Supersized Class 6A districts draw couple of mixed reviews
Westlake football coach Todd Dodge counts himself as a big fan of the nine-school super district the Chaparrals now call home. Vandegrift’s Drew Sanders, though, has a decidedly different view of the similarly sized District 13-6A.
When the University Interscholastic League unveiled its biennial realignment of state high schools on Thursday, Class 6A teams in the Austin area were lumped into two large districts — 13-6A and 25-6A. For the past two years, they have been spread across three smaller 6A districts.
For Westlake, Vandegrift and every other Class 6A team in the Austin area, their non-district football schedules will include only a pair of games. By mid-September, every game will count in the race for a playoff berth.
“I like the fact that our third game of the season will be in district play,” Dodge, whose team landed in 25-6A, said Thursday during a gathering of coaches at Reeves Athletic Complex in North Austin. “The sense of urgency for your team comes a lot quicker.”
Dodge already has his non-district games set. The Chaparrals will play Belton and Cypress Ranch.
Vandegrift, which has spent the past two years in the same district as powerhouses Westlake and Lake Travis, now finds itself in 13-6A, a Williamson County-heavy district. So instead of lining up against the Chaparrals and the Cavaliers, the Vipers will have new rivals, including Round Rock, Cedar Ridge and Westwood.
But while Dodge favors a nine-team district, Sanders would prefer a smaller league.
“My personal feeling is that my team is equipped for success no matter what district we’re in, but playing fewer non-district games does give us less time to evaluate our talent,” Sanders said.
Most of the coaches gathered at Reeves Athletic Complex on Thursday were scurrying to find non-district games to fill out their team’s schedule. Lake Travis head coach Hank Carter struggled to find two willing opponents because few want to play a six-time state champion.
Rouse coach Joshua Mann said he understood Carter’s plight. “It’s not fun to be good,” Mann said.
By Thursday evening, Carter said he had lined up one non-district game for the Cavaliers — vs. Arlington Martin.
Kicking off new programs: Pflugerville Weiss and Leander Glenn won’t be the only schools playing their inaugural varsity football seasons in the fall. Manor New Tech High also will be launching a varsity athletic program, and the school’s football team will compete in District 10-3A, Division I against Cameron Yoe, Jarrell, Lago Vista, Rockdale, Troy and Little River Academy. Previously, New Tech student-athletes competed for Manor High, which dropped from Class 6A to Class 5A in the latest realignment.
That’s a road trip: LBJ’s interim football coach, Jahmal Fenner, called on an old friend to fill out his team’s non-district schedule. Among the four non-district games for the Jaguars will be a matchup at Los Fresnos. The link? When Fenner was a cornerback at UTEP from 2001-04, one of his teammates was offensive lineman Jose Horner, now the defensive coordinator at Los Fresnos.
The Jaguars, who will travel roughly 350 miles to reach Los Fresnos, will open the 2018 season against Elgin. They also have non-district games scheduled against Waco La Vega and Manor.
Different-looking district: Dripping Springs coach Galen Zimmerman said he “anticipated” the move into a new UIL district that included other Austin-area schools, but he didn’t know the likely lineup of new opponents. On Thursday, Zimmerman learned the Tigers will play five teams from the Austin school district, including LBJ, McCallum — a Class 5A, Division II state semifinalist — and Reagan. Seguin also landed in 12-5A, Division I with the Tigers.
Dripping Springs, which played against such San Antonio-area schools as Alamo Heights and Kerrville Tivy the past two years, will have a competitive edge in its new district. The Tigers had a combined 185 players on their varsity and sub-varsity teams last season. In contrast, none of the Austin schools in his new district had as many as 100 kids participating in the sport.
“We can compete, for sure,” Zimmerman said, “but every team is different and every year is different. We should be in the top half of the district to make the playoffs, but you still have to play.”