Ellis County Sports Your source for Ellis County Sports News
By Travis M. Smith | KBEC Sports
….and we wait no more! The UIL released the new fall and winter sports districts for high school athletics at 9 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 3. Scroll down to see where your program landed!
Congratulations are in order for the Italy Lady Gladiator volleyball team, who has already clinched a District 13-2A playoff berth in each of the next two seasons. The Lady Gladiators landed in a four-team, volleyball-only district alongside Frost, Itasca and Rio Vista.
Waxahachie received no reprieve upon realignment to District 11-6A, as the Indians will still face the stiffest competition in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, if not the state. Waxahachie is joined in the newest version of the “District of Doom” by Cedar Hill, Dallas Skyline, DeSoto, Duncanville, Mansfield, Mansfield Lake Ridge and Mansfield Legacy.
Following an internal review and calculations, the UIL released the following conference cutoffs for the biannual 2022-24 reclassification and realignment in early December:
• 6A — 2225 and above
• 5A — 1300 – 2224
• 4A — 545 – 1299
• 3A — 250 – 544
• 2A — 105 – 249
• 1A — 104.9 and below
All enrollment numbers — such as the 1,512 submitted by now-Class 5A Midlothian Heritage — were submitted to the UIL on Snapshot Day, Oct. 29.
In addition to Heritage jumping from 4A to 5A, Palmer and Maypearl missed moving up to 3A DI by 19 and 14 students, respectively. Italy is also now just 41 high school kids from jumping up a classification to 3A.
It should be noted that football is the only sport that divides the 1A-5A classifications into two divisions — often referred to as big-school and small-school, or Division-I and Division-II. Class 6A does split into Division I and II for the postseason only.
All other sports and extracurricular activities fall into the simple 1A-6A format.
The new division breaks for 1A-5A football are as follows:
• 5A Division I — 1925 – 2224 (132 schools)
• 5A Division II — 1300 – 1924 (119 schools)
• 4A Division I — 880 – 1299 (99 schools)
• 4A Division II — 545 – 879 (94 schools)
• 3A Division I — 360 – 544 (102 schools)
• 3A Division II — 250 – 359 (102 schools)
• 2A Division I — 164.5 – 249 (106 schools)
• 2A Division II — 105 – 164.4 (102 schools)
• 1A Division I — 59.5 – 104.9 (75 schools)
• 1A Division II — 59.4 and below (73 schools)
Waxahachie is 607 students over the 6A threshold with a snapshot enrollment of 2,832.5, which is 98th out of 249 schools in the state’s highest classification.
Beaumont United is the smallest 6A program with 2,230 students, just five above the 2,225-student threshold. Highland Park, a program that has long snuck by the jump in classification (first from 4A to 5A and then 5A to 6A), finally received their long-awaited bump, as the Scots are now the fifth-smallest 6A program in Texas (2,245.5)
Allen remains the largest high school in the state, checking in with 7,102 students. There are at least eight others with 4,000 or more students and another 70 with over 3,000.
Outside of Midlothian Heritage jumping to Class 5A, the program that will see the most change next fall is the Ennis Lions.
Oddly enough, the Heritage Jaguars could — and should — be one of the newest district foes for the Lions.
Ennis has dominated District 8-5A Division II on the gridiron the past two seasons, finishing both undefeated and ranked No. 1 and No. 3 in 5A, respectively.
