A shift in district competition won’t matter as much as a shift in region following the biennial UIL realignment Monday.

Beginning in the 2010-11 school year, Westlake will spend at least the next two seasons competing in a new District 15-5A that also includes Austin High, Anderson, Bowie, Akins and Del Valle, which has moved up to 5A for the first time in school history.

Westlake has an enrollment of 2,486. The UIL cutoff for Class 5A schools was 2,065 students, a drop from the previous cutoff set at 2,085.

Bastrop and Connally, which currently compete with Westlake and the Austin schools in District 25-5A, will drop to Class 4A. Current district foe Pflugerville will compete in District 16-5A with schools from Williamson County.

Because four teams make the playoff in each sport, the move almost guarantees a playoff spot for every Westlake program.

“I think it’s a breath of fresh air,” said Darren Allman, Westlake’s head football coach and the Eanes school district athletic director. “Del Valle is talented and a program on the rise, and the playoffs will offer some new challenges.”

While district competition appears weakened for most sports, the postseason looks more perilous. Westlake’s football team has competed in Class 5A Region II four times and has a 4-4 record, including back-to-back first-round playoff losses in 2004 and 2005.

In comparison, the Chaps have a 35-5 record in 12 trips through Class 5A’s Region IV.

With the possible exception of volleyball, Region II offers an upgrade in every sport. The region includes the entire Austin area, Dallas and its eastern suburbs, the northern suburbs of Houston, East Texas and the Waco and Killeen metropolitan areas.

Scheduling emerged as the first challenge for Westlake’s coaches. Because the Chaps’ district lost two teams, the start of district play in every team sport will be pushed back two weeks. That particularly helped basketball, which will start district play after the Christmas break, but it caused some consternation for other coaches.

“This does cause some scheduling problems, and I will have to find four more games for next year,” Westlake baseball coach Jim Darilek said. “But it does give us more time to improve [for district].”

Realignment notes
Westlake hasn’t competed in a six-team district since the 2000-2002 school years. …. Only one of the nine Class 5A or 4A districts that contain Central Texas teams will have eight schools. During the past two years, five of the eight Central Texas districts had at least eight teams. … The UIL enrollment cutoff marked the first time since 1990 that the UIL lowered the minimum enrollment number for a Class 5A school. … There will be 245 Class 5A schools in the state for the 2010-12 school years.