HUNTSVILLE, Texas — As a new Texan, I've never experienced a UIL Realignment Day before. I wasn't sure what to expect, but as it turns out, I wasn't the only one feeling that way.
"It’s like a Christmas feeling." Calvert head coach Ja'Marcus Ashley says. "It was hard to sleep last night just thinking of the different possibilities of the different districts we’d be in."
From 8:55 a.m. to 8:59 a.m., dozens of Brazos Valley coaches are focused on a package at the center of the room.
At 9 a.m., chaos ensues.
"I’m not smart enough to be a stockbroker or something," Anderson-Shiro head coach Brad Hodges says. "It seems pretty similar when the boxes open and everyone is yelling, “I need a two! I need a two! I need a three and papers are flying everywhere.”
Once the box is ripped open and the papers are passed out, it's a mad frenzy to fill out non-district schedules.
"Your phone rings more than you think it would in one single day," Mike Patterson, Snook's head coach, says. "As soon as it drops at 9 a.m., you’re one of the most popular guys in the state."
The different leagues are set by the UIL. The packets contain the groundwork for a playoff run and that means going through the so-called "District of Doom" for some local schools.
"Tradition, physicality, speed ... it's going to be a test of our metal," Normangee coach Keith Sitton says.
"There was not one projection I saw that sent us back to that district but it is what it is. You’ll play good teams no matter where you go," coach Hodges says.
Our program is in a good place but we’re going to play some teams who have pretty good programs too so it should make for good football on Friday nights," Buffalo coach Brandon Houston says.