By CONSTANCIO MARTINEZ, JR.
Special to the PRESS
The upcoming football season is right around the corner, as practices are scheduled to begin in August. When it comes to district opponents, Port Isabel will be playing some new teams due to the new 2024–2026 alignment released.
Every two years, the University Interscholastic League (UIL) goes through a reclassification and realignment process. It does so to ensure all schools are assigned to their proper conference and district based on submitted enrollment figures.
The new alignment has broken down the conferences (6A-1A) based on the following enrollments: 6A 2275 and above, 5A 1315-2274, 4A 545-1314, 3A 254-544, 2A 105-253, and 1A 104.9 and below. Furthermore, all the conferences except Class 6A are further separated into two divisions.
For the new alignment, the new enrollment range for class 4A Division 2 has been set at 545 to 956. Port Isabel’s enrollment of 596 means PI will continue to reside in District 16-4A, Division 2, as they have been since the district was created back in 2014. RGC La Grulla, with an enrollment of 910, will also remain in the district.
The district will be losing Raymondville (516) and Bishop (524.5) as they failed to meet the minimum cutoff enrollment for the 4A conference, and they will be moved down to the 3A conference. Raymondville will be joining former longtime district opponents Rio Hondo, Progreso and Lyford in District 16-3A Division 2.
Raymondville, which has been in the same district as PI for the last five realignments, has been gradually losing students. For the 2000–02 season, it had an enrollment of 763, marking a decline of 247 students to date. For reference, PI has only seen a net loss of 23 students between 2000 and 2024 enrollments.
Already featuring a small 4-team district in 16-4A Division 2, the UIL replaced the two lost district opponents with the addition of La Feria (937) and Kingsville King (934). Both teams previously played in District 16-4A Division 1, but they narrowly failed to make the new Division 1 cutoff range of 957–1314, so they dropped down to Division 2.
To recap, the new 16-4A division 2 district will comprise Port Isabel, La Feria, La Grulla and Kingsville for the next two seasons. With only 3 district opponents, teams in the district will have to schedule 7 non-district opponents to complete their 10-game schedule.
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