It was hard for New Waverly athletic director and football head coach Ken Craig to hide a smile while talking about the new districts the Bulldogs were put in when the University Interscholastic League announced the realignment for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years on Monday.

In fact, things couldn’t have gone any better for New Waverly.

Meanwhile, the Trinity Tigers and Madisonville Mustangs must’ve also been pleased with how things turned out as well.

In football, New Waverly was placed in Division II, or the small-school division, as expected, in the new format of Class 2A football.

Schools with enrollment above 300 were placed in Division I and will compete in large-school districts, as if they were a separate classification altogether. Schools designated into Division II will compete in small-school districts. The top two teams from each of the 32 districts will advance to the playoffs in separate Division I and II brackets.

“(The UIL) tried to address the disparity that there is in numbers,” Craig said. “The positive thing is that when it comes time to play district ball games and playoff games, a school like New Waverly with about 260 kids is not going to have to compete against a school with 430. ... I think it’s going to be a good thing.”

Remaining in the same district with New Waverly are Groveton and Corrigan-Camden, a team that the Dogs have enjoyed a healthy rivalry with the past two seasons in District 21-2A, with the winner of that game ultimately winning the district championship.

The additions to the Bulldogs’ district will be Deweyville, Hemphill and San Augustine, which New Waverly defeated in the bi-district round of the football playoffs in 2008.

“We’ve got a little more miles to go this time around,” Craig said. “We’re not the only ones, though.

“It’s always fun for me to see somebody new. You don’t have any video on them. There’s no prior experience, which is going to be that way with Deweyville and Hemphill. We played San Augustine a couple of years ago in the playoffs, but there’s a new coach now and a different system.

“That’s going to be fun to prepare for somebody different. Like I said before, I think we’re going to compete just fine.”

Moving on to other districts in Division II are Buffalo and Centerville, which were placed in District 11-2A.

Trinity, on the other hand, was moved to Division I. But the Tigers coaching staff dodged a huge bullet.

The Tigers, who took more than their fair share of lumps in District 21-2A where they won just two games and were winless in every district game, missed out on being in the same Division I district as Newton and Woodville.

Trinity will, however, have some stiff competition as usually formidable Crockett drops from the 3A ranks to compete against the Tigers in District 11-2A. The Tigers’ other football district opponents will be Elkhart, Teague and Troup, which combined for four wins and 26 losses last season in Class 2A, and Malakoff, which lost in the Class 2A bi-district round to Winnsboro.

While there was a dramatic change with the way football was set up, the district outlook in all other sports remained relatively unchanged as far as the Dogs and Tigers were concerned.

The only difference will be that District 23-2A will have Crockett and be without Buffalo and Corrigan-Camden.

Having Crockett becoming one of Bulldogs’ district opponents is a welcome change for New Waverly boys basketball coach Bill Goffney.

“With Crockett coming in here, we’ll have a better district,” said Goffney, whose squad made an appearance in the state championship game last March under the current alignment and is 21-3 this season with a top state ranking. “Not a lot of teams have made us work, but Crockett is always tough.

“(Crockett was) a region qualifier in 2008 in Class 3A. They’re another obstacle, another challenge, but we’re pretty confident with who we’ll have coming back that we’ll be looking forward to doing what we have done.”

For the most part, the district will be composed of the same teams as it has been the past two years in all sports except for football.

“It’s still pretty much the same,” Goffney said. “You know the coaches. You know what you got coming in. There’s not the guess factor. You’re familiar with what you’re going to see.”

Over in Madisonville, athletic director and football head coach Greg Morgan had to have liked what he saw that the Mustangs no longer had to travel west for district games. Morgan was none too pleased two years ago when the realignment in 2008 forced his team to travel extensively for district matchups.

“There are 100 miles between us and Taylor,” Morgan said when the UIL announced the new realignment in 2008. “That’s OK on a Friday night, but what about a basketball game on a Tuesday night?”

Morgan doesn’t have to worry about those long weeknight trips once fall rolls around. The Mustangs wll be back in their old district with Fairfield, Groesbeck, Mexia, Palestine and Palestine Westwood.





Football

District 10-2A

Corrigan-Camden

Deweyville

Groveton

Hemphill

New Waverly

San Augustine



Super 11-2A

Crockett

Elkhart

Malakoff

Teague

Trinity

Troup



For all sports except football



District 23-2A

Anderson-Shiro

Centerville

Crockett

Groveton

New Waverly

Onalaska

Trinity