The opening of two new Cy-Fair ISD high schools—Cypress Park in 2016-17 and High School No. 12 in 2017-18—will create the need for two University Interscholastic League districts within CFISD.

“Right now we have 10 high schools and are all in the same district; it’s a conference,” said Ed Warken, CFISD director of athletics. “We play each other for positions to advance to the playoffs. That will change once we open High School [Nos.] 11 and 12.”

Under the existing UIL district, four CFISD schools will advance to state playoffs each year, but that number could increase with the creation of a second district, Superintendent Mark Henry said.

“We’ll have double the opportunity for our teams and groups to advance, whether it be academics, athletics or fine arts,” he said. “It will be exciting to see what happens.”

UIL officials will announce details of the realigned districts in February 2018. Although CFISD officials will be able to provide feedback to the UIL, it is too early to know which schools will be in each district.

“We’ll make a recommendation to them, but we haven’t decided yet what schools we want to be split,” Warken said. “The UIL generally groups them geographically by closeness, but what we determine as closeness and what they determine is two different things.”

The UIL places each school into a conference and a district, which are based off enrollment numbers and geography, UIL media coordinator Kate Hector said.

“The conference is based on the enrollment of the school in grades nine-12,” she said. “Each school submits their enrollment on a snapshot date, which determines which conference they’re placed into. Then they’re placed in one of 32 districts, which are based on geography.”

Warken said six CFISD high schools could be in each district, meaning high schools from other nearby school districts will be part of the new UIL districts. The UIL typically does not want more than 10 schools in one UIL district, Hector said.

“When we do split up, we won’t be by ourselves,” Warken said. “[The UIL] might get two or three other schools to fill that district to eight or more [schools].”

When the UIL district split occurs, there is a chance CFISD could end up in two of the state’s four UIL regions, Warken said, meaning additional travel for the district.

“We may go north and west and play schools in the second round of the playoffs in the Dallas area or Austin area,” he said. “It would be more travel, but it’s all exciting and will unfold in 2018.”

When Cypress Park High School opens for the 2016-17 school year, the campus will serve ninth and 10th grade students, meaning there will be no varsity sports. However, an underclassman could still qualify for varsity in activities, such as wrestling, golf, tennis, swimming, cross country or track, and advance through the region and qualify for state. Changes will be more noticeable by 2017-18, when Cypress Park will have varsity in all activities except football, which will start during the 2018-19 school year because of a contract issue.

“During the 2017-18 school year, I think we’ll see Cypress Park located into another [UIL] district to play varsity sports, which will be different than we’ve ever done,” Warken said. “It will give those kids the opportunity to play varsity and wouldn’t take games away from the current district of 10 schools.”

The same timeline will apply to High School No. 12 in Bridgeland when it opens for the 2017-18 school year: There will be no varsity sports on campus until the second school year.

In preparation for the split, the district’s $1.2 billion bond package that was approved by voters in 2014 included provisions for a second CFISD natatorium and updates to Pridgeon Stadium. Upgrades include changes to the press box, restrooms, concession stands, ticketing areas, parking lot and better access for the marching bands.

“We wanted two stadiums that will be close to equal for the two [UIL] districts,” Henry said. “We also host a lot of UIL band competitions so we’ll have two stadiums able to handle those fine arts events.”

The second natatorium will be on the same site as Pridgeon Stadium on the southern end of the complex off Windfern Road. The natatorium will feature a 50-meter pool with seating for more than 900 guests above the swimming deck along with restrooms, concessions, classroom and meet space and locker areas. Work on both the stadium renovations and natatorium is expected to be complete by mid-2016.