Area coaches react to new basketball districts

Posted

Gonzales County had mixed reactions as Gonzales, Nixon-Smiley and Waelder High all were given different fates during their basketball realignment announcement last week.

The biggest change will come from Nixon-Smiley where the Mustangs were paired with their rivals in Stockdale and Luling to remain in District 27-3A, welcoming five newcomers in Hallettsville, Marion, Schulenburg, Universal City Randolph and newly-named 3A team the Yoakum Bulldogs.

On the boys’ side that means there will be at least six teams in the district who can legitimately compete for a district title let alone make a playoff spot. The girls’ side will be equally competitive with the eight-team district.

“My first reaction was ‘wow,’” Nixon-Smiley’s athletic director Carlton McKinney said. “Before we’ve [had] a Hallettsville and a Schulenburg already but then to have a Hallettsville, a Schulenburg and a Randolph and a Marion…so basically what they did was combine two districts and put them into one and took some of the better teams in each. It’s going to be tough not only for the basketball but also volleyball, baseball…it’s going to be a tough district.”

Yoakum will come in from 4A ball. Although their athleticism hasn’t been enough to get some wins in district this year, the Bulldogs have always put ballers out there and have been competitive. Meanwhile, Marion is a school that some may recognize as they ousted the Mustangs from the playoffs last season. 

“Schulenburg was in the state tournament last year,” McKinney explained, “you got Hallettsville who is always contending, little down this year but they’re always going to have bodies, Marion who actually beat us last year and Randolph who was at the state tournament last year, then you have us.”

“You’re going to have to bring it every night,” he continued. “I guess that’s a positive in some way because every game is going to be a very difficult game. It is what it is, we’ll have to deal with it.”

Meanwhile the Apaches initially breathe a sigh of relief as they were placed in a five-team district. But as teams were read off, boys’ head coach Derek Williams quickly realized that his district is still going to be as tough.

“First, second and third,” Williams read off as he saw that he was placed in a district with Navarro, Wimberley and La Vernia. Those three teams are currently the top three in District 26-4A. The newly formed District 27-4A will be joined by newcomer Austin Eastside Memorial.

“Even though it’s Region 4, I still think [we’re] one of the toughest districts,” Williams noted.

One huge omission from UIL was separating Cuero from the Apaches, busting a longtime rivalry in spring sports.

“I was shocked at first because we lose two good rivals which is Yoakum and Cuero,” Williams said of his initial reaction. “When I got here that was the big talk, ‘well you got to beat Cuero, forget everything else you got to beat Cuero and then once you beat Cuero if you can beat Yoakum that’s just icing on the cake.’ And so losing those two schools is sad in a huge way, especially for me because that was my measuring stick in coming here is wanting to beat Cuero our biggest rival and the flagship of the district. Everywhere you go it’s Cuero, even though it’s a football school but they’ve won in track and they’ve done very well in basketball so anytime you can beat them in anything it’s a good deal so I was sad to see them go.”

As stated above, Yoakum dropped to 3A. Meanwhile the Gobblers move to District 30-4A to compete against Beeville Jones, Pleasanton, Poteet and Somerset.

Although the district rivalry may be broken, both coaches will find a way to play against each other in non-district competition.

“We’ve already put that in the works,” Williams explained. “We don’t have the correct date yet but we already got a game scheduled for Cuero next year and that was the first thing we did when we found out we were not in the same district is to play each other. We’re going to keep this alive, we’re going to keep that competition level and that rivalry alive so we definitely got that game ready to go.”

Waelder saw the least amount of significant change as they drop La Marque Premier Learning Academy and Burton. La Marque PLA moved to a different district while Burton moved up to Class 2A.

When asked whether his Wildcats will do anything different, the athletic director and head boys’ basketball coach of Waelder Brandon Howard said, “I think we’re going to do the same thing we always do. We’re going to play the same way we always play.”

“I would love to play those guys because it was good competition between both of those teams,” he continued, “losing them just makes us a smaller district, that’s about it for us.”

Waelder continues their rivalry with Moulton while also continuing to compete against Dime Box, Fayetteville, Prairie Lea and Round Top-Carmine.

Comments