WHAT THE HECK? | Realignment brings old rivals back together – some in the same freakin’ district
So, you’re a Kilgore fan and you miss the days when the Bulldogs would make the trips to the freakin’-haunted Tomato Bowl in Jacksonville, with trains going by every five minutes and phantom penalty flags flying on every visit.
Those days are back.
You’re a Gilmer fan whose Buckeyes didn’t have their normal strong showing last football season, and you just wish for once, Carthage had a tough district in which to compete. Well, they do – and you’re IN it.
Wish granted.
Maybe you’re a Henderson fan who’d really like their Lions to renew that rivalry with Carthage. Or a Sabine fan who just wishes the Cardinals could catch a break, and that SOMEBODY, maybe Jefferson, could move out of that ridiculously-hard 3A district – oh wait, let it be Jefferson!
All look to have happened after Monday’s realignment announcement by the University Interscholastic League, the management of all things high school sports in the state of Texas.
The UIL realigns its districts – and in some cases, moves schools from one classification to another – based on enrollment every two years. That announcement sets districts for sports and other various things for the next two school years; in this case, that’d be this fall, the 2026-27 school year, and the year after that, the 2027-28 school year.
Carthage coach Scott Surratt didn’t seem to be caught off guard at all with the Bulldogs’ new district.
“Just about every realignment is a big change for us,” Surratt said. “We’ve been to Shepherd, Madisonville and Canton in district play through the years. Right now, we’re looking for four non-district games.
“We have a great district, with Gilmer, you know they’ll be loaded, and Pleasant Grove, which we’ve played pretty regularly in the playoffs.”
Gilmer head coach Alan Metzel couldn’t help but be a bit fired up Monday at Region VII in Kilgore, where hundreds (literally) of coaches gather every two years for this same announcement.
“This day is always exciting,” Metzel said. “It creates a buzz again for football, which is pretty much year-around now in East Texas. All of these coaches crammed into a room.”
Metzel, like everyone else in the room, was seeking to fill out his non-district schedule, but talked about the new district in which his Buckeyes will compete.
“Several teams with Carthage and Center coming in. We’ve got one of the toughest districts in the state of Texas. As a competitor It’s a challenge. It’ll be fun and exciting for the fans to come and see competitive games every week. Hopefully our schedule will make us battle- tested and ready by the time we get to district.”
We brought to your attention Monday in our original story here (A NEW ‘DISTRICT OF DOOM’ | UIL announces realignment; Carthage, Gilmer and PG all in same district; Kilgore, PT, and Henderson stay together) the new district alignments. Now, let’s talk about some things as a result of that announcement.
ETBlitz.com covers athletic programs at 15 schools, and in alphabetical order, here they are: Arp, Beckville, Carthage, Gilmer, Gladewater, Henderson, Kilgore, Leverett’s Chapel, Overton, Pine Tree, Sabine, Tatum, Troup, West Rusk and White Oak (whew, that’s a mouthful).
As it worked out, exactly NONE of those 15 programs changed classifications, meaning they’ll all compete the next two years in whatever “A” in which they’d been competing, i.e., Kilgore remained in Class 4A, Division I; Carthage and Gilmer remained in 4A, Division II; West Rusk, Arp and Troup remained in 3A-Division II, and Gladewater, Sabine, Tatum, and White Oak all remained 3A-DI (the bigger division in each classification is DI, the smaller, DII).
We don’t have any 5A or 6A programs in our coverage area, but we do have five 4A schools: Carthage, Gilmer, Henderson, Kilgore and Pine Tree.
Three of them – Henderson, Kilgore and PT – all remained in one district for the upcoming alignment, and that’s District 8-4A. Some of the district rivals from the last alignment remain in the district, as well: Lindale, Palestine and Chapel Hill. But Mabank gets the boot, and rather than a seven-team district, the UIL chose to bump it up to an EIGHT-team district, and put both Bullard and Jacksonville in it.
Bullard comes up from competing in 4A-DII the last alignment – the Panthers are no stranger to the district, but it’s been a generation of athletes since they were in the district with Kilgore and Henderson. It was back about 12 years ago.
Kilgore coach Clint Fuller let us all in on a scoop: his schedule work.
“We have our non-district and district schedules set,” said Fuller, who led the Bulldogs to the 4A-Division I state title game the last two seasons. “Still looking for a scrimmage. Our second scrimmage will be Terrell. For our (non-district) schedule, we’ll have PG (Pleasant Grove) week one; week two will be Center, and week three will be Gilmer.”
So the Bulldogs and Buckeyes will meet again, and keep that rivalry going.
Jacksonville, on the other hand, was actually in the 4A-DI district two alignments ago – the Indians’ enrollment has had them bouncing around from 4A to 5A’s Division II, with the likes of Marshall, Hallsville and Whitehouse.
Jacksonville coach Montey Stevenson said he’d been expecting it.
“As soon as I saw those numbers about us going down to 4A Division I, I hit the board early to try to get an idea,” Stevenson said. “You want to have some teams you feel you can compete against to get prepared for district. I looked around to see who we should play to get us ready for the “District of Doom,” one of the more competitive districts. I’ve got Canton the first week. I think they were 9-2 last year.
