The University Interscholastic League will announce the new district alignments for football at 9 a.m. today at the Region One Education Services Center in Edinburg, ending months of speculation and prognostication.
The biggest expected shakeup stems from the split of Class 5A schools into two divisions based on enrollment figures. The Class 5A schools with enrollments between 1,840 and 2,189 will be classified as 5A Division I programs. The schools with enrollments falling between 1,150 and 1,839 students will be classified as 5A Division II football programs.
The UIL released each school’s enrollment numbers in early December. According to the UIL’s figures, the Rio Grande Valley has 10 teams classified as 5A Division I football programs: Brownsville Lopez, Brownsville Pace, Brownsville Porter, Brownsville Veterans, Donna High, La Joya Palmview, Mission Veterans, PSJA Memorial, PSJA Southwest and Rio Grande City.
PSJA Memorial coach Michael Uribe has been through a number of realignments during his time at Memorial and his previous tenure at Mercedes. He remembers how the UIL used to do the realignments.
“In the past, they used the map and the pins and the cords and kind of trial and error as they worked across the state of Texas to equalize the amount of teams in each region,” Uribe said.
This year, Uribe said the UIL is using new technology.
“All the information by classification is being put into a computer program that is measuring time of travel, mileage and things like that,” Uribe said. “They are going to figure out all the different variables with regions and different districts. The UIL has never separated ISDs from other districts. For us, they always keep the PSJA schools together, so those are all things that have to get put into the program.”
“I’ve seen enough mock predictions to last a lifetime,” Mission Veterans coach David Gilpin said. “We’ve got the 10 teams from Rio (Grande City) to Brownsville. I don’t see how they can do much different with the Valley.”
In anticipation of the UIL placing the Valley’s 10 Class 5A Division I programs in one district, the 10 football coaches gathered for a meeting at PSJA Stadium on the morning of Jan. 24. At the meeting, the coaches deliberated about whether they should split the 10 teams into separate five-team divisions. As one 10-team district, each team would play nine district games, leaving only one week for non-district competition. As two five-team districts, each school would play four district games.
The coaches took straw polls and the majority decided that the district would not be split up any further and would have a nine-week district schedule, Gilpin said.
The 5A split has largely put teams’ non-district scheduling at a standstill or has severed local rivalries altogether. Mission Veterans faced Harlingen High and Mission High in 2017. Mission Veterans was tentatively scheduled to meet Sharyland High for a third non-district game this season.
“We felt like we had a really good non-district with Harlingen, Mission and Sharyland to get us ready for a potential playoff run,” Gilpin said. “Harlingen has their aggressive defense, Mission has run the ball extremely well the last couple years, and Sharyland has their wide open spread offense.”
Mission Veterans will likely save room for one game: the crosstown rivalry with the Mission Eagles.
“The Mission Veterans-Mission game is one that our administration and community wants us to play,” Gilpin said. “If it falls that way, we’ll play Mission in Week 1.”
Rio Grande City, which currently competes in the nine-team District 31-5A with Mission Veterans, doesn’t see much of a change with the prospect of playing in a bigger district.
“The overall sentiment of our meeting was playing everybody would be the fairest thing for our kids,” Rio Grande City coach Aaron Garcia said. “That way, you fall where you fall. The best teams by record will be the teams representing our district in the playoffs.”
The Class 5A Division II football district has been tougher to gauge for area coaches. Six Valley schools are classified as 5A Division II programs: Edcouch-Elsa, Mercedes, Roma, Sharyland High, Sharyland Pioneer and Valley View.
The six teams could be their own autonomous district, or more schools could be added to the pot. One such school could be Laredo Cigarroa — a school familiar with Valley competition after playing the last two years in District 31-5A.
“The speculation and the talk tells us that it’s going to be a tough district,” Sharyland High coach Ron Adame said. “Adding Edcouch and Mercedes into the mix makes it that much tougher.”
Some believe the district could balloon to nine teams with Cigarroa, Alice and powerhouse Corpus Christi Calallen.
“Coach (Kyle) Atwood just finished up his first year in Alice, and we saw them in the playoffs,” Adame said. “He’s got that program going again. The level of competition will be the same, if not better.”
“Even if it’s just us six, that’s a pretty strong district,” Sharyland Pioneer coach Thomas Lee said. “If we throw in Alice and Calallen, now you’re talking about the best district in the Valley.”
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