“Yes, I was surprised. I didn’t see a six-team district coming.”
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.”
