By ANDREW CRUM
The Brownsville Herald
Changes are coming for the Metro-area high schools.
Once again, the University Interscholastic League made some changes for the 2016-18 school years during its biennial realignment meeting Monday morning in Edinburg.
Brownsville Veterans Memorial and Lopez will move down to Class 5A, joining Porter and Pace in District 32-5A.
Hanna, Rivera, and Los Fresnos will remain in Class 6A and in District 32-6A, but two new schools will be added to the mix.
The new District 32-5A will have Brownsville Veterans, Lopez, Pace, Porter, Mercedes, Edcouch-Elsa, Donna High, Donna North and possibly PSJA Southwest.
Rivera, Hanna, and Los Fresnos will remain in District 32-6A with Harlingen High, Harlingen South, and San Benito. Weslaco High and Weslaco East will be joining the district with Lopez and Brownsville Veterans dropping to Class 5A.
PSJA Southwest has petitioned to move up to Class 6A and be a part of District 31-6A with other schools from its school district, including PSJA High, PSJA Memorial and PSJA North.
PSJA Southwest already has received verbal consent from the other 32-5A athletic coordinators and from those in 31-6A.
“It’s amazing the difference one team can make,” Porter coach Tom Campos said as his team originally had a non-district game set up with PSJA Southwest.
A meeting has been set for at 11 a.m. Tuesday to finalize the district move. Now PSJA Southwest must wait for approval from the UIL, which could come in the next few days.
“There was a curveball that we weren’t expecting with Laredo allowed into 31-5A, so that makes us both have nine-team districts,” Lopez coach Jason Starkey said. “There’s still a question whether (PSJA) Southwest is going to move up (to Class 6A) or not, which could make us an eight-team district.
“I’m happy we got in the district that we thought we’d get in. We’re excited, so now we can turn the focus on what Lopez is doing.”
Pace coach William Deen said it threw a wrench into things because it meant finding different non-district games or opponents.
“It kind of caught us off guard,” he said. “We weren’t expecting a nine-team district, we were expecting an eight-team district.”
With the new District 32-5A, games like the ‘Battle of Southmost,’ Lopez and Porter’s annual rivalry game, just got more intense.
“Our kids like playing Porter, and the Porter kids like playing us,” Starkey said. “I like playing against that staff because I have a lot of respect for Coach (Tom) Campos. It’s always been a great non-district game the last two years, it has really helped us, and now I’m glad we get to see them in district play. It actually counts now, so there’s no room for error.”
Campos agreed and was excited for the postseason chances for a Brownsville school as well.
“That will be very good,” he said of playing the Southmost game as a district game. “Plus, we haven’t played (Brownsville) Veterans in two years. We have a better chance to have a Brownsville team making the playoffs, especially with an eight-team district. The odds are good.”
Deen was happy to see some more familiar faces on the opposite sideline.
“It’s good, we have a lot of fun playing these guys, so it’s exciting,” he said. “You still want to win every game you’re in, but it puts more on the line for us in district games.”
Starkey felt Lopez was back where it should be in Class 5A.
“Being in 5A, I’m proud to be in that district. I think we’ve been a 5A enrollment team for the past couple years, and we finally get an opportunity to compete at that level,” he said. “I’m excited for all our programs, not just football to have that opportunity.
“There is a lot of tradition with Edcouch-Elsa, Mercedes, Donna High, those are three with a lot of tradition in all sports. We’re excited to be a part of that group now.”
Brownsville Veterans coach David Cantu said his team would continue to face Class 6A opponents in non-district games. The Chargers play Edinburg North, Rivera and Edinburg Vela, which just moved up to 6A.
Cantu was happy to face some different opponents.
“I’m excited about it, new opportunities, you can call it a fresh start,” he said. “There are a lot of new teams on our schedule, and that’s always exciting. We feel at (Brownsville) Veterans we set the tradition of not being afraid to face anyone, so we take that same approach and have the same goals of being district champs and going deep in the playoffs. We hope some success we had in 6A will carry over.
“Those teams are all up and coming, they’re all improving. They’re right there with us, so it’s going to be great.”
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.