PALESTINE, Feb. 2, 2012—Palestine and Westwood will no longer face each other in district sports due to the UIL realignment and the drop of Westwood ISD to 2A from 3A.
 
The University of Interscholastic League released the 2012-2014 realignments for the state of Texas on Thursday morning, revealing the reclassification of Westwood ISD to a smaller conference.
 
Palestine Coach Lance Angel says the placement of Palestine into a district with only four other schools will be a challenge but adds it will be ‘a lot of fun.’
 
“It will definitely make for an interesting schedule,” Angel said.
 
Westwood Coach Roger Mays is excited about the change.
 
“We feel this is going to help the morale of our community and just get us excited,” Mays said.
 
Mays says he felt Westwood was a much smaller 3A school, and now this will level the playing field.
 
“We get to go down to where I feel we belong,” Mays said.
 
Both Angel and Mays have tried to work a non-district game between the two into their football schedules for the upcoming two years, but were unsuccessful. 

The UIL will release the classification changes for all other sports no later than April 15, 2012, according to the UIL website.