Carroll's AJ Martinez, Flour Bluff's Chris Steinbruck, Tuloso-Midway's Wade Miller and Alice's Kyle Atwood talk about their impressions and some challenges they faced after the new districts were announced. Quinton Martinez
Football did not throw the curveball in Thursday's University Interscholastic League Realignment.
It was basketball and the alignment for non-football sports that resulted in the most head scratching in Class 5A alignments on Thursday at the Region 2 Service Center.
The 11-team 30-5A was split with five schools going west to form 29-5A and the six Corpus Christi Independent School District schools going east to form a new district 30-5A.
Flour Bluff's removal from a district with CCISD schools and inclusion with the peripheral schools of the former District 30-5A was one shocker.
More: 2018 UIL Realignment: Premont's resurgence has come full circle
More: UPDATED: Old District 30-5A split up as UIL announces realignment
The inclusion of Laredo Martin and Laredo Cigarroa was the other, creating a seven-team 29-5A in basketball and volleyball (Alice, Calallen, Flour Bluff, Gregory-Portland, Laredo Cigarroa, Laredo Martin, Tuloso-Midway) and a nine-team 30-5A with the CCISD schools, Victoria East, Victoria West and Port Lavaca Calhoun.
Corpus Christi schools had been tied to Laredo as well as Victoria and Port Lavaca, so we aren't entering completely new territory, but the fact Flour Bluff will drive past other 5A schools to get to their district games drew interesting reactions.
In football it was very likely that the Division I district would include Victoria East and West to make a nine-team district.
When it did happen, several coaches had to shuffle to fill holes in their schedule, vacated by CCISD schools, including Alice and Calallen.
The Coyotes added Rockport-Fulton to fill their gap, but Calallen football coach and athletic director Phil Danaher was working the phone lines an hour after the new alignments had been distributed.
It's not always easy to pick up non-district football games when you're the winningest football coach in Texas high school football history.
"It turned out the way I thought it would, the way I predicted it all along," Danaher said. "What hurt is Corpus getting a nine-team district so we lost a Game 3. Trying to find someone to play us is a problem."
Gregory-Portland's Rick Rhoades was pleased with the Division I and Division II breakdown.
"I think it turned out really good for us. I thought there was a chance Port Lavaca would come in with us, but I didn't think they would come with us if we went north toward San Antonio," Rhoades said. "That was a bit of a surprise. You have to like it. You are playing schools that are about your size."
In football Alice, Calallen, G-P and T-M join Calhoun, Somerset, San Antonio Southside and Floresville to create an eight-team District 15-5A Division II.
Carroll, Flour Bluff, King, Miller, Moody, Ray, Veterans Memorial and Victoria East and West make up the nine-team football District 15-5A Division I.
CCISD senior director of athletics Brenda Marshall said the only thing that was different than their expectation was the inclusion of Port Lavaca Calhoun in non-football sports along with the omission of Flour Bluff.
Looking at the big picture
Though the UIL had a new task with split divisions in Class 5A, it appears the organization created a wide-open Region IV for the second consecutive realignment.
Class 5A Division I does not have the landmines in football that have blocked local schools from making deep playoff runs.
Flour Bluff and Veterans Memorial both advanced to the third round in 2017. Among the rest of what is now Region IV, five teams lost in the first round and three — Victoria West, Brownsville Veterans Memorial and Mission Memorial won one game.
Rosenberg Terry, Richmond Foster, Angleton, Austin McCallum and Dripping Springs are now in Region III.
Region IV in Division II has not cleared out as much, but outside of Brenham, Kerrville Tivy and Boerne Champion, the power still lies in the Coastal Bend.
Calallen advanced to the regional final and Alice went three rounds last fall. Elsewhere, Tivy lasted beyond the second round and the Antlers were ousted by the Wildcats.