“It’s a very competitive district with a lot of great programs. The biggest selling point I’m telling our kids and our coaches is if we can get out of this district, we should be able to make a serious run in the playoffs.”
Pine Tree coach Jason Bachman was taking it all in.
“Still trying to work through our non-district schedule,” Bachman said. “We’ve got our district schedule set. We haven’t played Bullard and it’s been two years since we’ve played Jacksonville. I’m excited to run it back, though. It’s still a very competitive district.”
Fuller summed up pretty much everybody’s feelings. “It’s always an exciting morning. You think you kind of know where you’re going, but you never know for sure until they release the packets.”
The district everyone seemed to be talking about on Monday with the reveal was another District 8 – as in, District 8-4A, Division II.
That’s because in addition to two-time reigning, defending state champion Carthage being included in that district, also in the mix, placed there by the UIL’s realignment committee, are Carthage rivals Gilmer and Pleasant Grove. Both PG and Gilmer are regulars in Dave Campbell’s Texas Football’s top 10, and state title contenders just about every year.
Now, there have been some changes; Josh Gibson stepped down as Pleasant Grove’s head coach, and Gilmer’s players from that 2023 state championship are gone. But the alignment creates a three-way round robin between Carthage, Gilmer and PG that will not only sell tickets – it could decide the 4A-DII state championship.
Also in that district are Pittsburg, Center, and Spring Hill.
Now, the district alignments are different for other sports, such as basketball, baseball, softball, and track, and different still in many cases for volleyball.
For the wide range of sports just mentioned, all five of the 4A programs in our coverage area (Kilgore, Henderson, Pine Tree, Carthage and Gilmer) are all in the same district for those, as they have been the last several years. They’re all in District 16-4A, and joined by Spring Hill, Chapel Hill and Cumberland Academy (Tyler).
And it’s not this way for every district, but that same lineup is good for volleyball, as well.
For our larger 3A schools, they all remain together for football. White Oak, Tatum, Sabine and Gladewater will all be in District 8-3A, along with Atlanta and Liberty-Eylau. Jefferson is missing from that list. The Bulldogs had been a mainstay in that district, but dropped to 3A-DII, due to enrollment.
That’s where Arp, West Rusk and Troup are the “beneficiaries.” Jefferson will be with them in District 10 in 3A-DII, along with New Diana and Winona.
Here’s where things get crazy.
For the majority of sports, Gladewater and White Oak aren’t in the district with those nearby schools. The Bears and Roughnecks will play baseball, basketball, softball and most other sports as a part of District 12, with Daingerfield, New Diana, Hughes Springs, and Jefferson.
The other programs — Arp, West Rusk, Tatum, Troup, and Sabine — will play those sports in District 13, and they’ll be joined there by Winona.
It gets crazier still: in volleyball, White Oak and Gladewater are TOGETHER with Arp, Sabine, West Rusk, Tatum and Troup, all in District 13.
Go figure.
Coach Cody Ross and the Beckville Bearcats football program will remain in a seven-team district — that’s Class 2A, Division I’s District 11, with Elysian Fields, Union Grove, Waskom, Paul Pewitt, Harleton, and Ore City.
The other sports will have a vastly different district lineup, District 21. It’ll have Beckville, Gary, Elysian Fields, Harleton, Linden-Kildare, Ore City, Waskom, and McLeod.
Oh, and volleyball, a sport Beckville is a regular state title contender, will have a smaller district, and includes another one of the programs ETBlitz.com covers: Overton. Both Beckville and Overton volleyball programs will compete as a part of District 20-2A, with Elysian Fields, Carlisle and Waskom.
Overton football, now, is a completely different story. The Mustangs will see familiar faces in District 11 of 2A’s Division II the next two years. They join Alto, Cushing, Grapeland, Cross Roads, Tenaha, and Mount Enterprise there.
But in other sports, the Mustangs will play in District 22 with Douglass, Alto, Mount Enterprise, Carlisle, Cushing, and New Summerfield.
Leverett’s Chapel is by far the smallest program in the ETB coverage area, and LC plays sports on the 1A level, including six-man football.
The Lions’ football district is 1A’s District 13 in Division I, and it’s small, as usual: LC, Burkeville, Chester and rival Union Hill.
In volleyball, though, the Lady Lions will be in District 23 with Laneville, Neches and Trinidad. That could also be the answer to the trivia question, “What are three small towns in which ETBlitz editor Mitch Lucas has never been?”
In a few items of interest NOT involving any of our area schools…
- Longview’s district is District 10-6a, and has eight teams including the Lobos: Tyler Legacy, Rockwall, Rockwall Heath, Forney, North Forney, Royce City, and Mesquite Horn.
- With Jacksonville coming to 4A-DI, it means a shuffle for the East Texas 5A schools. That would be Hallsville, Marshall, Mount Pleasant, Texas High and Whitehouse, who will be a part of District 6-5A, Division II, with Nacogdoches, Terrell and Greenville, a big district.
Some of the non-district games that will be scheduled are beginning to get some play. We hear that Henderson and Carthage will play in football for the first time in many years, and that Carthage coach Scott Surratt has agreed to a non-district game with West Orange Stark.
(Joe Hale contributed to this story.)
