UIL changes classification cutoff numbers; effects to be felt by Scurry County teams

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The University Interscholastic League (UIL) released its updated classification cutoff numbers earlier this week, however Scurry County’s three public school athletic programs won’t see much, if any, change.
No one will move up or down a classification, although Snyder, Ira and Hermleigh’s districts are bound to change in February. For 4-A schools, the enrollment cutoffs are set at 515 to 1,209 and 1-A schools are now 104.9 students or below.
For football divisions, 4-A Division II’s new cutoffs are set at 515 to 864 and 1A Division I’s cutoffs are 59.5 to 104.9.
Snyder athletic director Wes Wood said that Snyder’s 731 students kept Snyder High School in the 4-A classification and the football team will remain in 4-A Division II.
That may make things interesting for the Tigers as the district could look very different come August, according to Wood.
“It doesn’t affect us. We are kind of middle of the pack as far as our numbers go,” he said. “What I did not foresee was Seminole dropping down to Division II and Fort Stockton opting to go up to Division I. Seminole may end up in our district and they are pretty stinking good. We’re in a situation where it could go either way.”
Ira head football and baseball coach, Toby Goodwin, hadn’t expected a big change for the school’s division, but expects to see change in the district alignment.
“It’s about what I thought it was going to be,” he said. “It really didn’t affect us at all. The only thing that could change is what district we will be in, but as far as our division, it changes nothing for us.”
Hermleigh’s head football and baseball coach, Sam Winters, said the Cardinals won’t see a change in classification, but he is interested to see what happens to the district.
“I really think it’s the fact that Roby is dropping a classification that makes things interesting because that tightens up the distance between us and other schools in our division,” Winters said. “If I was a guessing man, I’d say the new district is going to be us (Hermleigh), Ira, Roby and Rotan (for football). It would be pretty tough for the UIL to not put us together.”
Hermleigh will remain in class 1-A Division I for the foreseeable future, according to Winters. He said that does have an effect on Hermleigh’s football team.
“It does hurt us as a football team because we don’t have as much to pull from,” Winters said. “We only had 10 kids on our football team last year, unlike most Division I teams, who have 20.”