Those comments, most of them accompanied by chuckles, came from area athletic directors and coaches when they were asked about the looming University Interscholastic League biennial reclassification and realignment.
At 9 a.m. Monday the UIL will make its much-anticipated announcement of which classifications and districts that sports teams from Texas high schools will compete in during the 2004-05 and 2005-06 academic years.
Although almost all ADs and coaches admit they’ll just have to wait until Monday to find out where they’ll be placed, that hasn’t stopped them from calling each other and trying to guess what’s going to happen.
“You never know, and that’s why this is always an exciting time but also an apprehensive time,” Temple AD and head football coach Tam Hollingshead said. “Realignment comes around and there’s all the questions and uncertainties. We’ll definitely be excited Monday morning.”
The UIL realignment two years ago used these enrollment figures for determining schools’ classifications: those with 1,910 students or more were placed in Class 5A, followed by the 900-1,909 range in 4A, the 345-899 group in 3A, the 180-344 set in 2A, and those with 179 or fewer in Class A.
“What supposedly has happened this time is they’re going from 225 5A schools to 245, so I don’t think they’ll raise the (5A/4A cutoff) number,” Hollingshead said. “But we just don’t know. Everything’s up in the air. What if they raise the number to 2,000?”
Two years ago, the big news in the area was Belton’s ascent from 4A to 5A — one it appealed, unsuccessfully, to the UIL because of a disagreement about enrollment — and into District 13-5A along with Temple, Copperas Cove, Waco, Bryan, and College Station A&M Consolidated.
Now the hot topic, at least at the 5A level, is who’ll join Temple, Belton, Cove, and likely Waco in a new district. Hollingshead and Belton AD/head football coach Jay Warrick are expecting that the increased enrollments of Harker Heights and Killeen Shoemaker will send those schools from 4A into 5A.
If that happens and Bryan and A&M Consol aren’t shifted closer to Houston, the result would be an eight-team district. Even if they’re moved, the UIL could make it an eight-team district by going south and pulling in Leander and Cedar Park or perhaps Georgetown and Pflugerville.
“If the UIL decides to go with all eight-team districts (in 5A) then there are several things that could happen,” Warrick said. “They could just add Harker Heights and Shoemaker, who have a pretty good chance to move up from 4A.
“Or if Bryan and Consol aren’t in this district, then they could add Heights and Shoemaker plus two schools from District 14. But all of that is contingent on whether the UIL wants eight-team districts and whether Bryan and Consolidated are still in here with us.”
Added Hollingshead: “I think Bryan and A&M staying (in the Temple-Belton district) is 50/50, I really do.”
In Lampasas, AD/head football coach Mark Kehoe said he believes the 984-student enrollment his school reported to the UIL will keep the Badgers in 4A. However, he’s in the dark about which region and district they’ll join.
“I have no idea,” he said. “We could be in with the Waco schools (University and Hewitt Midway), or we may go in a different direction. We’ve been down with Dripping Springs. There’s a ton of possibilities.”
Troy, which in recent years has been either a giant in 2A or a dwarf in 3A, likely will remain in 3A for the third consecutive realignment, according to AD/head football coach Mike McMurtry. Troy turned in an enrollment of 389 — 44 students more than the previous minimum for 3A.
“The numbers have not moved much historically, so I expect us to stay 3A,” he said. “But I’ve heard (rumors) that jaws will drop in 2A and 3A, so I say nobody in the state has a clue except the guys at the UIL.
“I would not be shocked (if Troy returned to 2A), but I’m not going to cry about it if we stay in 3A.”
