Texas UIL realignment creates football scheduling excitement ... or chaos

It’s like an extra Christmas morning, every two years, when football coaches all across the state meet for the UIL’s realignment.

The UIL, which organizes all the major extra-curricular activities for the state’s approximately 1,200 public and charter schools, conducts a biennial realignment of competition districts in football and basketball to account for population shifts and the opening of new schools.

This year’s announcement at 9 a.m. Monday will be televised live on Fox Sports Southwest. Tarrant County-area coaches will gather at Birdville school district’s Fine Arts/Athletics Complex to iron out football plans through 2017.

“It’s the best kept secret in Texas,” Arlington Martin coach Bob Wager said. “There’s conversation going on all over the room. Sometimes you go in thinking you know who’s in your district, but you don’t know how many teams are in it.”

Since football district games are determined with the news, the biggest task for coaches is finding teams to fill their nondistrict schedule, not just for varsity, but for all of their teams.

“Teams around here normally carry the same amount of [sub-varsity] teams, sometimes that’s not the case,” Saginaw coach Mike Peters said. “So it can be stressful to piece games together, the same schedule for varsity, junior varsity and freshman teams.”

Some coaches wing it and others have plans set up only to go with plan B.

“Everybody is there, and once the realignment is announced, games are scheduled at a rapid pace,” Wager added.

The emphasis is finding a worthy opponent so coaches know what kind of program they have before district play begins.

“It can be difficult at times,” Peters said. “You just look for those high-caliber teams, those top tier teams. You look for competitive games.”

Some coaches, such as Mansfield Legacy’s Chris Melson, don’t get too stressed over the event.

“You do the best you can. You can’t do anything about it, so it’s no sweat. It’s a guessing game,” Melson said.

Other coaches feel it’s pure pandemonium. Grapevine coach Randy Jackson was hired after the previous realignment.

“Whatever district you may think you’re in, the UIL will find some way to put you with a team you never thought of being with,” Jackson said. “As for nondistrict, it’s kind of a science.”

In the previous realignment, Class 6A Mansfield, which went to the state semifinals last season, was fighting to find one more nondistrict opponent and spent the past two years playing 5A Fort Worth Eastern Hills.

Some schools will be moving down from 6A to 5A, including Richland and Justin Northwest. Northwest made its move after the opening of Haslet Eaton High School last August. Eaton joins in on the fun with its first varsity season in 2016.

“Statistics show you’re likely to be in an eight-team district,” Melson said. “You try to compare during nondistrict, try to find teams with a similar offense and defense to prep for district season.”

“You want to play someone real good, with tradition,” Jackson added.

Most coaches said it’s an interesting sight to see, but whatever goes down on Monday — pending any appeals to the UIL — football games will largely be set for the next two years.

“It’s like going to the dentist,” Jackson said. “You just hope it doesn’t hurt too much.”

This story was originally published January 31, 2016 at 6:49 PM with the headline "Texas UIL realignment creates football scheduling excitement ... or chaos."