UIL shakes up Valley's Class 5A districts

EDINBURG — McAllen Memorial coach Bill Littleton summed up the new-look District 31-5A best.

“There is not a weak sister in the whole bunch,” Littleton said. “It is going to be a battle every week.”

On Wednesday, football coaches across the Rio Grande Valley gathered for the UIL biennial realignment at the Region I Education Service Center to find out what district and — for some — what class they will compete in for the next two seasons.

What Littleton found out was that his team will compete in one of the toughest districts in the Valley. Memorial, along with sister schools McAllen High and McAllen Rowe, will move from District 30-5A to 31-5A where they will join PSJA Memorial, PSJA High and PSJA North.

San Benito, Weslaco High and Weslaco East, which moved up from Class 4A, are also in the district. San Benito, Weslaco High, Weslaco East, PSJA North, PSJA Memorial, McAllen High and McAllen Memorial were all playoff teams in 2011.

“It is going to be very, very competitive,” Rowe coach Paul Reyes said.

Most coaches expected there would be three nine-school Class 5A districts in the Valley but were surprised by how they were divided up.

“I wasn’t surprised that it was nine-nine-nine,” Littleton said. “I was surprised we went in with the Weslacos, San Benito and the PSJA Highs. I thought it would stay like it was with Sharyland and the La Joyas. I didn’t see that coming.”

La Joya High, La Joya Palmview, Donna and Sharyland remain in District 30-5A and have new league rivals In Edinburg High, Edinburg North and Edinburg Economedes. New-school Edinburg Vela will begin play as a Class 5A school in 30-5A while La Joya Jaurez-Lincoln jumps from Class 5A to round out the league.

“I was surprised,” Redskins coach Manny Moreno said. “I thought we were going to stay with the Edinburgs and the PSJAs. They kind of spilt us apart.

“… I told our kids we are going to be ready to play no matter what district we are in.”

District 32-5A includes six Brownsville schools, Harlingen High, Harlingen South and Los Fresnos.

It was a scenario Harlingen High coach Manny Gomez didn’t think would play out. Pre-realignment rumors suggested that the Harlingen schools and possibly the Weslacos and San Benito would form a district with Corpus Christi Carroll and Corpus Christi King.

Only Harlingen High, Los Fresnos and Brownsville Pace were playoff teams last season. Last season, Pace was the first Brownsville school to win a bi-district championship since 2003.

“When it comes to what we do, we don’t care who we play,” Cardinals coach Manny Gomez said. “You can go yourself and ask our kids who we are playing on Friday and they are going to say, ‘ourselves.’ We handle our business that way. It just keeps things simple when you handle your business that way.”

Mission High moved down from Class 5A to District 32-4A.

Peter Rasmussen covers high school sports for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 683-4448 or via email at prasmussen@themonitor.com.