New-look districts official for area teams
By KRIS BAGLEY sports@leader-news.com

El Campo Ricebirds, welcome to District 23-4A. Louise Hornets, meet District 27-A and 28-A.

When the UIL announced its 20082010 reclassification and realignment Friday, some area schools had a few changes. For the Ricebirds, the number may be new, but the foes are roughly the same while the Hornets will see a different lineup in athletic competition.

Before realignment became official, it was a given that Katy Seven Lakes was moving into Class 5-A. With the Spartans' departure came a new team to the district - the Spartans.

Houston Stratford, the 19-5A runner up in football which shares the same mascot as Seven Lakes, joins the ranks of Lamar Consolidated, Foster, Terry, Bay City and El Campo.

"They've been a very good 5A program," Bob Gillis, El Campo's athletic director and head football coach, said. "They went deep in the playoffs last year. Our district didn't get any easier."

In the new six-team district, four schools will advance into the playoffs in every team sport.

Stratford advanced to the third round of the playoffs last year where they lost to Fort Bend Clements 31-27.

The Ricebirds and Lady 'Birds will face the Spartans in all team sports through 2010, when a new realignment occurs.

Speculation before the announcement included the reclassification of Foster and Lamar Consolidated to 5- A, but both schools stayed under the 2,084 maximum enrollment to maintain 4-A status.

Some even wondered if the Ricebirds would move down to Class 3-A. El Campo turned in an enrollment of 1,061, greater than the minimum 980 enrollment and no such move was possible.

"What caught me off guard was that I thought we'd have seven or eight teams in our district," Gillis said. "I didn't know who they would be, either Stratford, Brazosport or Angleton (or someone else)."

In Region 3, only District 17 has six teams like El Campo's district. Every other district has eight schools except District 19, which has nine.

The change in districts will still result in the traditional playoff matches in the first round. District 23-4A will face 24-4A, consisting of La Marque, Angleton, Brazosport, Friendswood, Texas City, Santa Fe, Manvel and Pearland Dawson.

In total, there are now 245 Class 5- A schools throughout the state and 243 4-A schools.

Louise will face some familiar and new opponents with the move to a new district.

The Hornets' football grouping will be District 27 while the basketball teams will play in District 28.

Flatonia and Shiner are the only returning teams in Louise's district. Added in football competition are Ganado, Burton and Somerville.

"It's going to be a tough district," Rodney Dowell, Louise's athletic director and head football coach, said. "The travel won't be as bad and the district will be shorter and those are some of the better things. It will be good for us. It's time to step up to the next level anyway."

The Somerville Yeguas and Ganado Indians will drop down from Class 2-A. Somerville, formerly at 211, and Ganado, at 200, both turned in enrollments under the Class A maximum 199 enrollment.

"Our district got a lot faster, I'll tell you that," Dowell said. "Our boys better come out to track now. If they aren't already, they better now."

For basketball, the Hornets will join with Flatonia, Ganado, Nelms (a charter school in Katy),

new opponents

and Shiner in District 28-A.

As for other county teams, they enter into new districts as well.

Wharton's district fell from eight teams to six teams. The Tigers will compete against Brookshire Royal, Needville, Stafford, Sweeny and West Columbia in District 24-4A. Sealy and Columbus moved to 25-4A.

East Bernard and Boling will not compete in the same district.

The Brahmas of East Bernard enter District 26-2A with Rice Consolidated in Altair, Hallettsville, Hempstead, Schulenburg, Wallis Brazos and Weimar.

The Bulldogs will play in District 29-2A against Danbury, Tidehaven, Hitchcock, Van Vleck and Industrial.