It played like “Groundhog Day” appropriately enough for one area athletic district during Monday’s UIL realignment, while for another the scenery changed.
For Canyon ISD, it was deja vu, as outside of football the three CISD schools stayed in District 4-4A with the same five schools they’d shared a district with for the last two school years. For Amarillo ISD, it was also familiar company, but with extra cast members added.
CISD will share 4-4A with the usual suspects, as Canyon, Randall and West Plains will be in the same district as Borger, Dumas, Hereford, Pampa and Perryton outside of football. Except for Borger and Perryton, those schools will also share District 2-4A Division I with CISD in football.
AISD got bigger in the non-football sense, as it went from a nine to 10-team district in District 3-5A. Plainview dropped down to Class 4A, but 3-5A will add two new schools in Wolfforth Frenship (dropping from Class 6A) and Frenship Memorial.
Canyon girls basketball coach Tate Lombard wasn’t especially surprised that the status quo remained in place in 4-4A.
“When all the realignment numbers came out we kind of saw our situation wouldn’t change a lot,” Lombard said. “For us, keeping an eight-team district our schedule kind of stays the same. Whenever we start scheduling some other classifications it throws some things off with the Amarillo schools since they start (district so early).”
The current situation limits the urgency for scheduling nondistrict games for the next two seasons. As the Canyon girls are perennial championship contenders, Lombard can concentrate more on preparing his team for a successful playoff run than worrying about next year’s schedule.
“You get to worry about what’s in front of you then whenever the season’s over we’ll put together a two-year schedule and see how that goes,” Lombard said. “We’ll have two (shootouts) that we’ll host before Christmas and we’ll go out of town for one. We’ll just try to make our schedule as challenging as we can.”
Coaches could have an idea of where they stand in terms of the next two years based on projected numbers released on snapshot day back in October. That gives them a chance to make an educated guess on where they’ll be coaching their district games in the 2026-27 school year.
The evidence was in place that 4-4A would be sticking together geographically and enrollment-wise.
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“I think in Region I with Frenship Memorial coming up and Plainview going down those would be the only changes up here,” Canyon boys basketball coach Kyle Lovorn said. “There’s a sense of gratitude in that you know what to expect a little bit. It’s still a pretty competitive region.”
With the district schedule set in a familiar manner, getting ready for it is what requires the most attention in terms of preparing a predistrict schedule, and it’s a simple matter of filling in the gaps.
“For most coaches you centralize your schedules around tournaments and that sets your schedule in place and you kind of go from there,” Lovorn said. “The Amarillo schools start district so early it’s going to be hard for them to schedule any nondistrict games at all.”
There are always questions prior to the release of enrollment numbers as to where and who schools will be competing against for the next two years. Uncertainty reigns until the packets are handed out at the beginning of February.
Randall girls basketball coach Brooke Walthall didn’t foresee such issues this year.
“It was nice to have an idea of what was going to happen with us,” Walthall said. “Change can always be uncomfortable but you always make it work, so for the coaches who had to change I’m sure it seems kind of hard right now. This day always makes me think of (late Randall boys) coach (Leslie) Broadhurst, because we would just be refreshing that computer over and over to know what was going to happen.”
Regardless, Walthall was happy to know things aren’t going to change over the next two years.
“It’s freally nice to stay in that eight team district,” Walthall said. “You know who you’re going to play in those games before Christmas.”
With an idea of how the district was going to shape up, setting next year’s schedule was far less of a challenge for CISD schools. The only question might be how the district draw falls in terms of where and when.
As far as staying in the same district, Randall boys basketball coach Trevor Johnson wasn’t surprised.
“I didn’t think much was going to change with familiar foes over the last four years,” Johnson said. “We’re ready to keep playing the same old people. I’m lucky to be a basketball coach and not a football coach scrambling for games with the district set already. With just two teams changing in the region it was pretty easy.”
In terms of nondistrict scheduling, it’s probably easier for the AISD schools, since they’ll have to do so little of it. The way numbers look right now with a 10-team district, girls basketball games look likely to start before Thanksgiving 2026.
