After hearing the news of being placed into an entirely new District 3-6A with mostly Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex schools for the 2018 UIL realignment, San Angelo Central High School head football coach Brent Davis said it's just a case again of the governing body of high school athletics treating San Angelo schools like "a stepchild."
The Bobcats' new district foes include: Abilene High, Euless Trinity, Haltom City, Hurst L.D. Bell, North Richland Hills and Weatherford.
The news was announced in San Angelo on Thursday at the Region XV Education Service Center.
"Besides the fact that most of our trips are going to be three-and-a-half hours, I'm OK with it," Davis said. "All they're trying to do is appease Tascosa. That's all they're trying to do is appease Tascosa, which I don't understand why, but that's what it is."
In the previous realignment in 2016, Central was placed into 2-6A with Odessa Permian, Odessa High, Midland High, Midland Lee, Frenship and Amarillo Tascosa.
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At the same time, the Bobcats were placed in a different district for basketball, baseball, softball and soccer -- 8-6A -- with Waco Midway, Killeen High, Killeen Ellison, Killeen Shoemaker, Copperas Cove, Killeen Harker Heights and Belton.
This time around, however, the Bobcats and Lady Cats will be in the same district for all sports.
Except for losing Central, District 2-6A stayed the same in the 2018 realignment. It's now a six-team district.
Every two years, UIL realignments leave a lot of school administrators scratching their heads. Trying to guess how things will shake it out is like trying to predict exactly how the NFL Draft will go. It's anybody's guess.
"In my experiences here in San Angelo for nine years, either us or Lake View is taking the brunt of everything for everybody else," the Central football coach said. "They stuck Lake View out there one time with Waco and Stephenville.
"It seems like we're the stepchild. Our school district seems to be the stepchild. That's just all there is to it I guess."
Davis elaborated more on the UIL's decision.
"I guess the congressman from Tascosa, the state legislator, is threatening (the UIL) and always making a big deal out of Tascosa," said the all-time winningest football coach in Central program history who has led the Bobcats to five straight district titles. "The sad part about this whole thing is Tascosa controls their own enrollment.
"They have open enrollment and they can fix their own problem and make (all their schools) 5A, but they refuse to do that, so it affects us, which is ridiculous. When we met with the UIL earlier in December, Tascosa was the only one in the room crying and making it vocal about how bad their travel is. Well, our travel is just as bad as Tascosa's. It's exactly the same. It is what it is. They got what they wanted and I guess we'll go from there."
SAISD Executive Athletic Director Brent McCallie talked about Thursday's surprising news.
"We anticipated possibly going east, but we weren't anticipating some of the schools that are in there with us going east," McCallie said. "Euless Trinity wasn't ever talked about, nor was Hurst Bell.
"But it is what it is. The fact that we're all going together (in the same district in all sports) was very important to us. We didn't want to be split up this year with 8-6A and 2-6A. The fact that we're all going east is a plus. We'll gas up the buses and get ready to go."
Central head volleyball coach Connie Bozarth said the UIL kind of threw Central a curveball.
"It doesn't make sense to me," Bozarth said. "They've created a six-team district out west, which was fiscally appropriate for us to be in. When they took us out (of 2-6A) and left Amarillo in, that created a six-team district and moved us into seven-team district and the travel's going to be that much more. It's tough for sure. It's going to be hard on the kids."
Don't get the Central coaches wrong. They're not fearful of competing against these new district foes.
That's not the concern.
"We need to go play good teams, and Euless is good and those other schools are going to be good," Davis said. "It's going to be new and different. But it's just the fact that we're going to be putting our kids on the road for four-and-a-half hours, except (for) Abilene High.
"Weatherford's a little over three (hours) and those other ones are around four. I guess our kids aren't as important as Tascosa's. That's all I can figure out. I think the district's going to be exciting, but the travel's going to be brutal."
In addition to the longer road trips, what Davis really hates is that Central is losing matchups with traditional longtime rivals.
"I think that's the one thing I'm more disappointed in than anything is just being part of the 'Little Southwest Conference' and being five-time district champs that we won't get to do any more in that district anyway," Davis said. "We can do it in another one. But, what are you going to do?"
Central's nondistrict schedule includes the season opener at home against Killeen Shoemaker, followed by a road game at Del Rio, a home game against Cedar Park and a road game against El Paso Pebble Hills.
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