PackAttack

SMH. I don't know a single thing, but some folks have gotten a scent of something stirring on the sports side of the river.

The air got heavier today. Mr B you knew this didn't you? Interesting to see how this ultimately turns out. Who stays and who goes??? I'm nervous.

Well, I don't have a clue except other folks have mentioned they are sure Lufkin is headed to 9-5A. We do not know what all the other schools have requested either. I've read that all the moving in 7-5A is not done, Josuha may request to go back to 5A DII? Highland Park may want to be in 6-5A D1? West and North Mesquite moved to 7-5A D1. Read on the 5A PRO Boards that Angleton wants to move from 9-5A in 11-5A D1 and Spring Woods wants to move from 11-5A DI to 10 -5A DI. There have been discussions like this all over the blogs and boards of TXHSF this past 3 weeks. We'll all find out tomorrow.

The Lady Pack softball get the 6-5 win against Kountze. Lp finishes the Lufkin Area Shootout undefeated.

By Greg Riddle - Dallas Morning News 9:00 AM on Feb 16, 2024 When the University Interscholastic League announced its biennial realignment on Feb. 1, it created an uproar when it placed Lufkin in the eight-team District 7-5A Division I with six-time football state champion Highland Park, Midlothian and Red Oak. All three Dallas-area schools are about a three-hour drive from Lufkin. Those weren’t the farthest district opponents for the East Texas school. Burleson Centennial, Joshua and Cleburne are about a three-and-a-half drive. Only Tyler, about a 90-minute drive, is anywhere “close” for Lufkin. Taking a deeper look at realignment after the fact reveals the headaches the process creates and the dilemmas the UIL faces as it tries to juggle where to place nearly 1,400 schools across a state that spans about 800 miles from north to south. Because the UIL bases its district alignments on geography/school size and not competitive balance, one outlier such as Lufkin can leave the UIL with no choices that are going to make everyone happy. The only logical school that the UIL could pair Lufkin with in 5A Division I was Tyler, but you can’t have a district with only two schools. So Highland Park, Midlothian and Red Oak drew the short straw — as someone always does in realignment. “We looked at a number of options for [Lufkin], including sending them south,” UIL deputy director Jamey Harrison said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News. “The way the districts to their south worked out, that was an option, but it didn’t seem like a great option. There were no great options for Lufkin.” Interestingly, if DeSoto had chosen to play in Class 5A Division I, where its shrinking enrollment of 2,127 would have put it for football, then it probably would have ended up in Lufkin’s district because of its close proximity to Red Oak and Midlothian. The only other option would have been to put DeSoto in a district with the Dallas ISD and Mesquite ISD schools that are together in 6-5A Division I. But there is a chance that Lufkin won’t end up competing in 7-5A Division I. Harrison said that Lufkin has filed an appeal with the UIL to change districts and that the appeal will be heard Tuesday. Schools choosing to opt up a classification after the cutoff numbers are released, as DeSoto did, can further complicate the UIL’s decision making in realignment. DeSoto ISD didn’t disclose until Jan. 31 — the day before the UIL announced the new districts — that DeSoto had appealed to opt up to Class 6A for the next two years. With DeSoto’s football team having won back-to-back Class 6A Division II state titles, that was a decision that the rest of the state had eagerly been waiting on, as it affected the balance of power in Texas. But DeSoto’s decision to not drop down to Class 5A Division I was made long before that. Harrison said that DeSoto sent its appeal to remain in 6A to the UIL on Dec. 11. That was just three days after the UIL announced the classification cutoff numbers for realignment, with the 6A cutoff falling at 2,275. “We had several schools that opted up after the cutoff. DeSoto was one of them. They were barely after the release of the cutoffs,” Harrison said. “We used the same process for all of them. Let’s look at the map that they are in and see what that does to that map. Let’s look at the map they are asking to go to and what does it do to that map. Usually, not always, it improves the situation.” That was the case for DeSoto, so the UIL wasn’t about to deny its appeal to compete in 6A. “A school can opt up for any reason,” Harrison said. “That is the school’s choice. Now when the school opts up after we’ve released conference cutoffs, we have to look at each of those and see what impact granting that would have. “If it helps the overall situation — at a minimum it doesn’t hurt it — we will consider it. If it’s anything that is going to cause a geographic challenge, then we would not.” After going 29-2 over the last two seasons, and with several of the top recruits in Texas returning next season, DeSoto could have dominated in Class 5A Division I. But it also had to think about all of its sports outside of football, and in the end it wound up back in District 11-6A with neighboring rivals Duncanville and Cedar Hill, along with close-by district newcomer Lancaster. That will give DeSoto great competition, with Duncanville having won back-to-back 6A Division I state titles and Cedar Hill and Lancaster reaching regional finals this past season. It also means that DeSoto won’t have to drive more than 25 miles for any of its district road games. One other big development that came out of realignment was that Allen, the state’s largest school with an enrollment of 6,947, was placed in the same district as fellow behemoths Plano East (state’s second-largest enrollment at 5,346), Plano West (third-largest enrollment at 5,337.5) and Plano (ninth-largest enrollment at 4,493). Allen, a five-time state champion in football, had not been in a district with the Plano ISD schools in the past two realignment cycles after they shared a district from at least 2004 (as far back as MaxPreps records go) through 2019. “It was an entirely different map [this time],” Harrison said. “You had schools coming up from 5A to 6A and you had schools going from 6A to 5A, so it was just a different configuration of schools this time. This time, that made the most sense.” The only Dallas-area 6A schools that have to travel outside of D-FW for district road games are Forney, North Forney, Rockwall, Rockwall-Heath and Royse City, which are all in a district with Longview and Tyler Legacy. Outside of District 7-5A Division I for football, the only other long road trips for local 5A teams for district play will be treks to Sherman, Denison and Greenville. Yet aligning districts for Dallas-area schools was one of the toughest challenges of this realignment, Harrison said. “In 6A and 5A, the Houston area, the Dallas area, the San Antonio area, when you have that many schools stacked on top of each other — coupled with the rule that schools from the same ISD in the same conference have to be placed in the same district — it can be a real challenge,” he said

