UIL breaks up 5A district

After decades with little change, Ector County Independent School District high schools encountered a big one with Friday’s release of the University Interscholastic League’s biennial realignment.

Odessa High and Permian — along with Midland High and Midland Lee — were moved from District 3-5A into 10-team District 2-5A with schools from Amarillo, Lubbock and San Angelo with Friday’s release of the University Interscholastic League’s biennial realignment.

The new district will include Amarillo High and Amarillo Tascosa, Lubbock High, Lubbock Coronado and Lubbock Monterey and San Angelo Central. The move ends a 47-year run in which the Odessa and Midland schools had been in the same district with Abilene High and Abilene Cooper.

Permian head football coach and campus athletic coordinator Darren Allman, who was in North Richland Hills for the release, expressed mixed emotions at the breakup of the district dubbed the Little Southwest Conference.

“We’re going to miss that — there’s so much tradition in our district,” he said. “We’re going to miss being able to play Abilene High and Abilene Cooper.

“The flip side of that is that we’re somewhat relieved about the scheduling end of things. That’s why I was in the Metroplex — I was worried about finding nondistrict games (if 3-5A had remained unchanged) and still having some home games.”

As expected, Cooper moved to Class 4A, while Abilene High was assigned to District 3-5A with Fort Worth-area schools.

District 2-5A will be one of two 10-team districts in 5A, which Odessa High head football coach and campus athletic coordinator Ron King said causes problems for other sports.

“Travel in the other sports — cross country, basketball, soccer, tennis, baseball, everything — is going to be interesting now,” King said. “I’m not sure how that’s going to work out just yet.

“This is a district that is filled with a lot of very good schools and teams, and I expect every game to be competitive.”

Class 5A will again consist of 245 schools — the maximum allowed under UIL bylaws — with an average daily membership of 2,085 or more. The cutoff between Class 5A and Class 4A moved up 100 from 1,985 in the last realignment.

Three new schools — La Joya Palmview, San Antonio Brandeis and San Antonio Johnson — will open as 5A members. Eleven schools moved to 5A from 4A, while six schools with 4A enrollment were elevated by request.

Cooper was one of 20 schools to move from 5A to 4A.

Odessa American sports writer Lee Scheide contributed to this report.

Mileage between cities in District 2-5A

>> 300 miles: Amarillo to San Angelo.

>> 258 miles: Amarillo to Odessa.

>> 237 miles: Amarillo to Midland.

>> 182 miles: Lubbock to San Angelo.

>> 140 miles: Lubbock to Odessa.

>> 131 miles: Odessa to San Angelo.

>> 118 miles: Amarillo to Lubbock.

>> 117 miles: Lubbock to Midland.

>> 111 miles: Midland to San Angelo.

>> 22 miles: Midland to Odessa.

SOURCE: RAND MCNALLY ROAD ATLAS