Really Radical Realignment

Monday morning the UIL announced its new athletic districts for the next two years, and La Grange, particularly, better gas up the busses.

La Grange

La Grange’s new District 12-4A for football includes Bellville, Brazosport, Hitchcock, Katy Harmony, and La Marque. Bellville is the only team that was in La Grange’s district last year.

Brazosport, Hitchcock and La Marque are all near the coast (not too far from Galveston) and over two hours away, not accounting for Houstonarea traffic.

The teams from this new district would play Houston ISD teams in District 11-4A, in the first round of the playoffs.

“It’s a new look .. but it’s exciting. A lot of teams I’ve never played against,” said La Grange head coach Kyle Cooper. Here’s how that new district would look based on last year’s records in football: La Marque 10-3 Bellville 8-3 Hitchcock 7-5 La Grange 5-6 Brazosport 2-8 Katy Harmony 1-9 Katy Harmony, a charter school that opened in 2022, does not have a home football stadium, so they will play both games in La Grange the next two years.

One of the big surprises in this new district is that Giddings was split off into a Austin- area district, breaking up the Leps and Buffaloes, who had been football district rivals most years for more than a century.

But the coaches were able to agree to keep the rivalry going in a non-district game.

Here’s how the Leps nondistrict schedule will shape up this fall: Week 1: Navasota here Week 2: at Columbus Week 3: at Navarro Week 4: Smithville here Week 5: Giddings here * The district game locations and order of play were not finalized at press time.

For most other sports (non-football) La Grange will be in District 23-4A in Region 3 with: Bellville, Giddings, Katy Harmony, Navasota, Brookshire, Sealy and Tomball West.

Tomball West is a new school just opening this year, so they will just have freshmen and sophomores.

“The biggest difference playing in an 8-team district is that district play starts really early,” Cooper said. “Basketball will start district before Christmas ... but it’s a good district, I think a little more competitive as a whole, which isn’t a bad thing.”

Schulenburg

Schulenburg (which is moving up to 3A from 2A) will be in new football district 13-3A in Region 4 with Anderson-Shiro, Florence, Lexington, Rogers and Thrall. None of those teams were in a district with the Shorthorns last year.

Here’s how that district would look based on last year’s records in football: Lexington 10-2 Rogers 6-5 Schulenburg 6-6 Anderson Shiro 4-7 Thrall 2-8 Florence 0-10 Schulenburg head coach Clay Ferguson has finalized his schedule for this fall and it’s full of challenges. Here’s how that looks: Scrimmage 1: vs. Ganado Scrimmage 2: vs. Shiner Week 1: @ Hallettsville Week 2: @ Refugio Week 3: vs. Rice Week 4: @ Weimar Week 5: vs. Johnson City Week 6: vs. Thrall Week 7: @ Anderson-Shiro Week 8: vs. Lexington Week 9: vs. Rogers Week 10: @ Florence For most other sports (nonfootball) Schulenburg will be in District 23-3A (Region 3) with: Rice, Columbus, East Bernard, Hempstead, Smithville and Brazos.

Flatonia

Flatonia’s new football district will be 15-2A (in Region 4) with Bloomington, Danbury, Ganado, Kennedy, Shiner and Weimar. Essentially Shiner (a state finalist the last two years) takes Schulenburg’s place.

Here’s how that district would look based on last year’s records in football: Shiner 15-1 Ganado 11-2 Kenedy 10-3 Weimar 8-3 Flatonia 5-5 Bloomington 4-6 Danbury 3-7 Flatonia head coach Matt Uzzell has finalized the nondistrict portion of the Bulldogs’ schedule for this fall. Here’s what that looks like (district dates/locations were not finalized at press time) Week 1 scrimmage- @ Three Rivers Week 2 scrimmage- vs.

Boling Week 1- Aug 28 vs. Palacios Week 2- Sep 4th @ Louise Week 3- Sep 11th @ Nixon Smiley Week 4- Sept 18th vs.

Granger

For most other sports (nonfootball), Flatonia will be in District 28-2A with Bloomington, Danbury, Ganado, Louise, Shiner, Weimar and Yorktown.

Fayetteville, RTC

Fayetteville and Round Top-Carmine will be in District 29-1A for basketball with Buckholts, Calvert, Dime Box, North Gulch and Richards.

For volleyball, Fayetteville and RTC will be in District 27-1A with Prairie Lea and Waelder.