How Realignment Played Out
Below are the UIL districts for the 2022-24 seasons (2020-22 districts in italics underneath; teams that have moved up or down within those previous districts are identified with their new classification in parenthesis):
WAXAHACHIE
2022-24 FOOTBALL & ALL OTHERS (11-6A): Cedar Hill, Dallas Skyline, DeSoto, Duncanville, Mansfield, Mansfield Lake Ridge, Mansfield Legacy, Waxahachie
2020-22 FOOTBALL & ALL OTHERS (11-6A): Cedar Hill, DeSoto, Duncanville, Mansfield, Mansfield Lake Ridge, Waco (now 5A DI), Waco Midway, Waxahachie
MIDLOTHIAN
2022-24 FOOTBALL (4-5A DI): Cleburne, Granbury, Killeen, Killeen Ellison, Killeen Shoemaker, Lake Belton, Midlothian, Red Oak, Waco
2020-22 FOOTBALL (4-5A DI): Burleson Centennial, Colleyville Heritage (now 5A DII), Mansfield Legacy (now 6A), Mansfield Summit (now 5A DII by 2 students), Midlothian, North Richland Hills Birdville, North Richland Hills Richland, Red Oak
2022-24 NON-FOOTBALL (8-5A): Arlington Seguin, Burleson, Burleson Centennial, Cleburne, Joshua, Mansfield Summit, Mansfield Timberview, Midlothian, Midlothian Heritage
2020-22 NON-FOOTBALL (14-5A): Cleburne, Corsicana, Ennis, Joshua, Midlothian, Red Oak, Waco University
RED OAK
2022-24 FOOTBALL (4-5A DI): Cleburne, Granbury, Killeen, Killeen Ellison, Killeen Shoemaker, Lake Belton, Midlothian, Red Oak, Waco
2020-22 FOOTBALL (4-5A DI): Burleson Centennial, Colleyville Heritage (now 5A DII), Mansfield Legacy (now 6A), Mansfield Summit (now 5A DII by 2 students), Midlothian, North Richland Hills Birdville, North Richland Hills Richland, Red Oak
2022-24 NON-FOOTBALL (14-5A) Corsicana, Crandall, Ennis, Forney, Lancaster, Red Oak, Terrell
2020-22 NON-FOOTBALL (14-5A): Cleburne, Corsicana, Ennis, Joshua, Midlothian, Red Oak, Waco University
ENNIS
2022-24 FOOTBALL (5-5A DII): Arlington Seguin, Burleson, Corsicana, Ennis, Everman, Joshua, Mansfield Summit, Midlothian Heritage
2020-22 FOOTBALL (8-5A DII): Corsicana, Crandall, Ennis, Forney (now 5A DI), Greenville, North Forney (now 6A), Royse City(now 6A), Sulphur Springs (now 4A DI)
2022-24 NON-FOOTBALL (14-5A) Corsicana, Crandall, Ennis, Forney, Lancaster, Red Oak, Terrell
2020-22 NON-FOOTBALL (14-5A): Cleburne, Corsicana, Ennis, Joshua, Midlothian, Red Oak, Waco University
MIDLOTHIAN HERITAGE
2022-24 FOOTBALL (5-5A DII): Arlington Seguin, Burleson, Corsicana, Ennis, Everman, Joshua, Mansfield Summit, Midlothian Heritage
2020-22 FOOTBALL (5-4A DI): Alvarado, Brownwood, Midlothian Heritage (now 5A DII), Stephenville, Waco La Vega, Waxahachie Life
2022-24 NON-FOOTBALL (8-5A): Arlington Seguin, Burleson, Burleson Centennial, Cleburne, Joshua, Mansfield Summit, Mansfield Timberview, Midlothian, Midlothian Heritage
2020-22 NON-FOOTBALL (11-4A): Alvarado, Ferris, Godley, Hillsboro, Midlothian Heritage (now 5A DII), Venus, Waxahachie Life
LIFE WAXAHACHIE
2022-24 FOOTBALL (5-5A DI): Alvarado, China Spring, Stephenville, Waco La Vega, Waxahachie Life
2020-22 FOOTBALL (5-4A DI): Alvarado, Brownwood, Midlothian Heritage (now 5A DII), Stephenville, Waco La Vega, Waxahachie Life
2022-24 NON-FOOTBALL (10-4A): Alvarado, Ferris, Godley, Hillsboro, Kennedale, Venus, Waxahachie Life
