Photo courtesy Patrick Dove/San Angelo Standard-Times
ROUND ROCK, Texas — The University Interscholastic League (UIL) denied appeals from four Class 6A and 5A football programs during Tuesday’s appeals hearing at Austin’s Marriot North Hotel.
The District Assignment Appeals Committee (DAAC), composed of UIL Legislative Council members, heard testimony from all interested parties in regards to each appeal.
Fort Worth Trimble Technical School and Fort Worth Young Men’s Leadership Academy and Everman and San Angelo High Schools requested a move the UIL released its biennial reclassification and realignment data on Feb. 1. The two FWISD schools attempted to move from District 4-6A to 4-5A.
Everman and San Angelo Central attempted to move from District 5-5A and 4-5A to Districts 3-6A and to 2-6A, respectively.
“We are certainly disappointed by this outcome,” San Angelo ISD said in a statement following the decision. “Our expectation was that the UIL would take the long distances traveled by our students in all sports, plus the amount of classroom time they would miss due to that travel under more serious consideration when rendering their final decision.”
Everman quarterback Antonio Little throws a pass during a 2017 Class 5A bi-district round game against Waxahachie High School. Sherry Milliken/TexasHSFootball
Everman will remain in a district containing Aledo, Arlington Seguin, Burleson, Midlothian, and five other high schools. If the appeal would have passed, the football program would have joined the remainder of the eight-team FWISD — and all of the school district if Trimble Tech and YMLA had been approved.
San Angelo Central will remain in the Abilene, Euless Trinity, Haltom City, Hurst Bell, Richland, and Weatherford High School district pairing. If the DAAC had approved the reassignment, San Angelo Central’s football program would have moved into a district with Amarillo Tascosa, Midland, Midland Lee, Odessa, Odessa Permian and Wolfforth Frenship High Schools.
“We will remain steadfast in supporting our students, staff and parents as SAISD overcomes this setback,” the ISD’s statement read. “The tradition of academic and athletic excellence at Central High School will continue.”
An approval of a move in district could have saved SAISD travel and fueling costs. Those funding needs surround more than 250 miles of travel to the median school in their current district. The median distance to the requested district was less than 160 miles.
According to a report by the San Angelo Standard-Times, San Angelo Central appealed its previous biennial realignment in 2016. That pairing placed all sports except football with schools in Waco, Killeen and Copperas Cove and pointed to similar concerns about “safety, road conditions, and a loss of instructional time.”
Per UIL regulations concerning realignment and reclassification, each of these programs are locked into their districts until the 2020-21 realignment period. Their statuses will be determined by enrollment numbers submitted to the UIL and released December of 2019.
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