Coaches explain the UIL playoff changes

CAPTION: The 2022-23 Marble Falls High School girls basketball team of Kenadie Cotton (front row, left), Emma Bindseil, Lilly Nesrsta, Emma Koziel, Hailie Rangel, Avie Nail, Alyssa Berkman Tea Rodriguez; Bethany Fry (back row, left), Kylie Roberts, Lexie Edwards and Mackenzie Farmer are bi-district champions and began preparing for the next contest, the area game. That game is in question with the new amendment approved by the University Interscholastic League’s Legislative Council. File photo

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part series.

The University Interscholastic League made official June 11 what it had told coaches was likely to happen in February when its Legislative Council passed an amendment for split divisions in volleyball, basketball, soccer, softball and baseball.

What the legislative council said yes to is creating split divisions within each sport but keeping the district realignment — the districts themselves — it announced in February the same. The way it works is similar to what is already happening in Class 6A football.

Once the top four teams in each district have clinched playoff spots, the district chairperson will look at the enrollments of the four schools. The two teams whose high schools have the highest enrollment numbers will play in the Division I tournament, while the other two compete in the Division II tournament.

Once the determination is made on which tournament each team will play, the two teams are seeded in each tournament as either the winner or the runner-up based on district record.

The amendment goes before Commissioner of Education Mike Morath for approval. The belief is the UIL has forwarded this amendment in enough time for Morath approve it to allow the UIL to make this apart of the postseason for these sports for the 2024-25 school year.

Most Highland Lakes coaches are taking a wait-and-see approach and have plenty of questions for their individual sports.

But the comment most have said about why they like the change goes to equally the playing field — where the schools in each division may not have hundreds of more students than their opponent to create their rosters.

“I think it’s good for the kids,” Marble Falls softball head coach Alex Lozoya said. “As a whole for all the programs, I think it’s awesome. I think it gives kids something to play for. It’ll get the community excited.”

“It’s going to be very different for everybody,” Marble Falls assistant athletic director and boys basketball head coach John Berkman said. “We’ll have two state champions in each classification. To me, if you win a state title, you win a state title.”

Two casualties of the change is the removal of either the area or regional quarterfinal contest and the elimination of regional tournaments in basketball and almost certainly in volleyball where the four remaining teams in each region meet at one location for a Friday-Saturday single elimination tournament. The team that wins both contests is the regional champion and advances to the state tournament.

But in this new playoff format, the four teams in the regional semifinals have choices, Berkman said.

The four head coaches could agree to meet at one gym and have a double header on one night with the winners of each matchup facing each other the next day in a regional final at the same location.

And because 12 state champions will be crowned, the state tournament for at least this year will only have finals as opposed to semifinal contests and then a final. The UIL expressed to coaches that since this change is made during the summer, there’s not enough time to figure out a different way for state tournaments this season. It plans to examine, ask questions and study whether it’s feasible to have the four regional champions in each division play in state tournaments the way it has been in done for decades, Berkman said.

He noted the UIL has told coaches it will still hand out state bronze medals to the two teams that did not advance to the state final, like it has done for decades.

The change means state champions must win six playoff games as opposed to the seven in the old system.

“You’ll still get the prestige of making it to a regional final,” the athletic administrator said. “It’s special when you make it that far or to the state tournament and Final Four and play in the Alamodome or when I was in high school, at the Erwin Center. It’s a way big deal. I do appreciate the UIL is trying to listen to coaches, to schools, to parents.”

Baseball and softball are different in that there’s not a regional tournament because coaches have the option of playing a best-of-three series or a one game, winner-take-all postseason contest.

In addition, rules changes in the past rewarded district champions in two ways: they had the option to have home-field advantage in the bi-district round and choose whether to host a series or one game.

Lozoya, who acknowledged those rewards offered a ton of motivation, was uncertain what this new amendment does for the district champions.

“I’m curious to see how it affects baseball and softball,” he said. “Almost everybody shoots for home and home.”

The other question is does the new amendment affect how families enroll their children to charter or non-traditional public schools. Currently, few of them follow attendance zones like public school follow.

So why did the UIL approve this measure now? Lozoya theorizes it might be because of the construction of new high schools across the state as people from other states are moving here.

“New schools are popping up,” he said. “I think it’ll be good for the kids. It’s an opportunity for more kids to have an opportunity to have special seasons and have something to show for it. I think it’s good for the programs and for the sport.”

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