2020-22 NON-FOOTBALL (11-4A): Alvarado, Ferris, Godley, Hillsboro, Midlothian Heritage (now 5A DII), Venus, Waxahachie Life
FERRIS
2022-24 FOOTBALL (4-4A DI): Ferris, Ft Worth Benbrook, Glen Rose, Godley, Hillsboro, Venus
2020-22 FOOTBALL (5-4A DII): Ferris, Glen Rose, Godley, Hillsboro, Venus
2022-24 NON-FOOTBALL (10-4A): Alvarado, Ferris, Godley, Hillsboro, Kennedale, Venus, Waxahachie Life
2020-22 NON-FOOTBALL (11-4A): Alvarado, Ferris, Godley, Hillsboro, Midlothian Heritage (now 5A DII), Venus, Waxahachie Life
MAYPEARL
2022-24 FOOTBALL (7-3A DI): Dallas A+, Dallas Gateway Charter Academy, Dallas Life Oak Cliff, Dallas Madison, Grandview, Inspired Vision Academy Dallas, Maypearl, West, Whitney
2020-22 FOOTBALL (7-3A DI): Dallas A+, Dallas Life Oak Cliff, Dallas Madison, Grandview, Maypearl, West, Whitney
2022-24 BASKETBALL (17-3A): Clifton, Grandview, Keene, Maypearl, West, Whitney
2020-22 NON-FOOTBALL (9-3A): Dallas A+, Dallas Gateway Charter Academy (now 2A), Dallas Life Oak Cliff, Dallas Madison, Grandview, Keene, Maypearl, UME Prep. Acad., Uplift Hampton Prep
2022-24 VOLLEYBALL (17-3A): Clifton, Grandview, HSI – Waco, Keene, Maypearl, West, Whitney
PALMER
2022-24 FOOTBALL (7-3A DII): Arlington Trinity Leadership, Blooming Grove, Cedar Hill Newman, Mildred, Palmer, Rice, Scurry-Rosser
2020-22 FOOTBALL (7-3A DII): Blooming Grove, Dallas Gateway Charter Academy (now 2A DI), Edgewood, Mildred (now 3A DI), Palmer, Rice, Scurry-Rosser
2022-24 NON-FOOTBALL (18-3A): Blooming Grove, Eustace, Kemp, Malakoff, Mildred, Palmer, Rice, Scurry-Rosser
2020-22 NON-FOOTBALL (18-3A): Blooming Grove, Eustace, Kemp, Malakoff, Mildred, Palmer, Rice, Scurry-Rosser
ITALY
2022-24 FOOTBALL (7-2A DI): Axtell, Cayuga, Italy, Itasca, Kerens, Malakoff Cross Roads, Rio Vista
2020-22 FOOTBALL (8-2A DI): Axtell, Cayuga, Dawson (now 2A DII), Italy, Kerens, Marlin
2022-24 BASKETBALL(12-2A): Frost, Hamilton, Italy, Itasca, Rio Vista, Valley Mills
2020-22 BASKETBALL (12-2A): Frost, Hamilton, Italy, Itasca, Meridian (opt up to 2A), Rio Vista, Valley Mills
2022-24 VOLLEYBALL (13-2A): Frost, Italy, Itasca, Rio Vista
2020-22 VOLLEYBALL (15-2A): Italy, Itasca, Rio Vista, Avalon, Blum, Covington, Kopperl, TLC – Arlington
AVALON
2022-24 FOOTBALL (11-1A DI): Avalon, Blum, Covington, Milford, Three-Way School
2020-22 FOOTBALL (11-1A DI): Avalon, Blum, Bynum, Covington, Milford
2022-24 BASKETBALL (26-1A): Avalon, Bynum, Coolidge, Milford, Oakwood, Penelope, Trinidad
2020-22 NON-FOOTBALL (26-1A): Avalon, Bynum, Coolidge, Hubbard, Milford, Penelope, Trinidad
2022-24 VOLLEYBALL (22-1A): Avalon, Coolidge, Oakwood, Trinidad
MILFORD
2022-24 FOOTBALL (11-1A DI): Avalon, Blum, Covington, Milford, Three-Way School
2020-22 FOOTBALL (11-1A DI): Avalon, Blum, Bynum, Covington, Milford
2022-24 BASKETBALL (26-1A): Avalon, Bynum, Coolidge, Milford, Oakwood, Penelope, Trinidad
2020-22 NON-FOOTBALL (26-1A): Avalon, Bynum, Coolidge, Hubbard, Milford, Penelope, Trinidad
2022-24 VOLLEYBALL (23-1A): Bynum, Milford, Mount Calm, Penelope
Like Dragnet of old, you give us JUST THE FACTS, MAN. Great job.
Haha appreciate it, old man! Always trying to stay one step ahead of you!