By Jeremy A. Corley
Managing Editor
The Melissa athletic department and its fans will get a crash course in East Texas geography for the next two years thanks to the University Interscholastic League's biennial realignment.
During football season, Class 2A will be split into two sections, Division I for larger schools and Division II for smaller schools. Melissa will be in Division I District 7 with Caddo Mills, Grand Saline, Mineola, Quitman and Winnsboro.
Caddo Mills will be the shortest drive for Melissa at about 35 miles, while the other four district teams are each at least 87 miles away.
While Melissa's district size will shrink from eight teams to six, the district's number of playoff berths in football also will shrink from three to two.
Of Melissa's seven current district opponents, only Howe will remain in the same classification as the Cardinals. The Bulldogs will join District 5.
Bells, Gunter, Leonard, Tom Bean and Whitewright all will play in 2A Division II, while Honey Grove will drop to Class A.
In basketball, Melissa's district will shift again, growing to seven teams with three playoff berths up for grabs. Joining Melissa in District 12-2A will be Caddo Mills, Leonard, Bogata Rivercrest, Cooper, Paris Chisum and Pattonville Prairiland.
Leonard and Caddo Mills will make for relatively short drives, but the rest of the schools are at least 65 miles away with Rivercrest the furthest at about 100 miles.
"Travel is going to be a little further apart," said Melissa Athletic Director Ronny Williams, who added that Melissa is familiar with some of its new district due to earlier Class A district alignments and recent scouting prior to playoff games.
"I think it's going to be a strong district," he continued. "With Mineola moving down, and Caddo Mills has been historically very good. Grand Saline has also been good."
Football schedules were not yet finalized at press time, but Williams said Melissa was working to keep some area rivals on the schedule, including Anna. He said the Cardinals would be fine in the new district.
"We just need to get after it and have fun with it," he said. "They're just different teams to go play -- we've never had an issue to go play anybody. Our non-district schedule has pretty much been 3As for the last couple of years."
The student enrollment range for Class 2A did not change from the last realignment, staying at 200-429. Melissa's high school enrollment number for the realignment process was 372.