February 1, 2018 has been a date circled in bright red for coaches and players across the state of Texas for several months now as the state eagerly waits for realignment. Their agonizing wait finally ended Thursday morning as the UIL announced the newly aligned districts in all six conferences for the next two school years.
The biennial realignment serves to incorporate new schools as well as readjust schools according to their student enrollment numbers. The 6A conference requires that member schools have at least 2,190 students, although there are exceptions. A school can request to be elevated to the next conference to stay with other schools in their school district to help lessen travel. In all, the 6A conference consists of 255 schools. Each school is placed into one of 32 districts, which correspond with one of four regions (districts 1-8 go with Region I, 9-16 go with Region II and so on). Each of the four regions produces a semi-finalist in each of the two divisions of the state playoffs.
There are four new 6A schools that will compete at the varsity level for the first time. Klein Cain will face a baptism by fire after they were placed with perennial powerhouses in The Woodlands and Klein Collins in District 15-6A. Bridgeland and Cy-Park were placed in District 14-6A, which has Langham Creek, coming off an impressive 11-2 season as well as Cypress Ranch, who finished 8-3. Lastly, a combination of Beaumont Ozen High School and Beaumont Central will form a new school that will compete in District 21-6A along with their neighbors in Beaumont West Brook, marking the first time Beaumont will have two 6A schools.
Elsewhere, in Region III, Cy-Fair –– the defending 6A division II champions –– are in District 17-6A along with Cypress Creek, Cypress Ridge and Cy-Falls after being split from the other Cy-Fair ISD schools for the first time due to the opening of Bridgeland and Cy-Park. Katy in District 19-6A, the Humble ISD schools of Kingwood and Atascocita in District 22-6A, and Houston Lamar in District 18-6A are all schools that are a threat to deep in the playoffs after impressive runs in 2017.
In Region IV, Lake Travis –– who is coming off a state title game loss to Allen –– remain in District 25-6A along with Westlake, a 2017 state semifinalist and the alma mater of Eagles quarterback Nick Foles. Austin Bowie –– who finished 8-3 in 2017 –– joins these two teams to make up a three-headed monster that will make the battle at the top even tighter.
Travelling south, San Marcos –– last year’s District 14-6A champions –– join up with Smithson Valley, Cibolo Steele and Converse Judson, who all finished with at least nine wins in 2017, to make up District 26-6A. Throw in Northside O’Connor in District 28-6A, Edinburg Vela in District 31-6A, and San Benito in District 32-6A –– all teams who finished undefeated in the regular season in 2017 –– and Region IV has plenty of contenders that could make a state championship run.
In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, there are many districts loaded with talent. Defending state champions Allen –– who have the largest student population of any Texas school at 6,664 –– are now in district 9-6A after being in Region I last year, meaning they must battle with schools in East Dallas, Central Texas, Houston and Round Rock if they are to get back to the state title game this year. Waco Midway –– who fell to Cy-Fair in the Division II state title game ––are in District 12-6A joining up with their neighbors in Waco High, who are joining the 6A conference for the first time in their history. District 11-6A is another conference full of contenders with Rockwall, who stunned The Woodlands in the first round of playoffs last year, Longview, who made it to the Division II state semi-finals and Mesquite Horn, who finished district play last year undefeated.
Region I is where District 7-6A is found, a district that many are comparing to the group of death found at the FIFA World Cup every four years. Cedar Hill is a three-time state champion, including back-to-back titles in 2013-14. DeSoto is always a threat and is coming off a 10-win season. South Grand Prairie finished with seven wins last year, including a first round playoff victory, while Grand Prairie made the playoffs for their first time since 1989. Now Mansfield, who had 11 wins last year, joins the district along with three schools from 5A, who all made the playoffs last year: Waxahachie, Mansfield Lake Ridge, and Mansfield Summit.
The four teams that manage to get out of District 7-6A will face stiff competition from their Region I counterparts. Duncanville finished undefeated in the regular season last year and headlines District 8-6A after being separated from DeSoto. Coppell, coming off an 11-win season, moves in with the Lewisville and Irving schools in District 6-6A. Southlake Carroll –– the alma mater of former Alabama quarterback and national champion Greg McElroy –– is joined by the Keller ISD schools. This includes Fossil Ridge –– who coming off a 10 win season –– Denton Guyer and the Northwest ISD schools in District 5-6A. The Arlington schools will also be in the mix as they make up District 4-6A, while Districts 1, 2, and 3-6A consist of schools from west Texas.
Thursday’s realignment signals the start of the long road for each team as they aim to clinch an elusive ticket to the 2018 state championship games in AT&T Stadium. It should be a long, entertaining journey with plenty of surprises and thrills along the way. Only one thing is for sure: you can expect the unexpected.