Along with Amarillo High, Caprock, Palo Duro and Tascosa, 3-5A will include Lubbock High, Lubbock Cooper, Lubbock Coronado and Lubbock Monterey as holdovers with the addition of the two Frenship schools.
Possible projections back in December had the AISD schools potentially joining two Wichita Falls schools, Legacy and Memorial, in a travel-heavy nonfootball district. Instead, they’re in a more compacted 10-school district.
“The district is a little bit of a surprise in that we’re in a 10-team district,” AISD athletic director Brad Thiessen said. “The UIL a few years ago made a statement that they’d never again do a 10-team district because it makes it difficult to get all the games in, especially in some of the spring sports. It’s a little bit of a surprise, but if you look at our district over the last two years, we’ve been scheduling a 10-team district with an open date with nine teams. All that does is take the open date out.”
Instead of being in with the AISD schools in 5A, the two Wichita Falls schools will compete in District 4-5A with three Abilene schools (Abilene High, Cooper and Wylie) outside of football. Amarillo High girls basketball coach Jeff Williams was somewhat perplexed at the UIL’s decision.
“I knew there was always a chance of this happening but I really thought the UIL would do something to balance the numbers somewhat with Amarillo, Lubbock, Wichita Falls and Abilene,” Williams said. “Having a 10-team district and then a five-tam district just wasn’t what I thought would happen.”
2026-28 UIL district alignments for Texas Panhandle and South Plains schools
Basketball
District 3-5A
Amarillo High
Caprock
Palo Duro
Tascosa
Frenship Memorial
Lubbock High
Lubbock-Cooper
Lubbock Coronado
Lubbock Monterey
Frenship
District 4-4A
Borger
Canyon
Randall
West Plains
Dumas
Hereford
Pampa
Perryton
District 5-4A
Big Spring
Levelland
Lubbock-Cooper Liberty
Lubbock Estacado
Plainview
San Angelo Lake View
Snyder
District 1-3A
River Road
Bushland
Canadian
Childress
Dalhart
Dimmitt
District 2-3A
Friona
Idalou
Littlefield
Lubbock Roosevelt
Lubbock Talkington (girls sports only)
Muleshoe
Shallowater
Slaton
District 1-2A
Boys Ranch
Gruver
Sanford-Fritch
Spearman
West Texas High
Stratford
Sunray
Vega
District 2-2A
Highland Park
Clarendon
Memphis
Panhandle
Quanah
Wellington
Wheeler
District 3-2A
Bovina
Farwell
Hale Center
Lockney
Olton
Sudan
Tulia
District 4-2A
Abernathy
Floydada
New Deal
New Home
Post
Tahoka
District 1-1A
Booker
Fort Elliott
Darrouzett
Follett
Miami
Kelton
District 2-1A
Claude
Groom
Hedley
Lefors
McLean
Shamrock
White Deer
District 3-1A
Adrian
Channing
Hartley
Pringle-Morse
Texline
Wildorado
District 4-1A
Happy
Hart
Kress
Lazbuddie
Nazareth
Silverton
Volleyball only
District 3-5A
Amarillo High
Caprock
Palo Duro
Tascosa
Frenship Memorial
Lubbock High
Lubbock-Cooper
Lubbock Coronado
Lubbock Monterey
Frenship
District 4-4A
Borger
Canyon
Randall
West Plains
Dumas
Hereford
Pampa
Perryton
District 5-4A
Big Spring
Levelland
Lubbock-Cooper Liberty
Lubbock Estacado
Plainview
San Angelo Lake View
Snyder
District 1-3A
River Road
Bushland
Dalhart
Dimmitt
Friona
District 2-3A
Childress
Idalou
Littlefield
Lubbock Talkington
Shallowater
District 1-2A
Highland Park
Sanford-Fritch
West Texas High
Vega
District 2-2A
Abernathy
Floydada
Olton
Smyer
Tulia
District 3-2A
New Home
Plains
Post
Ropes
Tahoka
District 1-1A
Fort Elliott
Darrouzett
Miami
Shamrock
Kelton
District 2-1A
Channing
Groom
White Deer
Wildorado