New UIL rules send winless Waelder to playoffs

WAELDER — A week before the district season ended, the Waelder Lady Wildcats already started thinking about the upcoming basketball season. With a school the size of Waelder, many athletes are on multiple varsity teams, meaning players on the volleyball squad may have already begun to think about the basketball drills they would have to start working on for the upcoming season.

But after getting a call from Fayetteville ISD and inspecting the UIL rules, head coach Carrie York and the Lady Cats have found out that their season has been extended by at least one more game.

According to UIL rules, due to the size of the 1A and 2A classifications, the district season combines both classes before separating teams into their perspective brackets based on their school size.

From each district, the top four 2A teams head to their respective bracket while the top three 1A teams head to another.

In District 26-2A, where Waelder resides, of the eight teams listed, there are only two 1A teams, Prairie Lea and Waelder, thus advancing both teams automatically to the 1A playoffs.

“It’s pretty exciting, the girls are pretty excited,” York said after their final district game of the year Tuesday night. “Here I was thinking we were headed on to basketball after this game but it’s not going to happen.”

“And this is my first time as a head coach getting to go into the playoffs, so I’m really excited, we definitely have a chance to come out on top.”

Waelder will match up against Fayetteville, a team that was in a district with three 2A schools and five 1A schools.

The last time these two teams met was late in August when Fayetteville swept the Lady Cats.

Despite the early loss, York noted that their tough district schedule going up against 2A teams like Schulenburg, Shiner and Weimar have readied Waelder to take on another 1A team.

“Our district is tough,” she said, “we play a bunch of 2A schools so the competition is up there.”

“We faced that competition, so going in the 1A bracket of the UIL playoffs, it’s an opportunity and I think they’re ready for it.”

Even with Waelder’s struggles in the season, York is doing what she can to prepare the team for this playoff game, even if it is her first as a head coach.

“You just keep working on the little things,” she said. “I tell the girls every day, ‘I’m always going to be proud of you,’ they’re always working hard for me 100 percent and so we just have to go in mentally focused and ready to go because like I said anything can happen.”

Monday night at Flatonia is the site for the first round as Waelder takes on Fayetteville at 7:30 p.m.