Realignment will bring clarity for fringe schools

Mario Pena just wants to know.

He knows Mission High’s enrollment figure of 2,084 puts it right on the 5A-4A bubble. He’s seen the projections and heard the rumors his school could end up in either classification.

But at 9 a.m. today at the biennial UIL realignment, the rumors will be replaced by facts. And Pena, like all other coaches and administrators, welcomes that. He and everybody else in the athletic department will be able to finalize schedules and other tasks, along with having speculation and rumors vanish.

“We’re (one day) away and we’ll take it from there,” Pena said. “I think once you know where you’re at then your nerves will settle down and you’ll say ‘Hey, this is where we’re at for the next two years and we’ll move forward with it and start getting ready.’”

Pena is by no means the only coach sitting with questions. As he and everybody else knows, UIL realignment has been known to throw its share of curves, regardless of favored landing spots.

For Pena and Mission, the favored landing spot is a return to Class 4A after spending the last two years in 5A.

“I think as a total athletic program I think we would be a lot more competitive,” Pena said. “I think we would definitely be pursuing more, not only playoff spots but district championships.”

 While no school is on the fringe quite like Mission High, others could be looking at big changes.

Weslaco East, a 4A school throughout its existence, is expected to move up to 5A. And the word to be stressed there is expected.

Its enrollment number of 2140.5 appears to put it in Class 5A for the first time, but Weslaco East football coach Armando Cuellar isn’t quite saying farewell to District 32-4A just yet.  He’s also not exactly going crazy over what comes out this morning.

“Over the years you kind of learn to deal with the things that you have no control over,” Cuellar said. “What you try to do is you try to prepare the best you can with tentative schedules. In most cases you try to have a Plan B but that doesn’t always work.

“So the biggest thing is to be prepared for the unexpected.”

Another District 32-4A school that appears to be on the move is Hidalgo. Two years ago, its enrollment number of 991.5 was 1.5 students above 4A threshold. Heading into this realignment, it was believed Hidalgo’s enrollment was 892, which would most likely send it back to 3A.

That number, however, was not the correct one. Its actual number, which is around 980, puts it much closer to the 4A-3A bubble and adds more intrigue for new coach Scott Ford.

Ford, though, said he thinks the 4A number will be 1,000, sending Hidalgo back to its preferred 3A where it would be one of the biggest schools in the classification. But, as has been established, he won’t know for sure until this morning.

Not that that would change the goal of the athletic department.

“At the end of the day it’s still about building programs and building a winning tradition in every sport,” Ford said. “So that’s not going to change.”

Brian Sandalow covers high school sports for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 683-4436 or via email at bsandalow@themonitor.com.