High school teams move around in UIL realigment

Every two years, to keep up with changing high school enrollment numbers we get UIL realignment. Some football programs move up a class to play with bigger schools, some move down to play with smaller ones.

Five area high school football coaches saw their teams jump up from class 5A to 6A and three of them (Leander, Vandegrift and Vista Ridge) now join state finalists Lake Travis and Westlake in one of the toughest districts in Texas - 25-6A.

Vandegrift football coach Drew Sanders says, "For me, it's exciting because I've been there from the very beginning and now we've gotten to where we are fairly successful in the 5A rank so to go up and compete with the big boys, that's kind of what I'm excited about. If we can do that. I think we can.”

Hank Carter, Lake Travis football coach, says, "Yeah we used to be in there with Vandegrift and Vista Ridge when we were 4A, so I think that'll make for great competition in our district. I think our district's gonna be fantastic top to bottom."

San Marcos and Manor are the other two moving up with the state's biggest schools. They're both now with district 14-6A.

Manor football coach Sadd Jackson says, "Our kids, they're resilient. They're gonna fight and do the things they have to do to be able to compete. You know, it's just one of those things. It's amazing 25 years ago, we were 2A. Now here we are. Manor's grown so much we are 6A."

Leander Rouse drops from 6A. The Raiders are now in 19-5A. Austin High also moves down to an all AISD district 25-5A which includes teams like LBJ and McCallum.

Austin High football coach Mike Rosenthal says, "We're excited to rekindle those rivalries. We haven't played a lot of these teams. So it's gonna be new for us, gonna be a new challenge. Lot of great talent, lot of great teams across that district so we're excited to go and compete."

Liberty Hill's Jerry Vance says, "That's what's fun about this thing is I've done it enough times you go 'what?' and then you say 'ok - we can play with this'."

Vance and his Panthers reunite with their longtime rival Burnet Bulldogs in district 19-4A. Leander's new Glenn High School will start in that district as well.

You can get more information about what teams are in which class here.