AND… STOP! | UIL’s game of musical chairs sees ETB-area schools stay put; Jefferson down to 3A-DII, J’ville is 4A again / Presented by KILGORE MERCANTILE & MUSIC
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is presented by Kilgore Mercantile & Music, located in downtown Kilgore at 105 N. Kilgore Street! Everybody’s favorite country store in East Texas is open today from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. and WILL BE OPEN on Christmas Eve, open on Wednesday from 11 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Go by and get gifts from the absolutely-vast selection there at the store, and prepare for that shopping trip right here (Kilgore Mercantile & Music Country Store). This week is going to be a warm one: a near 80-degree Christmas. You might need some Blue Bell ice cream to get you through it, especially if you’re shopping, or just walking downtown. Fred & Vivian can take care of you, and much more than just ice cream (Kilgore Mercantile & Music ice cream parlor and menu). This Saturday, they’ll be open 11 a.m. until 9 p.m. because it’s a Kilgore Cruise Night downtown! This note: They will be closed from Dec. 28 through Jan. 5, so y’all remember that. Get down to Kilgore Mercantile & Music TODAY! Here’s the link to their home page, so you can just peruse, if you’d like: Kilgore Mercantile & Music in Kilgore, Texas.
AUSTIN – The Pine Tree Pirates made Class 4A, Division I their new home under the University Interscholastic League’s last realignment.
Looks like they’ll be staying for a little more than just dinner.
Athletics at the Longview school will remain in 4A, Division I – the larger of the 4A classification – based on enrollment numbers Pine Tree Independent School District submitted, just like every program submitted to the UIL. It’s those numbers the UIL uses to determine its bi-annual realignment, and often, there is not much movement.
That is the case again this year for the 15 programs in the ETBlitz.com coverage area.
Pine Tree moved back from the larger 5A, Division II to 4A-DI in the last realignment, and has competed in the same football district with ETBlitz-area programs Kilgore and Henderson, as well as Palestine, Chapel Hill, Lindale, and Mabank, and in the same district with many of those as well as Gilmer and Carthage in many of the other sports, such as basketball, baseball and softball.
The UIL, which governs all things Texas high school athletics, released the numbers late last week, a bit lost in the news cycle due to the state championships for football ongoing at AT&T Stadium at Arlington. Districts will be announced at a later date (
Class 6A, the largest classification in Texas, will include schools with enrollments of 2,215 and above; there are 251 6A programs in Texas.
Class 5A, Division I is the second-largest, and includes schools who have enrollments between 1,830 and 2,413.
Class 5A, Division II, then: 1,325 to 1,829. There are 246 5A programs: 127 of them are 5A-DI, 119 are 5A-DII.
ETBlitz.com’s coverage area currently includes no programs that are 5A or above, although there are programs in East Texas that fall into those classifications.
Class 4A, Division I schools have enrollments between 896 and 1,304 students (103 schools fall into this heading) and 4A-DII are schools with enrollments of 550 to 895 (102 schools).
Class 3A, Division I also has 102 schools in the state, and includes schools with enrollments of 367 to 549, and 3A-DII: 246 to 366.9. Yes, they really did that.
Class 2A, Division I: schools with enrollments of 175.6 to 245.9, and 2A-DII are schools who have enrollments of 105 students to 175.5. There are 103 schools that are in 2A-DI, and 102 in 2A-DII.
Finally, 1A, Division I includes schools with 57 students up to 104.9 (79 schools) and then 1A-DII includes schools with under 57 students (80 of them).
Kilgore and Henderson remained in 4A-DI, and solidly so. Kilgore’s snapshot was 1,127.5, and Henderson’s 962 (Chapel Hill and Palestine also submitted numbers near that figure). Interestingly, Lindale, with 1,296.5, had the largest 4A-DI number in the state: the Eagles were 15 students from having to go up to 5A-DII.
The number 1,305 and above (to 1,829) is 5A, Division II, by the way, and Mabank, the school farthest away in the district with Kilgore, PT and Henderson, did not return to 5A. The Panthers will remain in 4A the next two seasons now.
Of news: Jacksonville is coming back to 4A-DI yet again (1,254), having see-sawed back and forth from 4A-5A the last two realignments. Schools in the East Texas region that are comfortably in 5A-DII are Texas High (Texarkana; 1,778); Nacogdoches (1,769); Mount Pleasant (1,502), Hallsville (1,483), and Whitehouse (1.422), Marshall (1,407).
At the opposite end of 4A-DI is 4A-DII, of course, where Carthage just won its 11th state football championship. Gilmer is in 4A-DII (878.5), although only by just under 20 students; if Gilmer had 24 more students, they’d be playing at the 4A-DI level next year.
Carthage (761) is fine, no worries to move up, and same thing with 4A-DII mainstays like Pleasant Grove (823) and Spring Hill (593). If anything, Spring Hill was closer to the other end: schools with enrollments of 367 to 549 are in 3A, Division I.
That includes athletic programs at Gladewater (470), Sabine (458), White Oak (418), and Tatum (402).
Other ETBlitz.com-area programs remain in 3A-DII, the smaller 3A, and those are West Rusk (348), Troup (311), and Arp (286). The news here is that Jefferson, longtime larger 3A program, comes to 3A-DII after the realignment (361).
Beckville sits at 197, so the Bearcats won’t be leaving 2A-DI, and Overton, at 156, is firmly in the 2A-DII classification, where the Mustangs have been for some time, so no changes there.
And Leverett’s Chapel (61) has a six-man program and will continue to do so at 1A-DI.
The remainder of realignment – what everyone REALLY cares about, which is the district they’re in – will be released in February, as usual.