DAVID BARBER

davidb@vanzandtnews.com

While there was not much turnover in the newly announced volleyball and basketball districts, the Van Vandals saw a complete change so far as their football district was concerned.

The Texas University Interscholastic League (UIL) released their district realignments Feb. 1 in the sports of football, volleyball, and basketball.

All other varsity sports will have their district realignments at a later date by the UIL.

District realignments will go into effect with the start of the 2024-25 school year through the completion of the 2025-26 school year, according to the UIL.

In preparation for district realignment day, all high schools in the state had to turn in their high school ‘snapshot’ enrollment numbers as of the last Friday of October 2023.

Van High School turned in an enrollment figure of 779 students. Reclassifications in all six divisions, Class 1A through Class 6A, were released in December 2023 by the UIL.

Van remains as a Class 4A, Division 2, school. The enrollment range released by the UIL in that classification is 545-956 students.

In football, the Vandals will be the only Van Zandt County team competing in their new challenging District 7-4A, Division 2, as they will be facing defending Class 4A, Division 2, champion Gilmer, along with Texarkana Pleasant Grove, Longview Spring Hill, Paris North Lamar, and Pittsburg.

Following the district realignment announcement Feb. 1, Moffatt and his coaching staff were able to finalize their varsity football schedule for the next two seasons.

The 2024 varsity football schedule for the Vandals will be as follows:

Friday, Aug. 16: Van at Corsicana (scrimmage).

Thursday, Aug. 22: Palestine at Van (scrimmage).

Friday, Aug. 30: Van at Dallas Carter (regular season opener).

Friday, Sept. 6: Van at Pine Tree.

Friday, Sept. 13: Lindale at Van (regular season home opener).

Friday, Sept. 20: Sunnyvale at Van.

Friday, Sept. 27: Van at Brownsboro.

Friday, Oct. 4: Bye week.

Friday, Oct. 11: Spring Hill at Van (district opener).

Friday, Oct. 18: Van at Gilmer.

Friday, Oct. 25: Pittsburg at Van.

Friday, Nov. 1: Paris North Lamar at Van.

Friday, Nov. 8: Van at Texarkana Pleasant Grove (regular season and district finale)

“Alignment day rarely fails to disappoint,” summarized Van Vandal Head Football Coach and Athletic Director Jared Moffatt. “It is always entertaining. I knew that the district we were put in for football was a possibility going into the day. When you look at the school districts on the map, Liberty-Eylau dropped down to Class 3A.

“If they were going to keep that as a six-school district, there were not a lot of options out there,” continued Moffatt. “Bonham moved up to Class 4A. It really came down to us, Bonham, and Carthage. Those were the next three schools that would have been considered.

“I would have hoped that instead of pulling one of us in that group, I would have preferred, because of travel, to go into a district like Canton is in,” pointed out Moffatt. “Every trip in that district might be shorter than our shortest trip, which is now Longview (Spring Hill). In terms of travel, that would have made more sense. Going into district realignment day, you really don’t have any idea of how things will turn out.”

Two other VZC teams, Canton and Wills Point, were placed in District 6-4A, Division 2, joining Ferris, Kemp, Quinlan Ford, and Sunnyvale.

“We are now in a district with the defending state champions, Gilmer, and Texarkana Pleasant Grove,” said Moffatt. “Texarkana Pleasant Grove beat Gilmer last year in district play. Both of those schools have won state championships in Class 4A, Division 2. They are two quality district opponents for us. We have played Pittsburg in non-district. Spring Hill, who we played against in bi-district last year, and Paris North Lamar are now in our district as well.

“Looking ahead to potential playoff matchups, if you finish fourth in our district, you will more than likely be facing Carthage in the first round of the playoffs,” emphasized Moffatt. “There is little margin for error in our new football district. Of course, we were in a district with Carthage and Center before this realignment and there was not much margin for error in that district as well.”

Moffatt discussed the options that were facing him in scheduling non-district football opponents for the next two school years.

