DAVID BARBER

davidb@vanzandtnews.com

Things did not go quite as planned for Van High School Athletic Director and Head Football Coach Jared Moffatt as the bi-annual University Interscholastic League (UIL) District Realignments for the next two school years were released Feb. 3.

In varsity football, the Vandals were assigned to compete in District 8-4A, Division II, as they joined Van Zandt County rival Canton, along with Brownsboro and Bullard, all holdovers from the district they were playing in the last two years.

The eye-opener so far as the new district was concerned for the Vandals was when it was announced that perennial state championship contender Carthage would be joining Van along with Center and Rusk.

“It was surprising from the standpoint that I never anticipated picking up Carthage and Center in our new district,” said Moffatt. “People put out projections and study them as they put their best guess out there before realignment is announced. They spend a lot of time on it. Every year, there is something that happens that no one expected to happen. Who would have ever thought that Mexia would be a part of our district the last two years? Not one projection that I saw had Carthage in our district. You just never know.”

Another change that Moffatt discussed regarding the new football district is that the Vandals will be competing in a seven-school district instead of a five-school district.

“You now have seven teams competing for four available playoff spots instead of five schools competing for those four playoff positions,” pointed out Moffatt. “I am not a math major, but going to a seven-school district decreases everybody’s odds of making the playoffs.”

Carthage and Van are back competing in the same district for the next two seasons after not being in the same district for the past two years.

“You know what you are going to get from Carthage,” summarized Moffatt. “They have a great football program. They are one of the best football programs in the state. Having Carthage in the district changes the competition level.”

The additions of Center and Rusk to the new district was also discussed by Moffatt. “Center was 1-9 last year but they gave us all we could handle in our Homecoming game,” said the Vandal head football coach. “Their sophomore quarterback played unbelievable against us. They had a junior receiver that caught 12 or 13 passes against us last season and he is back as well. Center has always had talented players. Rusk had a really good season last year. Their quarterback graduated and is now at the University of Colorado. They graduated some good skilled players at Rusk, but their coach does a great job there. I was not as surprised that we picked up Rusk as I was about Carthage and Center.”

Moffatt is also impressed with what Canton, Brownsboro, and Bullard will be bringing back for the 2022 season after competing against them in district play the last two years.

“Brownsboro is going to be better under their coach for his second season,” said Moffatt. “Coach Hubble at Canton is being underestimated and undervalued for what he has been able to accomplish in Canton. They lost some close football games last season, including one to us, and they have some key players coming back for the 2022 season. I don’t envision anything easy about being in this new district. This is going to be a really good district for us to compete in,” said Moffatt.

One thing that did not surprise Moffatt regarding the new district realignment was the number of schools increasing from five to seven.

“I thought it was unusual being in a five-school district before,” said Moffatt. “It made scheduling non-district games extremely difficult. When you are in a seven-school district, you don’t have to schedule as many non-district games. It was intriguing to me so far as who we picked up rather than the number of schools in the district.”

Moffatt has met with his team since the district realignments were announced Feb. 3 and shared what his message was to his players.

“Our message to the players does not change all that much regardless of what district we are assigned to,” emphasized the Vandal head football coach. “Four years ago, when we were placed in the same district with Carthage, Henderson, and Kilgore, I remember putting the schedule on the board and asking our players what changes now? I told them absolutely nothing. What are we going to do differently now? Absolutely nothing. We are not going to change our off-season program and we are not going to change our offense and our defense. Our goal every year is to prepare to play against the best teams in Texas. That message has not changed now. We know now who we are going to play. Our players have a lot of confidence in what we do and how we do it. They are always ready to play at a high level. We are not going to be afraid to play anybody on our schedule.”

In preparation for their participation in the new District 8-4A, Division II, schedule, Moffatt has put together a challenging non-district schedule for the Vandals that will feature games against Pine Tree, Chapel Hill, Lindale, and Paris.

