan was thinking we’d go to the west, but they put us to the east with the Brownsvilles and Edcouch-Elsas and those guys and made it a nine-team district,” PSJA ISD athletic director Orlando Garcia said. “Traditionally, football coaches like an eight-team district. Scheduling-wise, it just works out.”
Southwest had expected to stay in Class 5A because it missed the fall deadline to petition to move up. But once Garcia saw Monday that 32-5A had expanded by one school to nine teams, the thought of appealing to move up crossed his mind.
“(The UIL) threw a wrench in this whole thing,” Garcia said. “Curve ball. Immediately when I saw it, my thinking was to go feel 32-5A out, and even a few guys from them came to me saying they’d let us go. Seeing nine teams just gave it the go.”
District 32-5A athletic coordinators agreed that an eight-team district is ideal. A nine-team district means one less non-district game and one more team competing for four playoff spots.
“It evens up everything, and it means more possibilities for our teams in terms of making the playoffs and having more teams in the playoff picture,” Donna ISD athletic director Manny Moreno said. “We were willing to grant it.”
Southwest’s appeal would place it in District 31-6A with its sister schools, and the four Edinburg schools —Vela, Edinburg High, Edinburg North and Economedes.
To appeal, Southwest needs unanimous approval from 32-5A and 31-6A members, which it received verbally from both districts Monday. It will also need approval from the UIL.
Garcia said he expects to get formal approval in meetings with 32-5A and 31-6A coordinators Tuesday, and plans to formally appeal to the UIL on Wednesday afternoon. Garcia has until Feb. 11 to appeal to move up.
“Hopefully there are no bumps in the road when we get to the UIL part, but I’m guessing they’ll give us the green light knowing that everybody else is in agreement,” Garcia said.
Added Moreno: “Unless something changes overnight, I think it should be a given they’ll go up.”
Meanwhile, the district Southwest was expected to join — 31-5A — finds itself in a surprising situation with the Laredo schools jumping on board, but one it can’t control.
Another realignment, another shocking turn of events.
“Every time there’s a realignment, there’s some surprises,” Sharyland High athletic coordinator Ron Adame said. “This year, that’s one of them. It’s something we had anticipated happening, but it’s beyond our control and we’ll go with it. We just have to be ready to travel.”