Rangers Set to Join New District 7-6A
A mix of familiar foes will join Jesuit in the new District 7-6A, although perennial powerhouse Allen won’t be among them.
Instead, the Rangers will be grouped with opponents from Irving ISD and Richardson ISD during the next two years. The UIL unveiled the new pairings on Monday as the final step in its biennial realignment process.
The complete 7-6A lineup features Jesuit, Irving, Irving MacArthur, Irving Nimitz, Lake Highlands, Richardson, Richardson Berkner, and Richardson Pearce.
It eliminates the grind of facing Allen and the Plano schools and instead places the Rangers with just two teams — Pearce and Lake Highlands — who made the playoffs in football in 2019. Meanwhile, Jesuit advanced to the 6A Region II final for the first time in program history.
Elsewhere, W.T. White dropped to the Class 5A Division I level, allowing the Longhorns to fit in a nine-team football district that includes powerhouse Lancaster along with five Dallas ISD schools and two Carrollton teams.
WTW will compete in the new District 6-5A (Div. I) alongside Lancaster, Carrollton R.L. Turner, Carrollton Newman Smith, Bryan Adams, Molina, Samuell, Sunset, and Woodrow Wilson. Lancaster should dominate, but everyone else had a losing record last year.
In basketball, volleyball, baseball, and softball, WTW will be in District 11-5A with Newman Smith, R.L. Turner, Carrollton Creekview, Bryan Adams, Conrad, Hillcrest, Thomas Jefferson, and Woodrow. Once again, such changes generally present an opportunity for the Longhorns to be more competitive in sports where they have recently struggled at the 6A level.
Hillcrest and WTW will be grouped in a district in several sports for the first time after the Panthers jumped back to the 5A level after spending two seasons in Class 4A because of declining enrollment.
In football, Hillcrest secured a mostly favorable draw in 5A Division II. The Panthers will be in the new District 6-5A with Mesquite Poteet and seven rivals from Dallas ISD (Adamson, Conrad, Thomas Jefferson, Kimball, Seagoville, South Oak Cliff, and Spruce).
Because they are in nine-team districts, both Hillcrest and WTW will only have two nondistrict games in football in 2020 and 2021, and will have their bye week sometime during district play.
Complete 2020 football schedules should be finalized in the coming days. New districts for soccer and other sports will be unveiled during the coming weeks.
