UIL asked to break up sports powerhouse District 25-5A

JENNIFER FIERRO • STAFF WRITER

AUSTIN — Officials at school districts in Class 5A Region IV asked the University Interscholastic League to break up District 25-5A while the Legislative Council was meeting June 17-18. Marble Falls High School is a member of that district.

Their reasoning was because the district captured all nine of the athletic regional championships during the 2014-15 school year.

UIL officials said when they crafted District 25-5A, or any other district, they weren’t intentionally creating a “power” district. It has more to do with geography than anything else.

UIL Deputy Director Jamey Harrison said an understanding of how realignment works helps clarify how districts are created.

Class 6A, which has the state’s high schools with the largest enrollment, is always created first. That means the 245 schools with at least 2,100 students enrolled make up that class. Class 6A membership is capped at 245 schools, Harrison said.

Then, UIL officials go to Class 5A. This conference has 253 schools, the largest number of members of all the classes. The enrollment begins at 1,060 and ends at 2,099.

The class with the fewest schools is Class 4A with 186. The enrollment begins at 465 students and ends with 1,059. Burnet (924) and Llano (496) are in this conference.

“We have a lot of schools with fewer than 500 students and more schools with 1,000 students,” Harrison said. “We have few schools between 500 and 1,000 students. We’re trying to control the districts with the largest and the smallest.”

UIL officials have conducted studies that reveal that schools with the largest enrollments in their conferences tend to perform very well in district and postseason play.

While District 25-5A might have won all the athletic regional championships, Harrison pointed out that the UIL also offers state championships in academics and other extra-curricular activities such as band and debate.   

But the district in question also demonstrates success in non-athletic UIL competitions as well.

In 2013, the last time the two largest conferences could advance to the state marching band contest, Leander Vandegrift won state championship, while Cedar Park, which was the reigning champion, finished as the runner-up. Cedar Park Vista Ridge was third. All three have been in the same district with Marble Falls for at least the past two realignments.

While it might appear a power district was created in Class 5A Region IV, Harrison said the UIL did not purposely do that.

“How good a school is in this activity or that is not part of the classification,” he said. “We place them in districts based on geography.”

Harrison added it’s impossible for anyone, including the UIL, to know in advance that one district will win every regional championship.

“There’s no way to … predict or say who’s going to be good in one activity or how good they’re going to be for two years in a row,” he said.

Last year, was the first year for schools in their current districts, which will stay the same during the 2015-16 school year. Enrollment numbers for grades 8-11 are due to the UIL in October. The organization will use that data to create districts. The UIL announces realignment for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school years in February 2016.

jfierro@thepicayune.com