The University Interscholastic League released its 2022-2024 realignment districts and, as always, there were a few surprises.
Not too many, but enough to have coaches scrambling to fill holes in their schedules for the upcoming season.
The biggest shock came when the Class 2A Division II schools (McCamey, Wink, Iraan) opened their emails.
Region I? No.
Region II? Yes.
The Badgers, Wildcats and Braves also found themselves in a seven-team district (District 5-2A Division II) with Eldorado, Sterling City, Water Valley and Midland TLCA, the last three schools moving up from Class 1A Division I.
“Just a little bit,” Wink coach Brian Gibson said when asked if he was surprised with the move in regions. “I also didn’t think were were going to get seven (teams).
“Going to Region II, that’s a big one, with Albany, Muenster, Windthorst, Roscoe, Lindsey, Santo. It’s a loaded region.”
McCamey head coach Michael Woodard had a premonition that his team could be moving to a different region.
He’s just happy that some of the Badgers’ rival are coming along with them.
“Iraan is a natural rivalry and I’m excited to keep wink in the district,” Woodard said. “I was worried that we wouldn’t and that’s a pretty special rivalry.
“I thought they were going to go north. It’s been fun playing them and these two towns would have been disappointed if we werent’ in the same district.”
Both Gibson and Woodard are familiar with Eldorado, having faced them in nondistrict play.
The trio of six-man schools making the jump, however, bring some new faces around the district.
Competitive faces .
Both Water Valley and Sterling City advanced to the regional final in Class 1A Division I last year, with Water Valley losing to eventual state champion Westbrook, while Sterling City lost to state runner-up May.
