On Tuesday, the University Interscholastic League released the alignments for 2020-22, and there were several notable changes.

For the Indians, the realignment saw a change to District 11-6A, with former district mates DeSoto, Cedar Hill, Mansfield, and Mansfield Lake Ridge joining them.

Waco, Waco Midway and Duncanville are new additions to the district, replacing Grand Prairie and South Grand Prairie, who transitioned to District 8-6A, as well as Mansfield Summit, who dropped to Class 5A.

This new district offers no reprieve for the Tribe – Duncanville and Waco Midway are both state-known stalwarts. In total, six of District 11-6A’s eight teams have been state-ranked at some point in the last two years.

“Although the district is tough on paper, I think we can still do well,” said freshman Elijah Wheaton. “We have a lot of football talent returning.”

On the flip side, Academic UIL remains largely unaffected.

“Since most of the district is still around, there’s not much change,” said Academic UIL Coordinator Megan Mills. “We expect to remain competitive.”

Despite the changes, all the UIL-sanctioned events are gunning to do just that in the next two-year period.