Austin Johnston moves back to 4A

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JOHNSTON MOVES BACK UP TO CLASS 4A

Rams' move from 3A will create nine-team 4A district.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Johnston High School is expected to be cleared by the University Interscholastic League to be bumped back up from District 18-3A into Class 4A.

Johnston, which had been moved down to Class 3A in last week's UIL biennial realignment, will return to District 17-4A along with Crockett, Elgin, Lanier, LBJ, Manor, McCallum, Reagan and Travis.

The Rams turned in an enrollment of 714 students, which placed them right in the middle of the 3A enrollment parameters of 415-949 students.

Johnston's enrollment number, however, was not accurate, which will prompt the move. The UIL will release several schools moving up, but none of them will be moving because of schools appealing to do so, said UIL spokesman Kim Rogers.

"These changes that are coming out are being switched because of miscalculations," Rogers said.

Phone calls to Johnston principal Celina Estrada and football coach David Garza were not returned Monday.

Johnston's expected departure from 18-3A has left those coaches scrambling to fill a new open date on their schedules. Most schools across the state filled out their schedules and non-district opponents last week.

"This was a terrible deal for us, after realignment. We all were trying to get games with the 4A district that Johnston moved into," said Hutto Coach Lee Penland. "I thought I was getting a raw deal because my game with Johnston was scheduled for Week 9. Now I have that as an open date."

But nobody got it worse than Taylor, which now has to find three games to play.

"Because the Austin Independent School District has this oversight, it has caused a major fallout. I'm hustling for games," said Taylor Coach Rick Cobia. "We were going to play Travis, Reagan and Johnston. We lost Johnston because of this oversight. And then we lost Reagan and Travis because they're now in a nine-team district and can't play us."