Lady Pack soccer with a big 3-2 win over the Nacodoches Lady Dragons tonight in Naogdoches.

Going through some Panther stuff I've had a long time. Just getting rid of things I'll never use again. Have some really old Sideliner polo shirts and ball caps, deal with that later. Anyway, just an FYI, I have two DVD copies of the 2001 State Title game (Austin Westlake), three of the 2001 State Semi Final game (Euless Trinity), two 2004 Panther season highlights, one each of the 2005, 2006 and 2014 season highlights. If you are interested in getting a copy or two or three, just PM me with your request and address, and I will send them. No charge to you, my treat Just a reminder the digital quality of the 2001 State and Semi Finals games are VHS quality, MSGPR did the best they could to reproduce them digitally 10 years ago. Technology has come a long way since those days.

This is a point most don't think about, albeit it to be most desirable to achieve both if possible. It can be done if the right folks make that a priority, and have the right people making it happen.

Been reading about a ton of football programs going out this off season and bringing in a new direction for their programs. Lots of retirements this year, and many younger successful coaches or coordinators, are getting their opportunity to build their own program in Texas High Scholl football or step up in a higher classification. This has been one of the largest coaching movement years I can remember. Three more coaches reigned this week from Pilot Point, Queen's City and Hemphill. What's up with all these changes?

I just threw that out there, he usually has winning basketball teams every year and makes the playoffs regularly. His wife is the LHS Principal. Neither are close to retirement age. The football program from Middle School to High School needs a big revamping. I've talked to so many parent over the past several years bringing their children up through that system. You have to decipher the difference between a parents partisan take on their own child's ability and the real reality of the situation. Still, you know from the football program results these past years things needs to be much better. With the exception of that one BIG freshmen group who are now assembled for the upcoming 2024 or 2025 seasons, there hasn't been much else developed.

You always hope the changes are for the betterment of the district as a whole. We sports guys want a winning football program again, want all sports to be good. That will take some exceptional leadership to accomplish. That's not going to come from the current atheltic leaders or it would already be happening. Not sure if there is someone in the program who can make that happen. Maybe McManus? I think sometime a clean slate, a new direction is needed. Not for me to decide. I do not fully know the condition and total needs of our district.

I hear ya! The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Lufkin Lady Pack softball won 17 - 0 against Central Heights and 16-0 over West Sabine in tournament play today.

Looks like Lucas Lovejoy and Todd Dodge mean business in 5A DII. Dodge has tabbed Keller Timber Creek head coach Marshall Williams as the Leopards' offensive coordinator for 2024, he is known as one of the more dynamic offensive minds in the DFW area. How fortunate for Lovejoy, we in Lufkin are stuck with the same old set of wheels.

Lufkin softball playing in a tournament right now.

I'll post one here.

Lady Pack soccer falls to Kingwood Park in a close one, setting up a big District matchup at Nacogdoches Friday night.

Final from the PAC, Lufkin Basketball stays perfect in District play with a 74-36 win over New Caney Porter. Headed to Rusk for the Bi-District Championship on Monday! Lufkin finishes 10-0 in district and 23-11 on the year with 12 straight wins. Lufkin JV win over Porter JV tonight 51-40 Lufkin Freshmen win 62-15 over Porter Freshmen.

Lufkin powered its way to a season-opening victory Monday night in Hudson, getting three home runs and 15 hits to take an 11-1 win over the Lady Hornets in six innings.

It's the Final Home Game for your District 16-5A Champions. The Pack wrap up District play against Porter at the PAC. Tipoff scheduled for 7:00pm. If you can't be there, catch all the action on the Lufkn Gametime App or http://lufkingametime.com

Not a good year for Lufkin girls basketball, hasn'tbeen since Mack left the building. The better girls basketball was at PCA and Huntington this year.

Lufkin Lady Pack basketball fall 61-23 in the first round of the playoffs to the Tyler Lady Lions in Cushing tonight. The girls finish 11-19 on the year.