Local schools staying in same football divisions

Sville-Argyle 120117 21 — Stephenville will remain in 4A Division I football and 4A in other sports for the next two academic years. So, by the way, will Argyle ,the other team shown here. || Flash Staff Photo

By BRAD KEITH
TheFlashToday.com

STEPHENVILLE (December 6, 2017) — If your school is in the UIL and covered regularly by The Flash Today, your favorite teams are not changing athletic conferences or divisions next fall.

Actual district alignments will be announced as always in February, but for the second time Wedenesday, the UIL released its conference cutoffs for all sports and division cutoffs for 1A-5A football in months ahead of district alignments to help coaches better understand the lay of the land around them as they negotiate their non-district schedules. Coaches in the area say this is quite helpful, particularly in football.

For football only, 1A-5A have two pre-determined divisions based on enrollment. Conference 6A waits until the playoffs and then determines two divisions based on enrollment of playoff qualifiers only, and it’s done on a district-by-district basis. The two largest schools to qualify for from each district enter 6A Division I and the remaining two ente4 6A Division II.

Stephenville is staying put in 4A Division I with the main change around the Yellow Jackets and Honeybees being the climb to 5A and 5A Division II football by Abilene Wylie. Long teetering on the brink of what is currently known as 4A and 5A but always managing to stay below the cutoff number, Wylie, as local coaches familiar with the realignment process have rumored, came in well past the 4A ceiling this time with an enrollment snapshot of 1,164.

Enrollment snapshots were turned in to the UIL in October. The snapshots consist of current enrollment in grades 9-12 on a given day, the same day for all UIL member schools.

Snyder is dropping to 4A Division II, so gone are half Stephenville’s district football opponents. Brownwood and Big Spring are still 4A Division I, where the other big news across the region included San Angelo Lake View dropping from 5A and Seminole coming up from 4A Division II.

Recent playoff opponent Argyle and this week’s quarterfinal foe, Wichita Falls Hirschi, are both staying in 4A Division I.

Dublin athletic director and head football coach Bob Cervetto knew the Lions would be close to bumping up, but they are remaining in 3A Division II, while Eastland is moving up to 3A Division I. Comanche dropped 3A Division II, Tolar and Cisco are staying in that division and joining it by climbing out of 2A Division I is Hamilton.

De Leon and Hico are staying in 2A Division I.