SVite
02-10-2006, 10:13 AM
By Will Wright
The Herald-Zeitung
Published February 10, 2006
The University Interscholastic League’s recent realignment — and it’s messy aftershocks — have rumbled deep into Comal County, where they have affected each of the three high schools.
Coaches at New Braunfels, Canyon and Smithson Valley spent part of this week lining up new football opponents after the ones they had set up last week pulled out of verbal commitments they made before major happenings shuffled District 17-4A and District 26-5A schools.
Incorrect enrollment data submitted by Austin Johnston and San Antonio Lee wound up sending both schools back to their former classifications and former districts, leaving a ripple effect felt here.
New Braunfels and Canyon had to drop games with Austin Crockett and Austin McCallum, respectively, after Johnston moved back into 4A from 3A. Smithson Valley had to drop two games and pick up another because of Lee’s re-elevation from 4A back into 5A.
District 26-5A coaches met Thursday to redesign football schedules left in tatters because of Lee’s plight.
“We’re going to petition to get into the North Houston league now, because that’s all we have in nondistrict,” joked Smithson Valley coach Larry Hill, whose agreements with Odessa Permian and Kerrville Tivy were shelved. Hill’s Rangers will now play The Woodlands in Zero Week and Spring in Week 1.
As widely publicized over the past week, Lee, currently in 26-5A, was placed in 27-4A in the University Interscholastic League’s 2006-08 realignment, released Feb. 2. That left eight schools — the North East district’s five remaining high schools, two from Converse and Smithson Valley — in a new 26-5A.
However, unbeknownst to the UIL, the Volunteers’ average daily membership (ADM) of 1,968 didn’t include about 450 students enrolled at its magnet school, the International School of the Americas (ISA).
Outraged parents of ISA students who were to be shut out of athletics for 2006-08 protested, and red-faced NEISD officials were forced into petitioning the UIL to reclassify Lee — and its new number of 2,390 students — in Class 5A.
The UIL gave the OK on Wednesday, and it’s assumed the state’s governing body for school activities will officially put Lee in a nine-team 26-5A for the next two years. That won’t officially happen until Feb. 20, when all appeals are held and all decisions finalized.
“We’re all set — assuming something doesn’t happen between now and the last appeal day,” Hill said. “The UIL had to do something, and I suppose it was the quickest, easiest fix. I don’t know if they would’ve done it that way back when they first started this process.
“But you still disrupted people. A lot of people had to drop games and then find games.”
Hill was lucky enough Wednesday to get Spring on the schedule. Coaches in so many districts have been affected by the movements of several schools, not only in Central Texas and San Antonio but statewide. Here, Lee’s move to 26-5A left 27-4A coaches short one game, Tivy was shorted two games after Smithson Valley pulled out.
Like Lee, Austin Johnston is a sports doormat in its current district, 25-4A. Johnston also forgot to include its magnet school in its enrollment, which dropped it into Class 3A.
Aligned in 18-3A along with perennial playoff teams Liberty Hill, Hutto, Cameron Yoe, Taylor and Rockdale, Johnston wasn’t going to come out ahead after all. Perhaps realizing that, Austin school officials readjusted Johnston’s ADM numbers. The UIL elevated the school back into 4A — and caused havoc with the schedules of the district it left and the district it re-entered, which is now 17-4A.
Because New Braunfels and Canyon scheduled games with 17-4A’s Crockett and McCallum, that mess trickled down here. Tivy coach Mark Smith hooked up with Canyon’s Les Davis, and those schools worked out a predistrict game.
“Hopefully there won’t be any more changes,” said Davis, remembering the mess of two years ago when the UIL first aligned McCollum and Harlandale away from each other, a move that eventually forced the Cougars into predistrict games against Uvalde and Medina Valley.
“I remember that it was all we could do,” Davis said. “You had to grab what you could get.”
Informed by Crockett of its situation Monday, New Braunfels coach Chuck Caniford quickly went to the Texas High School Football Coaches Association’s Web site and got a predistrict game against Beeville Jones.
“It was just one of those deals — trying to find a game at this stage is tough,” Caniford said. “We were lucky to find a Week 2 game that wasn’t too far to have to play.”
