UIL Realignments: El Dorado & Eastwood moving down from 6A to 5A

On Thursday, high schools across the state of Texas learned which districts they’ll be competing in next school year.

The University Interscholastic League released its district realignments that will remain in place for the next two years.

The biggest change to El Paso schools involves El Dorado High School and Eastwood High School.

Both schools are dropping from Class 6A to Class 5A. The realignments are decided by student enrollment numbers.

Eastwood and El Dorado have seen its enrollments numbers drop the last school year, which is why they’re making the move down to 5A.

Next football season, El Paso schools will make up 3 districts in 5A, but it will be broken up into 2 divisions.

Division 1 will be for larger El Paso schools like El Dorado and Eastwood, while division 2 will consist of smaller schools.

In division 1 of District 1-5A, Eastwood and El Dorado will be joined by Chapin, Del Valle, Eastlake and Bel Air.

Division 2 of District 1-5A will include El Paso, Andress, Austin, Bowie, Burges, Irvin and Jefferson.

Division 2 of District 2-5A will be a 6 team district that includes Canutillo, Horizon, Hanks, Parkland, Riverside and Jefferson. The separation into two divisions will only apply for football.

During basketball season, District 2-5A will include Horizon, Eastlake, Eastwood, El Dorado, Hanks, Parkland, Riverside, Ysleta, Bel Air and Del Valle.

El Dorado head coach Ruben Torres believes the drop to 5A won’t impact his team greatly and he welcomes the challenge.

“I think it’s very similar to what we saw in the previous 6A,” Torres said. “There’s no off week. Every week everybody is going to have to play. It’s probably going to come down to the last game and I think as a coach you can shy away from the competition or you can embrace it.”

As for 1-6A, with Eastwood and El Dorado moving down to 5A, 1-6A will remain a 6 team district for the next two years.

Districts 1-6A will consist of Franklin, Coronado, Pebble Hills, Montwood, Americas and Socorro.

The realignment changes will also impact the Anthony Wildcats. Anthony moves up from class 2A to Class 3A.

In Class 4A, Clint, Mountain View, Fabens and San Elizario will make up District 1-4A. Andrews is no longer part of District 1-4A.