SAN ANGELO, TX—Ever since the University Interscholastic League’s biennial realignment was announced on Feb. 1 and Central was sent with Abilene High to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex in District 3-6A, I’ve heard countless arguments for and against the move.
Yesterday, the UIL made the move final by denying San Angelo ISDs appeal for Central to be removed from the district comprised of Euless Trinity, Haltom City, Hurst LD Bell, North Richland Hills and Weatherford.
Frankly, the UIL got the alignment wrong for every sport aside from football.
For Abilene and Central’s baseball, basketball, soccer and volleyball teams who play twice a week, these frequent trips will mean a considerable amount of time missed because, typically, a team will have a home game on Tuesday and an away game on Friday and vice versa for the second half of district play.
For example, the Central Lady Cats opened up 2017-2018 district play with Killeen Shoemaker on Friday, Dec. 8 and played that same Shoemaker team on the road Tuesday, Jan. 16. Killeen is a three-hour drive and the players weren’t getting home until midnight. That travel time is even worse when you factor in the almost four hour drive to Waco Midway, who the Lady Cats also played on the road on a Tuesday.
But the UIL is proud of their new mapping software which they used for the first time in the 2018-2020 realignment. That’s why they stood firmly by their decision to put Central in District 3-6A.
However, despite the flaws this new district has in terms of travel, it is an opportunity served on a golden platter for Central to grab the state’s attention.
It’s no secret that the Metroplex is the hub for 6A football in Texas. In fact, the Metroplex has been represented a staggering 21 times at the State Championships in the two highest divisions of Texas High School football over the past 15 years. Euless Trinity accounted for four of those 21 appearances.
District 3-6A aligns well in terms of the playoffs, as well.
With the way things fell for teams in the new District 3-6A last season with Central, Euless Trinity, Haltom City and North Richland Hills Richland as the only four teams in the playoffs, Central would fall in to the 6A-D1 playoff bracket.
No matter what seed Central gets or if they’ll be in Division I or II, they will play a team from District 4 which is made up of Arlington and Fort Worth ISD schools in the Bi-District round of playoffs. Last year, the nine team district of Arlington High (10-3), Arlington Bowie (3-7), Arlington Sam Houston (4-6), Arlington Lamar (6-6), Arlington Martin (11-2), Fort Worth Paschal (0-10), Fort Worth Trimble Tech (4-6), Fort Worth Young Men’s Leadership Academy (4-7) and North Crowley (4-6) had a combined record of 47-53. Arlington High was the only team from Arlington in the 6A-D2 playoffs from District 4. Arlington Lamar and Martin both made the 6A-D1 playoffs, however. YMLA made the playoffs as a 5A school.
Hypothetically, let’s say Euless Trinity, a Regional Finalist in 2017, is able to knock off Central. That would put the Bobcats at the bottom half of the Region I-6A DI bracket up against a team like Arlington Martin who is highly favored to win District 4.
Hypothetically, let’s say Central can beat Trinity at home this season. That would put Central at the top half of the Region I bracket against a team like Arlington Lamar.
In the Area Round, the Bobcats would face a team from District 2, their old stomping grounds, or an El Paso team instead of a team from the Metroplex, like they had in 2017.
With Permian taking the top seed in Division I from District 2 last season that means Central would more than likely meet Mojo in the second round, if they finished second and are able to get past Arlington Martin.
Assuming the Bobcats would get past Martin, the lower half of the bracket seems to be a wide open path to the regional final. Coppell (11-2) would be the only serious competition in the lower half of the Division I Region 1 bracket.
On the top half of the bracket, Central would likely face Midland Lee in the second round and Southlake Carrol (10-4) or DeSoto (10-2) in the third round. However, Carrol is currently searching for a new head coach after Hal Wasson was fired.
Playing in this district will mean a better shot at a deep run in the playoffs with Dallas-Fort Worth teams eliminating each other. But the Bobcats will have to eliminate one Metroplex power to make it to the regional final in 2018 where signs point toward another meeting with Euless Trinity.
Playing in the Metroplex area will also mean more notoriety for Central football players who have the talent, but may be overlooked due to geography.
The website 247 Sports has 10 of the top 50 Texan signees in the 2018 recruiting class from the Metroplex, which is second behind the Houston area.
While the travel will be a nightmare for all sports, the Central Bobcat football team truly has a golden opportunity to steal the headlines statewide if they can improve on their success from 2017.
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Comments
nightmare. That is the only thing anybody should be looking at. They are students first and foremost, and requiring them to make at least 5 trips every season to the DFW area is complete nonsense. The people at UIL who did this should be ashamed, and their assertion that this reduces travel for all the schools involved is just completely false. It in fact increases the travel by over 1,000 miles per sport for the schools in District 2-6A and District 3-6A combined with half of that total being incurred by San Angelo Central students. The only way it doesn't is if you do something stupid (we are talking about UIL here, so...) like putting Central back in District 2-6A then moving a school from District 4-6A to District 3-6A to drive to/from Abilene. Even then depending on the exact school you choose the mileage is roughly the same, but at least one school isn't absorbing half the increase all by itself.
Then there is the matter of what effect this will have on the number of students participating in athletics/band/cheerleading/etc. I somehow doubt that participation will be as high when you are replacing 4 easy less than 2 hour trips to Midland/Odessa with 4 nightmarish excursions of 5 hours each way to the metroplex. Even if the student/athlete still wants to do it, not every parent can commit to running over to the school to get their kid at 3:00 a.m when they have to work the next day, so pretty much a given that participation is going to suffer.
Assuming that this is going to be good for football based on past records is kind of dumb. Kids and coaches move on, and that team that was great last year all of a sudden can't fight it's way out of a wet paper sack, while some team you never took seriously before is all of a sudden a force to be reckoned with. Anyway since Sam thinks this is so great I'll look forward to him giving me rides the next 2 years to all the football games up there. I've only missed 1 since my son Sam started playing when he was 4 years old and I don't plan on starting now, but that's a lot of miles on the car and cursing at idiots in the metroplex who can't drive for shit. Don't forget dodging rut crazed deer towards the end of the season.
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