High school football divisions changing

Every two years, the University Interscholastic League looks at how many students are enrolled at each high school.Those numbers help them determine which schools will play against each other.

To make it fair, they try to keep the big schools playing against other big schools, and small schools playing against small schools. This year, they’re adding a Class 6-A, which changes things in El Paso.

From Class 1-A to Class 6-A, high school athletic directors and coaches are learning where their teams stand, now that the has handed down new realignment numbers.

“This year giving something new,” said Kenneth Owen, EPISD athletic director, “the actual cutoff numbers, which they’ve never done before. Cutoff numbers for each conference.”

Class 6-A is new, but it won’t represent super-sized schools. It essentially represents what was Class 5-A, 2100+ students.But it was added to make a new Class 1-A division that represents that six-man team.

“This really helps us as athletic directors and coaches because we’re really looking for district games and therefore we know where we’re going to belong and then we can go set up other games to compete with other people that are not in our league,” Owen said.

In El Paso the realignment means the Class 5-A schools, such as Americas, Coronado, Eastwood, El Dorado, Franklin, Montwood and Socorro will become 6-A.

But Bel Air, with a population of 2082, doesn’t make the cut. It falls to 5-A.
And the same with San Eli High which was a 4-A school, it falls to 3-A.

The UIL policy said “there shall be no attempt made to perpetuate or avoid old rivalries.”

But Bel Air leaving the big school category means Eastwood High loses it’s favorite rivalry. Hanks High, another Eastwood rival, fell down a class last year, leaving Eastwood without its old foes to battle.

Losing Bel Air to play against means the big schools will have to find games outside the district. This could translate into higher travel fees.