Due to district realignment, Hebron will get three new schools added to the district schedule, as well as losing the three Irving high schools next year.

“I think the competition will definitely be greater this upcoming season,” junior Paige Patrick said. “Since we lost the Irving schools there won’t be as many guaranteed wins, but if we continue to work hard, we should have no problem winning and making it to playoffs next season.”

UIL realigns districts every two years. UIL 6A is set to realign all districts including Hebron’s, which is district six. Irving, Irving Nimitz and Irving MacArthur will be replaced with Plano, Plano East and Plano West.

“I’m excited because I want the competition,” head volleyball coach Karin Keeney said. “But I think it’s going to give us a huge challenge in making playoffs next year, especially in skill sports such as baseball, volleyball, soccer and football.”

UIL also changed the requirements to be classified as 6A, increasing the enrollment requirement from 2,190 students to 2,220 students. 

“I think it’s important to realign districts because enrollment numbers are always changing and some schools jump back and forth from 5A to 6A, so I think it’s a good idea to refresh every two years,” Keeney said. “With new schools being built every year, it is important for UIL to realign districts every two years in order to not leave these new schools out.”

Next year, in addition to adding the schools from Plano, district six of the 6A conference will be retaining Hebron, Lewisville, Coppell, Flower Mound and Marcus. Head coach Brian Brazil said the commute to other schools w

ill be shorter after realignment.

“We won’t have to do as much, like having to get on loop 12; it’s not that far to Irving, but it just takes a long time due to traffic,” Brazil said. “Wherever we go now will most likely be a shorter commute than driving out to the Irving schools.”

Brazil said it came as a surprise to many of the coaches to get the Plano schools and not the Allen High School because the Plano schools and Allen have been in the same district for a long time.

“We have been waiting to jump back to the East side again, but it’s odd that they didn’t put us in with Allen as well as the McKinney schools,” Keeney said. “I didn’t see this alignment coming, and we had a lot of different possible alignments figured out; we thought we were going to get the Denton schools such as Denton Guyer and Little Elm. We never thought they would put us with the Plano schools, but I also find it exciting and I’m looking forward to the upcoming season.”

The previous realignment in district six added Irving, Irving Nimitz, Irving MacArthur and Coppell, while losing Trinity, LD Bell, Byron Nelson and Southlake.

“We have never had this alignment with Coppell being in, as well as the Plano schools,” Brazil said. “It is completely different. Every two years it always changes; we’ve never had the same district from one realignment to another realignment, but at the end of the day it is what it is, and UIL has a tough job to try and keep everything as equitable as possible.”