Wildcats Athletic Director and Head Football Coach Greg Owens found out Tuesday (December 3) that Sulphur Springs will again be a 5A school for the next biennial alignment. The Wildcats will again be in 5A, Division II (smaller schools) for football. Sulphur Springs’ submitted number of 1251 students was just 42 more than the top cutoff level for Class 4A. Wildcats Offensive Coordinator Matt Young told Coach Owens he thought there were only six 5A schools smaller than Sulphur Springs. Coach Owens said the UIL began letting schools know what classification they would be in two years ago. On Monday, February 3, the UIL will announce district alignments for the next biennial. The big guessing game now is what district the Wildcats will wind up in. Coach Owens said his gut tells him the Wildcats will basically find themselves in about the same football district they are in now. Kaufman has dropped down to 4A. Royse City will be going somewhere else as a Division I (bigger schools) team in 5A. Others that might come in include Mesquite Poteet, which is down to 5A, Division II from Division I. Crandall is up to Class 5A, Division II from 4A. The Wildcats and Texas High football rivalry might be on again. Texas High has dropped from 5A Division I to Division II. Coach Owens also speculates that the Wildcats might be joining some old East Texas district foes. He said he believes it may all depend of Nacogdoches, Coach Owens said if Nac stays in their current East Texas district, the Wildcats will probably head for a Metroplex district. He said if Nac ends up heading down College Station way, the Wildcats might be reunited with old East Texas foes like Hallsville, Marshall, Pine Tree and Mount Pleasant. Longview has also dropped from 6A to 5A but they are a Division I school so they won’t be a district match for football. But they could be a match for all the other Wildcats and Lady Cats sports. The UIL releases the classification cutoffs and list of schools in each to help the schools’ planning. Coach Owens said he is once again leaning toward scheduling Frisco Wakeland and Lovejoy as non-district foes for the next two years. He feels the Wildcats will be in an eight team district or perhaps again in a nine team district. Only the UIL knows their current thinking on all this and they aren’t saying until February 3.