What they said
- "We were under the impression that it was going to be like that and the Victoria schools were going to come in. It makes a competitive district. The Bluff, Veterans and (Victoria) West were playoff teams last year and East the year before. It is going to be a tough district." — Carroll athletic coordinator A.J. Martinez
- "Football-wise it looked like what we were expecting. We were thinking it might be a seven-team district and we got into an eight-team with three south San Antonio schools and Port Lavaca. It is kind of what we expected. We're excited to know where we stand and ready to go to work from here." — Alice athletic director Kyle Atwood
- "It was exactly what we thought it would be with East and West. There wasn't much to do when you looked at the map and looked at the Division I schools. There weren't many options and we are real excited about it. Victoria East and West have been in our district before and they are great programs that we continued to play in pre-district. We are very familiar with them. We're coming from an 11-team (district) to a nine-team district that we feel is just as difficult." — Flour Bluff athletic director Chris Steinbruck
- "It was pretty close to what I think we all thought. It just makes sense the way it lines up around the other districts in the state. We are excited to play some different teams and still get to have some rivalries in our preseason games." — Tuloso-Midway athletic director Wade Miller
- "(Flour Bluff) has to go all the way through Corpus to get through other schools (in the non-football district) but it seems like every year the UIL does something like that to somebody. I think it is going to be a good district. That was where I was worried. I kind of had an idea football-wise but I was worried about what they were going to do with our other sports. I like it. We'll have to drive to Laredo on a Tuesday night, which is something I'm not looking forward to, but otherwise I thought it turned out really good." — Gregory-Portland athletic director Rick Rhoades
- "You never know what the UIL is going to do, but we heard this was a possible scenario. It is what it is and we'll be ready to play when it comes around." — Miller athletic coordinator Justen Evans
CLASS 5A
FOOTBALL
DIVISION I
District 15 — Carroll, Flour Bluff, Veterans Memorial, King, Miller, Moody, Ray, Victoria East, Victoria West
DIVISION II
District 15 — Alice, Calallen, Tuloso-Midway, Floresville, Gregory-Portland, Port Lavaca Calhoun, San Antonio Southside, Somerset
BASKETBALL/VOLLEYBALL
District 29 — Alice, Calallen, Flour Bluff, Tuloso-Midway, Gregory-Portland, Laredo Cigarroa, Laredo Martin
District 30 — Carroll, Veterans Memorial, King, Miller, Moody, Ray, Port Lavaca Calhoun, Victoria East, Victoria West
CLASS 4A
FOOTBALL
DIVISION I
District 15 — Beeville, Boerne, Gonzales, La Vernia, Pleasanton
District 16 — Hidalgo, Kingsville, La Feria, Rio Grande City, Zapata
DIVISION II
District 15 — West Oso, Ingleside, Orange Grove, Robstown, Rockport-Fulton, Sinton
BASKETBALL/VOLLEYBALL
District 31-4A — Beeville, West Oso, Ingleside, Kingsville, Orange Grove, Robstown, Rockport-Fulton, Sinton
CLASS 3A
FOOTBALL
DIVISION I
District 16 — Aransas Pass, Bishop, Falfurrias, George West, Lyford, Mathis, San Diego, Santa Gertrudis Academy
DIVISION II
District 15 — Dilley, Natalia, Nixon Smiley, Poth, Skidmore-Tynan, Stockdale
District 16 — Banquete, London, Hebbronville, Monte Alto, Odem, Santa Rosa, Taft
BASKETBALL/VOLLEYBALL
District 29 — Aransas Pass, George West, Goliad, Mathis, Odem, Skidmore-Tynan, Taft
District 31 — Banquete, Bishop, London, Falfurrias, Hebbronville, San Diego, Santa Gertrudis Academy
CLASS 2A
FOOTBALL
DIVISION I
District 16 — Ben Bolt, Freer, Refugio, Riviera, Santa Maria, Three Rivers
DIVISION II
District 16 — Agua Dulce, Benavides, La Villa, Premont, Woodsboro, Bruni
BASKETBALL
District 30 — Falls City, Kenedy, Pettus, Port Aransas, Refugio, Three Rivers, Woodsboro
District 31 — Agua Dulce, Ben Bolt, Benavides, Freer, Premont, Riviera
VOLLEYBALL
District 28 — Kenedy, Pettus, Refugio, Woodsboro, Yorktown, Austwell-Tivoli, Nordheim, Runge
District 31 — Agua Dulce, Ben Bolt, Benavides, Charlotte, Freer, Three Rivers, Bruni, McMullen County
District 32 — La Villa, Lasara, Premont, Riviera, San Isidro, San Perlita, Santa Maria
CLASS A
BASKETBALL
District 32 — Austwell-Tivoli, Bruni, Nordheim, Runge, McMullen County
