On February 10, it was announced that CVHS athletic teams are now switching from 6A to 5A UIL divisions for the 2022-2023 school year. Carnegie switched UIL divisions from 5A to 6A over eight years ago after 6A was initially created. UIL academics, including theater, have been exempt from the current change, remaining in 6A.

UIL themselves initially proposed the switch. The 6A UIL school divisions are typically reserved for schools of over 2,000 students, making the current schools we compete against Westbury, Debakey, HAIS, Energy, and other bigger schools. The student population for 5A schools is roughly 1,000 to 2,000, containing schools such as Wisdom, Sterling, and Milby.

“Just by going by that, we are not 6A. We are 5A getting close to 4A. That being said, we are competitive in some 6A events. I know we’re very competitive in UIL theater UIL academics. And you know, we’re sporadically competitive, competitive tennis and volleyball will say they’re competitive. But to me, I think the word competitive means you have the ability to win the district championship,” Carnegie’s tennis coach Quang Tran said.

Schools receive funding proportional to the number of students enrolled. Typical 6A athletic teams receive more funding overall compared to Carnegie’s teams.

“Smaller sports and newer sports lack less resources, like equipment funding, which other schools that have a higher advantage than us,” junior cross country runner Muna Jallad said.
Jallad believes that Carnegie sport’s teams can be expected to win more games since they compete against smaller schools with fewer resources.

But volleyball coach Miyuki Scott says that it’s not just winning that matters.

“Although you’re getting wins, that doesn’t mean you’re playing quality sports,” Scott said. “I can’t speak for all the different sports, but for volleyball, it’s totally different. Our athletes will not be able to compete at the highest level. Carnegie’s students like competing. It’s not about state championships. It’s about playing hard, being the underdog, and beating these larger schools. That’s what’s more important.”

Junior and varsity volleyball player Maren Brown agrees.

“Where there wasn’t much competition there, we could try some new things. But those games weren’t nearly as fun as playing against people like Bellaire, Lamar, Heights, or even Westside because there was a lot of competition there. Playing against people that will push you to do better. It helps you improve rather than staying stagnant and playing against or even playing down to a level of other people that you know just aren’t as good.”

Since Carnegie has not been in 5A since the creation of the 6A division, there isn’t any data to show how CVHS will perform in 5A.

“Now, since we’re not going to be practicing and playing against people that actually push us to do better, we might become complacent, and our volleyball program will severely suffer because of it. I think one of the main reasons why we have such a good program and so many people who continue to improve after joining the program is because we play against people that push us to do better and that that provides some sort of competition for us because I mean, it’s sometimes it is nice to win, but I love playing against people that give us a chance to compete and to, like push us to do better because if you play against people where you win 25 to 3, there’s no competition. It’s not fun.” said Brown.