“We had Weeks 2, 3, and 4 opponents lined up prior to district realignment day but we did not have a Week 1, or a Week 5 opponent scheduled,” recalled Moffatt. “The Brownsboro coach and I thought we would end up being in the same district, but he told me a month ago that if we were not in the same district, he would be interested in scheduling a non-district game with us. We both agreed that Van and Brownsboro needed to keep playing each other. As it turned out, we were able to schedule one another pretty quick after the realignment announcement. We are now playing against Brownsboro in Week 5.

“Finding a Week 1 game was a battle,” said Moffatt. “At one point, after realignment was announced at 9 a.m., we were talking with five different schools at 9:45 a.m. We lost four of those five teams quickly because they all decided to schedule one another. The other school we were talking to, Paris, had just scheduled Sanger, so just like that, all five possibilities for scheduling were no longer in the picture for us. That was not good.

“If that wasn’t bad enough, the Gladewater coach called me at 10 a.m. and informed me that he was dropping us from his scrimmage schedule so now, I am looking not only for a Week 1 game, I am also looking for two scrimmage opponents as well,” said the Vandal head football coach. “Palestine later agreed to schedule us for a scrimmage.

“So far as trying to find a Week 1 opponent, I heard from Gunter, China Springs, Celina, Carrolton Ranchview, and Lorena, and then we heard from Dallas Carter,” said Moffatt. “It was 11 a.m. when we scheduled Dallas Carter for Week 1. Lorena called me at 1:30 p.m. ready to schedule but I told them they were too late.”

Moffatt described what the scene was like Feb. 1 at the Region 7 Educational Service Center in Kilgore where the district realignment was announced for the East Texas area.

“The meeting was pretty well attended in Kilgore,” recalled Moffatt. “Quite a few East Texas schools were represented there. It was primarily coaches in attendance but there were a few administrators. It was a packed room. To be honest with you, I have grown to really hate that day. When I was younger, I thought it was a lot of fun to be there but now, it is not fun.

“When they were unsealing boxes and passing out copies of the district realignment, coaches were pushing trying to be the first in line to get their copy,” continued Moffatt. “I decided that I was not going to do that. When I got mine, it seemed like it was 50 pages of documents, because there was information not only about football districts, but also volleyball and basketball districts as well. I only needed to see one page, but I had a hard time finding that page.”

“I had two of my coaches at the educational service center in Richardson and two other coaches in Pittsburg, looking for a Week 1 game,” said Moffatt. “One of my former coaches was trying to help us out in Birdville. The longer the wait was, the worse I was feeling because I knew our options were dwindling fast. We were able to schedule Corsicana for our first scrimmage. Me and my two assistant coaches with me were the last ones to leave the building in Kilgore. District alignment day is an unusual, unique day.”

As the athletic director, Moffatt shared his thoughts on the realigned volleyball and basketball districts.

In volleyball and basketball, Van was placed in District 15-3A joining Van Zandt County rival Canton.

Other schools joining Van and Canton in the new volleyball and basketball districts included Athens, Brownsboro, Kemp, Lindale, and Mabank.

“The volleyball and the basketball districts don’t change much because they are not divided up by Division 1 and Division 2 like you have in football,” pointed out Moffatt. “In volleyball and basketball, we picked up Kemp and we lost Cumberland Academy. There is a lot less district alignment movement generally in those two sports. Proximity is so important because of the number of teams you have in each district in those sports. There is a lot of familiarity among the teams in basketball and volleyball.”

Moffatt said that the district realignments in the other varsity sports will be announced sometime before the month of April.

“Those district realignments will look similar to basketball and volleyball when all is said and done,” said Moffatt.

As the head football coach and athletic director, Moffatt is excited to see how the Vandals and Lady Vandals perform in their newly aligned districts.

“In the 14 years that I have been here, in every sport, our kids show up to compete in every game,” summarized Moffatt. “We look forward to playing everybody on our schedules during the next two school years. We have played tough schedules before and we are going to play tough schedules again. Our kids will be excited and ready to play.”