The Herald-Zeitung
Published February 10, 2006
The University Interscholastic League’s recent realignment — and it’s messy aftershocks — have rumbled deep into Comal County, where they have affected each of the three high schools.
Coaches at New Braunfels, Canyon and Smithson Valley spent part of this week lining up new football opponents after the ones they had set up last week pulled out of verbal commitments they made before major happenings shuffled District 17-4A and District 26-5A schools.
Incorrect enrollment data submitted by Austin Johnston and San Antonio Lee wound up sending both schools back to their former classifications and former districts, leaving a ripple effect felt here.
New Braunfels and Canyon had to drop games with Austin Crockett and Austin McCallum, respectively, after Johnston moved back into 4A from 3A. Smithson Valley had to drop two games and pick up another because of Lee’s re-elevation from 4A back into 5A.
District 26-5A coaches met Thursday to redesign football schedules left in tatters because of Lee’s plight.
“We’re going to petition to get into the North Houston league now, because that’s all we have in nondistrict,” joked Smithson Valley coach Larry Hill, whose agreements with Odessa Permian and Kerrville Tivy were shelved. Hill’s Rangers will now play The Woodlands in Zero Week and Spring in Week 1.
As widely publicized over the past week, Lee, currently in 26-5A, was placed in 27-4A in the University Interscholastic League’s 2006-08 realignment, released Feb. 2. That left eight schools — the North East district’s five remaining high schools, two from Converse and Smithson Valley — in a new 26-5A.
However, unbeknownst to the UIL, the Volunteers’ average daily membership (ADM) of 1,968 didn’t include about 450 students enrolled at its magnet school, the International School of the Americas (ISA).
Outraged parents of ISA students who were to be shut out of athletics for 2006-08 protested, and red-faced NEISD officials were forced into petitioning the UIL to reclassify Lee — and its new number of 2,390 students — in Class 5A.
The UIL gave the OK on Wednesday, and it’s assumed the state’s governing body for school activities will officially put Lee in a nine-team 26-5A for the next two years. That won’t officially happen until Feb. 20, when all appeals are held and all decisions finalized.
“We’re all set — assuming something doesn’t happen between now and the last appeal day,” Hill said. “The UIL had to do something, and I suppose it was the quickest, easiest fix. I don’t know if they would’ve done it that way back when they first started this process.
“But you still disrupted people. A lot of people had to drop games and then find games.”
Hill was lucky enough Wednesday to get Spring on the schedule. Coaches in so many districts have been affected by the movements of several schools, not only in Central Texas and San Antonio but statewide. Here, Lee’s move to 26-5A left 27-4A coaches short one game, Tivy was shorted two games after Smithson Valley pulled out.
Like Lee, Austin Johnston is a sports doormat in its current district, 25-4A. Johnston also forgot to include its magnet school in its enrollment, which dropped it into Class 3A.
Aligned in 18-3A along with perennial playoff teams Liberty Hill, Hutto, Cameron Yoe, Taylor and Rockdale, Johnston wasn’t going to come out ahead after all. Perhaps realizing that, Austin school officials readjusted Johnston’s ADM numbers. The UIL elevated the school back into 4A — and caused havoc with the schedules of the district it left and the district it re-entered, which is now 17-4A.
Because New Braunfels and Canyon scheduled games with 17-4A’s Crockett and McCallum, that mess trickled down here. Tivy coach Mark Smith hooked up with Canyon’s Les Davis, and those schools worked out a predistrict game.
“Hopefully there won’t be any more changes,” said Davis, remembering the mess of two years ago when the UIL first aligned McCollum and Harlandale away from each other, a move that eventually forced the Cougars into predistrict games against Uvalde and Medina Valley.
“I remember that it was all we could do,” Davis said. “You had to grab what you could get.”
Informed by Crockett of its situation Monday, New Braunfels coach Chuck Caniford quickly went to the Texas High School Football Coaches Association’s Web site and got a predistrict game against Beeville Jones.
“It was just one of those deals — trying to find a game at this stage is tough,” Caniford said. “We were lucky to find a Week 2 game that wasn’t too far to have to play.”