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UHS drops from 5A to 4A in UIL


James Volz

Sports editor

Uvalde High School will be dropping in classification from 5A to 4A for the next two school years.

Based on the conference cutoff numbers announced Tuesday by the University Interscholastic League, UHS will be placed in Class 4A Division I for football and in Class 4A for all other sports.

“Hopefully this should kind of even the playing field for us,” said UHS head football coach and athletic director R.T. Gonzales. “For years, we have been one of the smallest high schools in Class 5A. In district football, we have faced some schools with as many as 1,800 students and in the other district sports we have gone up against schools with over 2,000 students,” said Gonzales. “Those schools have had a big advantage over us because of the larger pool of athletes available.

“We have not backed off from the challenge of playing those larger schools, but it has been difficult,” said Gonzales. “For the next two school years, we will be playing schools that are much closer to us in terms of student enrollment.”

The UIL’s conference cutoff numbers for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years for Class 4A Division I football range from 865 students to 1,209 students, while the numbers for the others sports in Class 4A range from 515 students up to 1,209 students.

With 1,195 students, UHS came in just under the cutoff between 4A and 5A.

Uvalde High School’s new district alignment will not be known until early February.

Gonzales speculated that UHS’s new district for football could include Pleasanton, La Vernia, Somerset, Boerne, and possibly San Antonio Kennedy.

As for UHS’s new district for other sports, the new district could include Hondo, Devine, Bandera, Pearsall, Crystal City and Carrizo Springs.

“We won’t know for sure about the alignment until February, but these are some of the area schools that could make up our new district,” said Gonzales.

Until the UIL announces UHS’s new football alignment, it is hard to say how many non-district games the Coyotes will need for next season.

Gonzales mentioned Eagle Pass Winn, Laredo Martin, and Laredo LBJ as possible non-district opponents. He said schools they approached in this area have declined to play the Coyotes.

As for preparing for UHS’s new districts, Gonzales said that nothing will change from what the Coyotes have been doing.

“We know that we will not be playing Kerrville Tivy, Boerne Champion, and Alamo Heights next football season, but that does not mean that our new district will not be tough,” said Gonzales. “The teams in our new district will be tough. If we want to play competitively against them next season, we have to continue to get better and to elevate our level of play.

“We may be moving down in classification, but the level of competition we face will remain high. We have a standard that we have set for football and for all other sports at UHS,” said Gonzales. “Our goal is to be the best that we can be in all sports.”

UHS may remain in some of their present districts for sports like soccer, wrestling, and swimming, because some of the schools UHS will face next season may not compete in those sports.

“We’ll know much more about things once we get the new alignment in February,” said Gonzales.

“We are excited about the possibilities and opportunities offered by entering a new classification,” said Gonzales. “We look forward to the next two school years.”

 

 

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