Week 1 Irving Mac (A)

Week 2 off

Week 3 Naaman Forest (A)

Week 4 Hebron (H)

Week 5 Flower Mound Marcus (A)

 Week 6 McKinney (H)

Week 7 McKinney Boyd (H)

Week 8 Plano East (A)

Week 9 Plano West (H)

Week 10 Allen (A)

 That was the reaction of Plano football Head Coach Jaydon McCullough when we spoke with him early Thursday morning.

“I thought it would be a seven or eight team district.  But I can understand how this came about with travel times for all the schools.  I had to scramble to get pre-district games lined up, but now we know who we’re playing and I’m excited.”

Will it be an advantage for the Wildcats to be in a six-team district?  “This definitely didn’t hurt us.  But we’re still playing good teams, tough teams.  They will be well-coached and playing hard to get into the playoffs.  It will be a challenge for us, but I’m looking forward to it.”

PISD Athletic Director Gerald Brence provided some re-alignment perspective and observations from his attendance at the UIL roll-out meeting Thursday morning.  “I thought UIL did a very good job.  Re-alignment is very difficult, and there’s always some controversy.  This alignment is due to the population changes along the I-35 core in Texas.  Demographics changed, which shifted everything East. ” 

“The Plano schools are now in Region II which will push regional playoff games toward south Dallas and Waco.  This will be good for the Plano schools because we’ll be closer to home in playoffs.   As for Plano schools being in a six team district, there is not a lot of room for error for any team.  It’s going to be a very competitive, very tight district.”

“PISD will be finishing out the competition year in District 8 and then looking forward to the new competition in District 10.  We’re very excited about this.”

What are the changes to District 8-5A, the district for the PISD schools? 

Out:   The four Lewisville schools – Lewisville, Hebron, Flower Mound, Marcus.

In: McKinney, McKinney Boyd.

Allen remains in the district.

And this group will now compete for football and basketball in UIL Region II as District 10-5A.  The “old” District 8 is Region I and is now comprised of Killeen schools, Waco, Temple and Belton. 

Besides the change in competitors, the new alignment changes the competition as Plano will now be in a six-team district instead of an eight-team district. 

How will this pan-out for PISD?  For the Wildcats in particular?  We’ll have reaction soon.

Stephen Collins signed with Wayland Baptist University.

Andrew Dockrill signed with Midwestern State University.

Hunter Gore signed to play lacrosse at The University of Denver.

Xavier Harbert signed with Tyler Junior College.

Alex Hicks signed to play football and baseball with Bacone College.

Dwayne Hicks signed with Tyler Junior College.

Kevin Merrill signed with Wayland Baptist University.

Sam Morell signed with Snow Junior College.

Darron Shannon signed with Evangel University.

ALSO TODAY  Plano Baseball Head Coach Rick Robertson introduced Matt McLean who signed with Grayson County Junior College; Justin Arrington who signed with Hill Junior College; and, Hunter Raley who signed with T.C.U.

Plano Girls Soccer Head Coach Diane Davey introduced Alli Murphy who signed with Texas Tech University; Ashlee Trotter who signed with Southwestern Oklahoma State University; and, Sheridan Keller who signed with Southwestern College-Kansas.

Plano Boys Track & Cross Country Head Coach Tim Eshleman introduced Michael Bain who signed with Baylor University, and Kenny Stice who signed with University of Central Arkansas.

Plano Girls Hockey Head Coach Stan Tugolukov announced that Hannah Hoenshell signed with Penn State University.

Plano Senior High Spring Signing Day, 2012

The first comes  on Wednesday, Feb.1 with National Letter Of Intent Signing Day for NCAA Division I and II colleges and universities.   This is also the time when non-scholarship and preferred walk-on student athletes announce their invitation acceptances.   At Plano Senior High, campus Athletic Director Jaydon McCullough will present the signees for football and other sports beginnng at 8:00 a.m. in the Athletic Department meeting room.

Next, on Thursday, February 2 at 9:00 a.m. the Texas University Interscholastic League will announce sports district alignments for the 2012-14 seasons.   We’ll report the results for Plano’s district on Thursday, but in the meantime combination rumors swirl.  One strong thread has the three PISD schools in a district with McKinney, McKinney North, Richardson Pearce, Allen, and R. L Turner.  A variation on that theme replaces Allen with Creekview.  The Dallas Morning News has a little different projection for our district.

Finally, at the end of the week we’ll talk with Coach McCullough about coaching changes for the 2012 football season.  Different faces, different assignments?

SMU (7-5) will be playing the Pittsburg Panthers (6-6).  Pittsburg is favored by 3 1/2.

McJunkin ended the regular season playing center as a senior in 3 games with 1 assisted tackle.  He is second on the depth chart at center for this bowl game.

The game will be televised on ESPN, with kickoff at noon.

Plano football alum Taylor May signs autograph for OSU fan in Glendale, AZ before 2012 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl./Photo contributed by Scott May.

Glendale, Arizona hosts the 2012 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, and redshirted freshman Taylor May will be there with his team, the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

Oklahoma State (11-1) will be playing Standford (11-1).  Oklahoma State is favored by 3 1/2.

Kickoff will be at 7:30 p.m., and the game will be televised on ESPN.