By Bill Peterson
At the Rebel Classic earlier this month, Pete Contreras of the University Interscholastic League (UIL) said the next round of districting would be announced on Feb. 1. Already, the guessing game has begun.
According to most opinions going around, Del Valle and New Braunfels will go up to Class 5A for the next two years, which will fundamentally reshape the district to which Hays and Lehman High Schools will belong. Even more interesting is the status of San Marcos High School, which barely made it into Class 5A for the current alignment and is expected to drop back into Class 4A for the next alignment.
The last alignment set the minimum Class 5A enrollment at 1,985. San Marcos turned in an enrollment of 1,990.5, while Hays turned in 1,888. It's very likely that the minimum for Class 5A in the next alignment will exceed 2,000 students.
Hays High has actually become slightly smaller since the last alignment, turning in 1,850 for its October snapshot date. The most recent available enrollment figures from Dec. 17 show 1,843 between Hays High (1,739) and the Academy@Hays (104). The enrollment figures showed 1,492 at Lehman.
The chance is good that Hays, Lehman and San Marcos all will be in the same Class 4A district, which would renew the Hays-San Marcos football rivalry and, perhaps, even launch a new one between Lehman and San Marcos.
If the other schools that have been in District 26-4A remain – those being Schertz Clemens, Cibolo Steele, Lockhart and New Braunfels Canyon – then the district could contain seven teams.
Expect Hays to schedule a game for "zero week," which means it would begin the football season as early as Aug. 28. If the Rebels should wind up in a seven-team district, then a zero week game becomes a virtual necessity because of an open date in the district schedule.
However, Hays head coach Bob Shelton would like a zero week game, anyway. If the Rebels are in a district with an even number of teams, then playing during zero week opens a date before the district season begins. Lehman and San Marcos both played zero week this past season and took the open date before district games.
Another fascinating possibility has it that Dripping Springs could join the district including Hays, Lehman and San Marcos. Though they are neighboring school districts, Hays and Dripping Springs have never belonged to the same UIL district.
