Story updated on February 7, 2026 with comments from Drew Sanders, VHS head football coach.

By LYNETTE HAALAND, Four Points News

There is a district shakeup on the Vandergrift sports scene. UIL alignments for football, basketball, and volleyball have been released and the Vipers move into a new district with new opponents.

The University Interscholastic League released their biennial reclassification and realignment for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school years. VHS is now in District 24 with Cedar Park H.S., Vista Ridge, Georgetown East View, Hutto, Leander H.S. and Rouse.

“We are excited to get back to playing all the old LISD opponents we started playing years ago. It will be a very competitive district,” shared Drew Sanders, VHS head football coach and athletic coordinator.

“Two things that are different is that we only have seven district opponents, so that means six district games. So that ups the importance of every single game,” Sanders said. “And then our travel in the playoffs will increase with basically all opponents coming from the Houston area.”

Sanders added, “One negative is travel expenses for the district will dramatically increase, so hopefully we can budget for that.  But other than that, we are just excited to compete and looking forward to the season already!”

District 25, which goes through the start of next school year, has Hutto, Round Rock H.S., Vista Ridge, McNeil, Cedar Ridge, Westwood Stony Point and Manor.

Alignments for all other events will be released on the UIL website in the spring of 2026.