Realignment offers opportunities, challenges
Jeremy Heath

Jeremy Heath is the Dispatch Record's sports editor. He can be contacted via e-mail at jheath@lampasas.com.

On Friday morning, the University Interscholastic League announced its biennial classification and district realignments.

For Lampasas High School sports fans, the results were good and not so good, depending on the sports one follows.

LHS remained in District 25- 4A, along with Austin Lake Travis, Dripping Springs, Marble Falls and Pflugerville Hendrickson. Killeen High School moved in from 16-4A, and Hutto moved up from 18-3A. Burnet moved down to 8-3A, Cedar Park Vista Ridge moved up to 16-5A, and Pflugerville Connally moved up to 25-5A.

For the most part, the competition level across all sports will remain the same, but the new alignment should slightly benefit football and volleyball, and hurt boys' basketball.

The UIL also will allow four teams from each district to advance to the playoffs in Class 4A starting next year, and in a seven-team district more teams will play beyond the regular season than won't.

In football, the district loses an outstanding program in Connally, an up-and-comer in Vista Ridge and an always-solid Burnet. It gains a talented but inconsistent Killeen program and a Hutto program that should be in a similar position as LHS in that it will be on the low end of the Class 4A enrollment.

The Badgers are coming off an 0-10 season under first-year head coach Ryan Bailey. The three teams the Badgers were most physically competitive with in district -- Dripping Springs, Pflugerville Hendrickson and Marble Falls -- remain, and Bailey, who was an assistant at Copperas Cove, knows a little bit about Killeen.

The wildcard is Hutto. Though the school will be at the low end of enrollment, the Hippos dominated the two opponents they shared with LHS last fall. Taylor beat LHS 21-16, and Hutto beat Taylor 51-22. Dripping Springs beat Lampasas 28-21, and Hutto beat Dripping Springs 36-14.

"It's not bad," Bailey said of the realignment. "We've still got to play (reigning Class 4A Division II champion) Lake Travis, but four teams will go to the playoffs next year, and I think we can be competitive with most of the teams in the district. It worked out well for us, I think."

The LHS volleyball program could gain some ground next season. Tracey Myers took over a struggling Lady Badger program last fall and put together a semicompetitive team. The girls opened the season with eight nondistrict wins and beat Marble Falls on the road to claim the program's first district win in three years.

Killeen comes over from a district where, aside from powerful Waco Midway, volleyball is just a filler until basketball season. Hutto, on the other hand, advanced to the Region III-3A semifinals last season, but the jump from Class 3A to Class 4A in volleyball is a significant one.

Couple that with the fact that district champion Vista Ridge and runner-up Connally are gone, and it sets up a situation that might be conducive to the Lady Badgers competing for a playoff spot with four teams advancing.

"For us, I think it's going to be all right," Myers said. "We know what (third-place) Lake Travis has, and we played well against some teams that played well against Hutto. I think we can play well against every team in the district, and that's exciting."

The most disappointing prospect for local fans is that one of LHS' most promising programs could be hit pretty hard by the realignment. The Badger basketball team has won 16 games this year and has a chance to finish fourth in a strong 25-4A.

Two of those wins have come at the hands of departing Vista Ridge and Burnet -- with another game against Burnet slated for Feb. 12. The Badgers also were competitive in both their losses to Connally.

So in exchange for two teams the Badgers know they can beat and another they are not intimidated by, they receive one of the top programs in 4A and a strong 3A program.

Killeen is 26-2 and ranked No. 8 in the state, while Hutto is 22-7 and leading District 18-3A.

"It's going to be extremely tough," said LHS head coach Scott Harrelson. "We'll have four teams that are very athletic in Lake Travis, Hutto, Killeen and Hendrickson. Plus, Marble Falls should be much improved next year, and Dripping Springs is getting everybody back. We're losing (senior guard Clay) Tyner and (senior post Heath) Cofield to graduation, which will put us back in rebuilding mode.

"I think having seven teams instead of eight gives us two less chances to win district games, therefore I don't think our situation improved," he continued. "We'll really have to improve next year to make the playoffs."

LHS Athletic Director Joey McQueen understands why some of his coaches view this as a positive change and others view it as a negative one, but he thinks the changes are positive in the sense that they could produce a greater number of opportunities for his programs to compete for playoff berths.

"I for one am very excited," McQueen said. "I know some of our head coaches might have rather gone another direction, but I think for the overall program, it will be good. We not only went from an eight-team district to a seven-team district, we also are taking four teams to the playoffs in the team sports. We have four teams who are comparable in size (LHS, Hutto, Marble Falls and Dripping Springs) and three who have around 1,800 students."

It's all part of the give and take most schools experience every two years. Some programs are handed opportunities, and some are handed challenges.

Now it's up to LHS coaches and athletes to take advantage of the opportunities and accept the challenges.

The New District 25-4A

Austin Lake Travis
Dripping Springs
Hutto
Killeen
Lampasas
Marble Falls
Pflugerville Hendrickson

Who's Moving In?

Killeen over from 16-4A
Hutto up from 18-3A

Who's Moving Out?

Pflugerville Connally up to 25-5A
Cedar Parks Vista Ridge up to 16-5A
Burnet down to 8-3A