Texas high school football coaches propose district realignment changes

Just a few weeks into high school football season in Texas, coaches are sharing their displeasure with the schedules they’ve been handed.

On Wednesday, the Dallas Morning News reported that multiple coaches have taken issue with being put into nine-team districts by the University Interscholastic League (UIL). That decision forces them to play eight district games and allows them only two non-district games before play begins, which they argue is not enough time to properly prepare their teams.

The list of districts opening play this week includes more than a half dozen districts across the state — and primarily in the 4A-6A classifications. But not all regions are broken down equally. Some districts are comprised of seven schools, while others are comprised of nine, which the coaches argue is too many.

They would prefer to have eight teams in each — i.e. seven district games — which would allow them three games prior to that part of the season starting.

“Three weeks in, you are pretty solid,” Plano head coach Cody White told the DMN. “You have corrected a lot of mistakes, and now you are working on becoming a better football team. When you have a veteran team, maybe it’s a moot point. But for us, we’re very young and inexperienced. We have seniors, but a lot of them haven’t played, particularly on the offensive side. I don’t think we are where we would want to be at the moment.”

Going down to eight teams in each district would also guarantee that exactly half of the teams in every district make the first round of playoffs and thus get a chance to move on to the state tournament. The districts are realigned every three years — with the most recent coming in 2024 and running through the 2026 season.

At that point, the UIL can re-evaluate how many teams are in each district and which teams are put in them.

Short of that, other coaches like Sachse’s Mark Behrens have suggested fixing the issue by allowing teams to have two preseason scrimmages, according to the DMN. Currently, they’re only allowed one if they participated in spring practices.

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