The bi-annual tradition of realignment across Texas continued this winter, and the changes went from minor, and to one district, extremely major. Across UIL and TAPPS, schools are realigned based on the population of their school, and in some instances, their geography as well. For some, this seems to freshen up rivalries and get in new blood. For others, however, there are some hesitations about how it may lead off.
TAPPS didn’t go through a lot of changes in their realignment, with one significant change, one that will no doubt affect football more than the other sports. The San Antonio Christian, St. Anthony Catholic High School, and St. Joseph Academy out of Brownsville will join Hyde Park and the Regents School of Austin in a new District Three in Division Two. This is significant, because both San Antonio Christian and SJA both tied with St. Joseph for the district title in football last season, while Hyde Park, and Regents, who has won 10 straight district titles and coming off of back-to-back state semifinals appearances joins the Frey from Austin. With Regents coming in as one of, if not the top team in the state for next season in football, it may be difficult for the other teams to catch up to the Knights dominance.
In the UIL, the changes were drastically huge than in TAPPS. Westlake and Lake Travis will leave their longtime home of Class 6A District 26 to join District 25, while Buda Hays, being promoted from 5A and a returning Buda Johnson will take their spots that will include Dripping Springs, Akins, Austin, Bowie and Del Valle. District 25 will have a brand new region as well, as that district is now heading to Region Three, meaning the lower seeded teams when it comes to the playoffs will now have to travel, in all likelihood, Houston, to take on a power from that Region. While the lost of a rivalry isn’t the best for some, Dripping Springs Head Baseball Coach Chris Payne believes the action on the field takes precedence. “I’ve always enjoyed playing Westlake and Lake Travis…but, you have to play who’s on the field and (Dripping Springs) don’t care about that, they just want to play an opponent with another name.” Said Coach Payne.
Why not always optical, both the UIL and TAPPS does this every other year to balance out the competition due to population. While some rivalries may go away, it opens up a chance for some new ones to spark up, and make high school sports here in Texas some of the best athletic competition in the country.