Frisco Wakeland will be one of the smallest Class 6A schools in Texas for the next two years as it moved up from 5A Division I in the University Interscholastic League’s realignment that was announced Monday.
Not counting schools that opted up to 6A despite having a non-6A enrollment, only nine 6A schools in Texas are smaller than Wakeland.
But there was some good news for Wakeland, which has an enrollment of 2,245. It avoided being in a district with five-time football state champion Allen, the state’s largest school with an enrollment of 6,798.
Wakeland also isn’t in a district with the three Plano ISD schools — Plano West (enrollment of 4,914), Plano East (4,857) and Plano (4,071). Instead, Wakeland, which will be the first Frisco ISD school to ever compete in 6A, was placed in District 5-6A with Denton Braswell, Denton Guyer, Lewisville, Flower Mound, Hebron, Flower Mound Marcus and Little Elm.
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“I was a little surprised,” Wakeland football coach and athletic coordinator Chandler Isom said. “I thought we may go with the Prosper and McKinney schools, but it also makes sense to go the other direction with Denton and Little Elm and Lewisville.”
The largest of those schools is Lewisville, with an enrollment of 3,771. Wakeland won’t be the only school in the district with an enrollment of less than 2,800, as it’s joined by Braswell (2,783), Guyer (2,588) and Little Elm (2,441).
“I did think we would end up with Allen in some form,” Isom said. “Obviously you know the talent that those guys have, and not having them as part of your district schedule, I think that’s going to benefit us.
“You are always a little apprehensive about moving up to the highest level that the state has to offer, but at the same time, there is a little bit of excitement there, just something that’s a little bit new, a little bit different.”
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Allen, Plano, Plano East and Plano West used to be the four largest schools in the state, and they shared a district from 2004 (as far back as MaxPreps records go) through 2019. They were split up for two straight realignments before sharing District 6-6A for the last two years.
They will go their separate ways for the next two years, as Allen was placed in District 6-6A with Jesuit, McKinney, McKinney Boyd, Princeton, Prosper, Prosper Rock Hill and 6A newcomer Prosper Walnut Grove. The Plano schools are in 7-6A with Coppell and the four Richardson ISD schools — Richardson, Berkner, Lake Highlands and Pearce.
“We will miss it,” Allen coach Lee Wiginton said. “I love those guys. They do such a great job and are tremendous men. I will miss that time with them, but the beauty of the Metroplex is that where we are, everybody is well coached and they do such a great job with their programs.”
It’s too bad for Allen. It has won 53 consecutive games against the Plano ISD schools in football, including by a combined score of 157-13 this season. Plano ISD’s last win over Allen was when Plano beat the five-time state champion 45-7 in 2005.
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