The celebration for the Early Longhorns and head football coach and athletic director Daniel Price began in December when they learned they would be dropping from Class 3A Division I to 3A Division II. On Thursday, the Longhorns discovered their league foes for the next two seasons.

Early will be housed in District 2-3A Division II along with Ballinger, Brady, Grape Creek, San Angelo TLCA, and Wall.

“When we found out in December we were going to move to Division II we were really excited that day,” Price said in regard to avoiding a possible district alignment with Jim Ned and/or Brock. “We have a couple of familiar foes and some teams we’ve played in the past in this district, so we like where we’re at and where we landed.”

The Longhorns – coming off a 9-3 campaign – defeated Wall and San Angelo TLCA in district action last year, and also picked up a non-district win over Grape Creek.

“We know what TLCA has and we know what Wall has from district, and we know what Grape Creek has cause we also played them the last two years,” Price said. “We had a chance to beat Wall last year and we slayed that dragon so to speak, so our kids hopefully will not be shocked or scared of playing Wall. We’re excited about the opportunity to go compete with these guys, some good quality teams out there and to get away from that district with Breckenridge and Jim Ned.”

Brady and Ballinger – along with Wall and Grape Creek – were all playoff teams a year ago, as was Early for the second season in a row.

“Brady was really good last year and Ballinger’s been good,” Price said. “It’s not Jim Ned and it’s not Breckenridge and how big those guys were this past year, so trading those out will be good for us. There’s still some big challenges to get ready for and some different offenses in that new district.”

Dave Campbell’s Texas Football projected Early to land in Region II of Class 3A Division II, as Price also expected, but the draw appears favorable as the Longhorns target their first district championship since 2007.

“I thought we were going to go in Region II with Comanche and Dublin being so close,” Price said. “But we’re pretty excited about these matchups.”

Price did not have Early’s pre-district schedule finalized as of Thursday morning.

“That has been the chaos of not being there in person this morning,” Price said in reference to service centers around the state – where coaches normally gather for the realignment release – being closed due to the winter weather. “I’m working on it. We’ve got one more spot to fill and we should have a good idea of who it is here pretty quick.”

The rest of Class 3A Division II Region I features Alpine, Crane, Odessa Compass Academy, and Tornillo in District 1 – which Early would face in the first round of the playoffs – Canadian, Childress, Dimmitt, Friona, Spearman and Tulia in District 3 and Abernathy, Coahoma, Idalou, Littlefield, Lubbock Roosevelt and Stanton in District 4.

“I don’t know a whole about them,” Price said of the District 1 schools. “Crane has been pretty good in the past, but if you look at that compared to Pilot Point, Brock and Whitesboro, guys like that we played in Round 1 the last two years, it can’t be any harder than that. Going that direction will help us. After that, Region I is really tough with Childress, Canadian, Spearman, Lubbock Roosevelt, Littlfield and Idalou, some teams with some storied tradition.”

Outside of football, Early will remain in District 8-3A along with Comanche, Dublin, Eastland, Millsap, Peaster and Brock. The only change is Breckenridge taking the place of Bangs, which dropped to Class 2A.

“We dropped Bangs and picked up Breckenridge. We’re not real happy about that, we wanted to get away from those teams out east but it didn’t happen this go-round,” Price said. “But at least we’re familiar with them. We played them the last two years and have an idea of what they have sub-varsity wise. It’s going to be another tough go for those sports.”