Monday morning saw the official release for the University Interscholastic League’s district realignment for 2020-2022 school years with no big changes for local teams.
The cutoff numbers had already been released back in December for schools going up or down in classification whereas Monday was the release of districts.
The Jackrabbit’s football team got no breaks as the same hard district stayed put. The Indians’ football program dropped state power Gunter and S&S Consolidated while picking up Valley View. The newcomers have made the playoffs in two of their last three seasons.
The Saint Jo football district drops Savoy, who went 0-4 in district, and picks up charter school TLC-Arlington, a program without much of a track record in six-man.
The Gold-Burg and Forestburg football district will now have four teams as Trinidad joins Ladonia Fannindel. The new Trojans have made the playoffs the last few years, making a playoff berth tougher.
In basketball and volleyball, Bowie and Nocona will no longer have to make the two-hour drive to Childress. The Bobcats were replaced with familiar district foe Jacksboro and Breckenridge. Both programs have held their own in district seven against Brock, Peaster, Boyd, Millsap and Paradise and look to only make the district harder in most cases.
For the 1A volleyball teams, things will still be tough, but different. For the Lady Panthers and Lady Horns, the familiar faces besides each other will be Alvord and Lindsay. The district gets another 1A school with Perrin-Whitt, but new 2A schools include Graford, Poolville and Chico.
What this changes is the automatic playoff berth for both programs. With the Lady Pirates in the mix, one team could stay home for the playoffs.
The district for Prairie Valley and Gold-Burg volleyball teams almost stayed the same. The only difference was the inclusion of another 1A school, Bryson, into the mix. With four 1A teams, the challenge to be one of the top two will be a tougher road as the Cowgirls are coming off a regional tournament appearance.
The 1A basketball district will keep the same seven teams that have been in the district since 2016. Slidell continues to rule on both the boys and girls side as state powers everyone has to deal with and aspire to.
The full district realignment list can be found online at https://realignment.uiltexas.org/.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.