-Here are the football districts in full for the 6A conference:
Region I
District 1: El Paso Americas, El Paso Coronado, El Paso Franklin, El Paso Montwood, El Paso Pebble Hills and El Paso Socorro
District 2: Amarillo Tascosa, Midland, Midland Lee, Odessa, Odessa Permian and Wolfforth Frenship
District 3: Abilene, Euless Trinity, Haltom City Haltom, Hurst Bell, N Richland Hills Richland (moving up from 5A), San Angelo Central and Weatherford
District 4: Arlington, Arlington Bowie, Arlington Houston, Arlington Lamar, Arlington Martin, Ft Worth Paschal, Ft Worth Trimble Tech (Elevated to 6A upon request), FW Young Men's Leadership Acad + FW Young Women's Leadership (Elevated to 6A upon request) and North Crowley
District 5: Denton Guyer, Keller, Keller Central, Keller Fossil Ridge, Keller Timber Creek, Northwest Eaton (moving up from 5A), Northwest Nelson and Southlake Carroll
District 6: Coppell, Irving, Irving MacArthur, Irving Nimitz, Lewisville, Lewisville Flower Mound, Lewisville Hebron and Lewisville Marcus
District 7: Cedar Hill, De Soto, Grand Prairie, Mansfield, Mansfield Lake Ridge (moving up from 5A), Mansfield Summit (moving up from 5A), South Grand Prairie and Waxahachie (moving up from 5A)
District 8: Dallas Molina (moving up from 5A), Dallas Skyline, Dallas White, Duncanville, Richardson, Richardson Berkner, Richardson Lake Highlands and Richardson Pearce
Region II
District 9: Allen, Dallas Jesuit, McKinney, McKinney Boyd, Plano, Plano East, Plano West and Prosper (moving up from 5A)
District 10: Garland, Garland Lakeview Cent, Garland Naaman Forest (Elevated to 6A upon request), Garland Rowlett, Garland Sachse, North Garland, South Garland (Elevated to 6A upon request) and Wylie
District 11: Longview, Mesquite, Mesquite Horn, North Mesquite, Rockwall, Rockwall-Heath and Tyler Lee
District 12: Belton, Copperas Cove, Killeen, Killeen Ellison, Killeen Harker Heights, Killeen Shoemaker, Temple (moving up from 5A), Waco (moving up from 5A) and Waco Midway
District 13: Austin Vandegrift, Cedar Park Vista Ridge, Leander, Pflugerville Hendrickson, Round Rock, Round Rock McNeil, Round Rock Stony Pt., Round Rock Westwood and RR Cedar Ridge
District 14: Bridgeland (New School), Bryan (moving up from 5A), Cyp. Lakes, Cyp. Park (New School), Cyp. Ranch, Cyp. Springs, Cyp. Woods, Langham Creek and Tomball Memorial (moving up from 5A)
District 15: Conroe, Conroe Oak Ridge, Conroe The Woodlands, Conroe Woodlands College Park, Klein, Klein Cain (New School), Klein Collins, Klein Forest and Klein Oak
District 16: Houston Aldine, Houston Benjamin Davis Sr, Houston Eisenhower, Houston MacArthur, Houston Nimitz, Spring, Spring DeKaney and Spring Westfield
Region III
District 17: Cy-Fair, Cyp. Creek, Cyp. Ridge, Cypress Falls, Houston Memorial, Houston Northbrook, Houston Spring Woods, Houston Stratford and Jersey Village
District 18: H Bellaire, H Chavez, H Heights, H Lamar, H Math Sci. & Tech, H Mickey Leland (Elevated to 6A upon request), College Prep Acad, H Westbury and H Westside
District 19: Katy, Katy Cinco Ranch, Katy Mayde Creek, Katy Morton Ranch, Katy Seven Lakes, Katy Taylor and Katy Tompkins
District 20: Fort Bend Austin, Fort Bend Bush, Fort Bend Clements, Fort Bend Dulles, Fort Bend Elkins (moving up from 5A), Fort Bend Kempner, Fort Bend Ridge Point and Fort Bend Travis
District 21: Baytown Sterling, Beaumont ISD New School (Combination of Beaumont Ozen and Beaumont Central high schools), Beaumont West Brook, Channelview, Deer Park, Galena Park North Shore, La Porte and Sheldon King
District 22: Humble (moving up from 5A), Humble Atascocita, Humble Kingwood, Humble Summer Creek, Pasadena, Pasadena Dobie, Pasadena Memorial, Pasadena Rayburn and Pasadena South Houston
District 23: Alief Elsik, Alief Hastings, Alief Taylor, Clute Brazoswood, Houston Strake Jesuit, Pearland, Pearland Dawson and Richmond George Ranch
District 24: Alvin, Dickinson, Friendswood Clear Brook, Houston Clear Lake, LC Clear Creek, LC Clear Falls and LC Clear Springs
Region IV
District 25: Austin (moving up from 5A), Austin Akins, Austin Anderson, Austin Bowie, Austin Lake Travis, Austin Westlake, Buda Hays, Del Valle and Kyle Lehman
District 26: Cibolo Steele, Comal Canyon, Comal Smithson Valley, Converse Judson, New Braunfels, San Antonio E. Central, San Marcos and Schertz Clemens
District 27: San Antonio Churchill, San Antonio Johnson, San Antonio Lee, San Antonio MacArthur, San Antonio Madison, San Antonio Reagan, San Antonio Roosevelt and South San Antonio
District 28: Northside Brandeis, Northside Brennan, Northside Clark, Northside Holmes, Northside Jay, Northside Marshall, Northside O'Connor, Northside Stevens, Northside Taft and Northside Warren
District 29: Del Rio, Eagle Pass, Laredo Alexander, Laredo Johnson, Laredo Nixon (moving up from 5A), Laredo United and Laredo United South
District 30: La Joya, La Joya Juarez-Lincoln, McAllen, McAllen Memorial, McAllen Rowe (Elevated to 6A upon request), Mission, Pharr-San Juan-Alamo and PSJA North
District 31: Donna North (moving up from 5A), Edinburg, Edinburg Economedes, Edinburg North, Edinburg Vela, Weslaco and Weslaco East
District 32: Brownsville Hanna, Brownsville Rivera, Harlingen, Harlingen South, Los Fresnos and San Benito