“Non-district scheduling makes district realignment day not a fun day at all,” recalled Moffatt. “Last Thursday (Feb. 3), we went into this district realignment day with only Pine Tree (Week 1) and Lindale (Week 3) on our non-district schedule. We talked to a number of different schools about playing in Weeks 2, 4, and 5. As it turned out, we did not need a Week 5 game because we had six other schools in our new district. I knew that finding an opponent for Week 2 was going to be tough. The earlier in the non-district schedule you are looking for an opponent, the tougher it is.”

Despite the winter weather conditions, Moffatt and three of his assistant coaches (co-offensive coordinators Scott Reynolds, Sam Harvey, and defensive coordinator Jaron Rainey) were on hand at the Region VII Education Service Center in Kilgore when the district realignments were announced at 9 a.m. Feb. 3.

Normally, Reynolds, Harvey and Rainey would have attended meetings at the Region Education Service Centers at locations in the Metroplex, but those meetings were cancelled Feb. 3 due to the winter weather conditions.

“There were people everywhere at the Kilgore location,” recalled Moffatt. “The place was packed. It was chaotic when the realignments were announced at 9 a.m. I normally would have sent someone to Birdville, Richardson, and Waco to help me get in contact with coaches about scheduling games but this time around, we were all together in Kilgore. We were checking websites to look at the list of games that were already scheduled among other schools as we were trying to fill out our non-district schedule. Only Chapel Hill and Texas High expressed interest in playing against us in Week 2. For Week 4, there were a number of opponents we could have played. I can’t begin to tell you the number of coaches that contacted me about playing that week. We were getting calls from Alvarado, Dallas Carter, Wilmer-Hutchins, Cleburne, Brock, Sunnyvale and Pittsburg. We agreed to play Chapel Hill in Week 2 at 10:45 a.m.

“As the morning went on, it came down to Paris and Pittsburg,” said Moffatt “The Pittsburg coach told me to go ahead and schedule Paris for Week 4, so we did. The last two coaches to walk out of the building at Kilgore around 11:15 a.m. that day were me and the Carthage coach. Mabank called me at home at 2:30 that afternoon wanting to schedule us for Week 2, and I had to tell them they were too late. About thirty minutes after that, Palestine called wanting to play in Week 4. Those are just typical realignment day stories for us in regards to scheduling non-district games.”

A drawing was held Feb. 3 to determine the breakdown of the new District 8-4A, Division II, varsity football schedule with each team in the district having a different open date.

The Vandals open date will not come until after their eighth overall game is played, according to Moffatt. Van will have two district games, including Carthage, remaining following their open date.

Moffatt said that at one point, due to the late date of their open week, he considered not scheduling a Week 4 game which would have given his team a nine-game schedule with two open dates.

“I could never pull the trigger on that idea, but I sure thought about it,” recalled Moffatt. “As it turns out, we will play eight straight football games before our bye week and then, we will have two weeks to prepare for Carthage.”

A full breakdown of Van’s varsity football schedule for 2022 so far as home and road dates are concerned will be released in the coming days.

Non-football sports

As athletic director at VHS, Moffatt also shared his thoughts about district realignment as it involved the other varsity sports on his campus.

“With Lindale coming in, I think our district in basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball, soccer, track and the other sports just got more difficult and challenging,” pointed out the VHS athletic director. “Athens, Brownsboro, Canton and Mabank return to our district. We have not only added Lindale, but we also picked up Cumberland Academy.”

The addition of Cumberland Academy, a charter school in Tyler, presents some unique challenges in Van’s new district, according to Moffatt.

“Cumberland Academy, being a charter school, does not have residency boundaries, unlike the other schools in our new district,” emphasized Moffatt. “We have seen charter schools in the Metroplex win state championships in basketball. A few years ago, Brownsboro and Paris went to the regional tournament in basketball along with two charter schools out of the Metroplex. The charter schools ended up playing in the regional finals with one of them advancing to the state tournament. I do have a problem with that because of the differences in the residency requirements that the charter schools can follow. I don’t think you are talking about a level playing field when you are talking about charter schools. They don’t operate under the same rules.”

Moffatt believes that post-season play in all sports for Van, including football, presents a challenging road ahead in the playoffs.

“You know going into the first round of the playoffs, regardless of the sport, that you will be playing a very good team,” summarized Moffatt.