On Wednesday the University Interscholastic League released the conference cutoff numbers for the 2022-2024 school years.
The big news for Montague County is Nocona will drop down from 3A classification to 2A for the first time since 2014.
The Indians turned in a 249 enrollment number back on Oct. 29. It turned out to be one student short of the 250 barrier that would have required Nocona to stay in 3A.
This will make the Indians one of if not the largest 2A school in the state for the next two years which has coaches, fans and athletes alike excited for the future.
“This is really big for the town of Nocona,” Athletic Director Blake Crutsinger said. “I know people have been wanting this for a long time and it just helps us be a lot more competitive in everything. We are no longer one of the smallest schools in 3A. Being on the top end of 2A will really help our kids be a lot more competitive.”
Crutsinger also mentioned that besides helping compete better in athletics, this also will help Nocona UIL academics and band.
Outside of the Indians, no other schools in The Bowie News coverage zone are reclassifying. Bowie turned in 497, a good 47 kids away from threatening to go up to 4A. The Jackrabbits will stay in division I when it comes to football.
Among the 1A schools, Saint Jo was the closest to having to reclassify.
The Panthers turned in 99, with the cutoff number being 105 to move up to 2A.
The move up to 2A also would mean transitioning from six-man football to 11-man, which would have caused a whole host of logistical changes Saint Jo avoided.
All of the other 1A schools did not have to worry about going to 2A, but some did have to worry about going up from division II to division I in football. The cutoff number for division I was 59.
Forestburg (52) and Gold-Burg (47) were thankful to be short of that number.
Prairie Valley and Bellevue did not have to worry about that since neither school plays football. The Prairie Valley Bulldogs turned in the second highest number (56) out of the 1A schools in the area while the Eagles turned in the lowest with 40.
You can look up the conference cutoff numbers and enrollment numbers for all of the schools in the state at www.uiltexas.org.
The official district realignments will be released at 9 a.m. on Feb. 3.