I was just talking to my wife about that.
Not sure they have ever been split like that, Pretty much all other multiple school ISD's are in the same district if they are in the same classification and division.
It's all about travel.
Lufkin is on an island in 5A DI.
I completely understand why Lufkin wanted out of District 8 and into District 9. Average travel time was 3 hours to district 8. 2 hours to district 9.
But I also understand why the teams in district 9 wanted no part of Lufkin. It increased their travel time by an hour on average. (at least for that game)
Personally, I think Lufkin should be added to District 9.