As the 2017-2018 school year comes to an end, Wylie marks its last year in 4A and will transition to 5A for the 2018-2019 school year. Wylie turned a class enrollment of 1,164 students back in October of 2017, just 14 students over the UIL realignment cutoff. Wylie will be faced with the challenge adjusting from being one of the largest 4A schools to being the fourth smallest 5A school in the state of Texas.

“It’s a new chapter in Wylie High School, as far as extracurricular activities, and hopefully we’ll face that challenge, move on and be excited about it,” Coach Sandifer said.

The reclassification will put Wylie in a new district, and the football team will compete in 5A Division II. They will not play Cooper High School in district football, but a non-district football game is assumed to be scheduled for the fall of 2018. The football team will compete in a district consisting of Rider High School, Wichita Falls High School, Lubbock Cooper, Plainview, and Canyon Randall High School. Travel will be a major issue that will occur with the jump to 5A with long journeys north and northwest. “We’ll be trying to prepare our travel budget for all those long trips,” said superintendent Joey Light.

With this new transition comes new competition, and Wylie will no longer be in the same district as longtime rivals. “We get to play teams that we’ve never really played before on a regular basis,” Sandifer said. “It’ll be an opportunity for our kids to step up their games because we are going to be playing bigger school every game, so it’s exciting to have fresh faces.”

With the jump to 5A, the Wylie football team is allowed to start spring football practices according to UIL rules and regulations. This is a first for the football team, and these early practices help coaches determine which students will be placed on what teams. However, spring practices require a large amount of flexibility from both the coaches and students since other spring sports are still in play.

All other sports are expected to compete against Abilene Cooper in district play, and travel might not be as big of an issue as it will be in football.

The classification change won’t just affect athletics; academics, band, choir, and theatre will also be affected and exposed to changes.  These extracurricular activities will compete in the same district as the sports teams, with the exception of football.  Wylie will no longer be competing against pastime rivals and will have to adjust to new competition in the upcoming school year.

This transition makes Wylie Independent School District history, and everyone is affected.“There’s new opportunity, and new challenges. It’s a fresh start,” Sandifer said, “and we are excited about it.”