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Top 26 storylines for 2016: No. 26 – Abilene leaves the “Little Southwest Conference”
The season is fast approaching, and we're gearing up by counting down the biggest stories we'll be watching all season, many of which were set up by major offseason shifts. Why 26? Why not?
by Matt Stepp
"Leaving the famed “Little Southwest Conference” wasn’t optimal for the Abilene Eagles, but it was an expected byproduct of UIL realignment as changing population patterns in West Texas necessitated the Eagles move east into a Fort Worth-area district. With two Lubbock ISD schools and Amarillo High dropping to 5A, West Texas wasn’t going to have two districts in this realignment cycle, and keeping Abilene out west (and driving six plus hours to Amarillo) didn’t seem reasonable. So AHS, being the farthest east, gets to move to the DFW district.
The Eagles and their boosters will see smaller visiting crowds for home games during district play at Shotwell Stadium the next two years, but Abilene will still play some of its traditional rivals in non-district as the Warbirds have games set up with San Angelo Central, Midland Lee, Abilene Cooper and Odessa High. It won’t be the same, of course, but it preserves some of that storied tradition.
“We know moving into a new district will be a challenge. To win this region and make a deep playoff run you’ve got to beat Metroplex schools in the playoffs, so getting them in district play will get us used to the DFW style of play,” said Abilene second year head coach Del Cox, who also mentioned the importance of keeping some of the traditional rivalry games. “We’ll always play Cooper, so that game was a given and then we were able to get some other old district opponents on the schedule, so that satisfied the need for the traditional games.”
It’s certainly not all bad for Abilene as the last time the Eagles were in a DFW district in 2008-09, AHS posted a 25-1 record, including a perfect 15-0 record in 2009 as the Eagles, led by Ronnell and Herschel Sims, knocked off Katy in the 5A Division II state title game."
———Matt Stepp is DCTF’s High School Football Insider.
http://www.texasfootball.com/top-26-sto ... onference/
The season is fast approaching, and we're gearing up by counting down the biggest stories we'll be watching all season, many of which were set up by major offseason shifts. Why 26? Why not?
by Matt Stepp
"Leaving the famed “Little Southwest Conference” wasn’t optimal for the Abilene Eagles, but it was an expected byproduct of UIL realignment as changing population patterns in West Texas necessitated the Eagles move east into a Fort Worth-area district. With two Lubbock ISD schools and Amarillo High dropping to 5A, West Texas wasn’t going to have two districts in this realignment cycle, and keeping Abilene out west (and driving six plus hours to Amarillo) didn’t seem reasonable. So AHS, being the farthest east, gets to move to the DFW district.
The Eagles and their boosters will see smaller visiting crowds for home games during district play at Shotwell Stadium the next two years, but Abilene will still play some of its traditional rivals in non-district as the Warbirds have games set up with San Angelo Central, Midland Lee, Abilene Cooper and Odessa High. It won’t be the same, of course, but it preserves some of that storied tradition.
“We know moving into a new district will be a challenge. To win this region and make a deep playoff run you’ve got to beat Metroplex schools in the playoffs, so getting them in district play will get us used to the DFW style of play,” said Abilene second year head coach Del Cox, who also mentioned the importance of keeping some of the traditional rivalry games. “We’ll always play Cooper, so that game was a given and then we were able to get some other old district opponents on the schedule, so that satisfied the need for the traditional games.”
It’s certainly not all bad for Abilene as the last time the Eagles were in a DFW district in 2008-09, AHS posted a 25-1 record, including a perfect 15-0 record in 2009 as the Eagles, led by Ronnell and Herschel Sims, knocked off Katy in the 5A Division II state title game."
———Matt Stepp is DCTF’s High School Football Insider.
http://www.texasfootball.com/top-26-sto ... onference/
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