Tuesday's Internet Edition, September 07, 2010.
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Sports editor - District 13-5A got a little bigger on Monday when the University Interscholastic League announced the new realignments.
Harker Heights and Killeen Shoemaker are the new additions to the district, which still includes A&M Consolidated, Belton, Bryan, Copperas Cove, Temple and Waco. District 13-5A will still also compete in Region II of Class 5A.
The coaches and athletic directors of District 13-5A all agree on one thing, the addition of Harker Heights and Shoemaker to the district will only elevate the competition.
“Last year District 13-5A was very competitive, and adding these two teams just intensifies that,” said Belton athletic director Jay Warrick. “Harker Heights is building on continued success and Shoemaker is continuing to get better as they are around.”
Harker Heights athletic coordinator Ross Rogers agreed.
“We’ll be competitive,” he said. “This is a challenging move for us and hopefully we have set up a program that whether we are 3A, 4A or 5A we will have success. That is the way we have set things up.”
The district begins play in the fall, and most coaches appreciate the ease that an eight-team district brings to scheduling.
“We are glad to be in an eight-team district,” said A&M Consolidated athletic director Jim Slaughter. “It is going to be very competitive and helps our coaches with scheduling. We don’t have to go so far for so many games.”
Those sentiments were shared throughout the district. With only tentative schedules out for the football season, teams look to be traveling to Houston and the Austin area, and even out to West Texas, but the district schedule should provide some schools a break on bus rides.
Copperas Cove Athletic Director Jack Welch was excited for a different reason.
“I really enjoy having local teams to play,” he said. “It adds to the rivalry in the area.” Welch hopes and anticipates a rivalry between such schools as Belton and Harker Heights, as well as between his own Bulldawgs and Shoemaker. As a coach he is happy to see that students will not have to travel too far during the week for games.
The UIL adjusted several districts in the same fashion, giving Region II five eight-team districts and three with seven teams.
It was no surprise that Heights and Shoemaker were among the 20 teams who made the jump up to 5A. Both schools had student enrollments of over 2,000, with Heights at 2,102 and Shoemaker at 2,044. In comparison, Copperas Cove had 2,053 students at the end of last October.
“We figured that we would be moved to 5A, even though our enrollment has changed in the past,” said Ken Gray, athletic coordinator for Killeen Shoemaker. “We are going from a very tough 4A district to a very tough 5A district. It will be pretty tough in transition for us.”
Martin Allen, the asssistant athletic director for Killeen Independent School District, said that KISD expected that Heights and Shoemaker would be 5A, and that Killeen and Ellison would be 4A.
“What we did not expect though was heading to Region II in 4A,” he said.
This will be the first time since the 1970’s that Killeen schools will head north for the play-offs.
Lampasas High was affected by the realignment and will compete against Killeen and Ellison in the new-look District 16-4A. The district also includes Brownwood, Waco Midway and Waco University.
Gatesville will stay in District 17-3A, as will China Spring, Lorena, Robinson, Waco Connally and Waco La Vega.
The districts in Class A will vary between six-man and 11-man football leagues to Division I and II basketball alignments.
Evant will participate in 11-man football as a member of District 13-A. The other district members are Baird, Cross Plains, Goldthwaite, Gorman and Ranger. In Class A Division I basketball, Evant will compete in District 11 with Goldthwaite, Meridian and Valley Mills.
Oglesby will remain a six-man football team and compete in District 16 with Buckholts, Calvert, Cherokee, Lometa and Prairie Lea. The school will compete in Division II basketball as a member of District 22-1A with Cranfills Gap, Jonesboro, Lometa and Star.
As is generally the case, the new realignments brought with it some interesting changes. Burnet, a perennial 3A powerhouse, will now compete in District 27-4A with Austin Lake Travis, Dripping Springs, Marble Falls, New Braunfels and New Braunfels Canyon.
The new “sister” district for 13-5A will no longer be the bunch that included Leander, Pflugerville and the Round Rock schools. The new bi-district foes will come from the new and improved District 14-5A, which consists of Conroe, Conroe Oak Ridge, The Woodlands, Huntsville, Klein, Klein Collins, Klein Forest and Lufkin.
This time around the cutoff number for 5A schools was 1,925, which allowed for 245 schools in the classification. The 4A class consists of 222 schools with enrollments between 1,924 and 900 students. The numbers for the other classifications were 899-390 for 3A, 389-190 for 2A and 189 and under for 1A.
Harker Heights Evening Star reporter James Love contributed to this story