A realignment for the districts in high school football was approved by the KHSAA on Wednesday, making multiple changes but most notably pitting Apollo and Owensboro as district opponents.
As of the 2022 season, the districts were as set below:
Class 6A, District 1
- Henderson County
- McCracken County
- Apollo
- Daviess County
- Marshall County
Class 5A, District 1
- Owensboro
- Graves County
- Breckinridge County
- Muhlenberg County
- Ohio County
Class 2A, District 2
- Hancock County
- Owensboro Catholic
- McLean County
- Todd County Central
- Butler County
As of Wednesday, the KHSAA board approved the following changes to an array of districts including those affecting Owensboro, Owensboro Catholic, Daviess County and Apollo. The following below will be in effect for the 2023 and 2024 seasons.
Class 6A, District 1
- Christian County
- Daviess County
- Henderson County
- McCracken County
Class 5A, District 1
- Apollo
- Graves County
- Madisonville-North Hopkins
- Marshall County
- Muhlenberg County
- Owensboro
Class 2A, District 2
- Edmonson County
- Fort Campbell
- Owensboro Catholic
- Todd County Central
The changes see Apollo dropping down to 5A, now making the cross-town battle with the Red Devils a district game. In a game that already had high stakes at hand in the form of bragging rights, Edge and company now know that there’s more on the line when they face Owensboro.
“Obviously, winning city-county is something you want to do,” Edge said. “Is it the end all, be all? No. But now that they’re in our district, you definitely want to win the district and you’ve gotta beat them. They’ve probably run the district over the last five years or however long they’ve been in this district. It means more now.”
As far as scheduling goes, the Eagles now have five games that will be scheduled for district opponents to go along with city games against Owensboro Catholic and Daviess County. This will present some challenges for Edge and Apollo when it comes to getting the 2023 slate scheduled, but is confident that they’ll be able to work through it like any other years.
“6A is a little tough, but 5A is going to be just as tough,” Edge said. “We have a difficult time scheduling people. We still play a lot of 5A and 6A schools. We’ll play Owensboro Catholic, a strong 2A program… It’s just tough to schedule because a lot of schools see 5A and they’re not going to play them in this area. It’s just part of it and just one of those things.”
Daviess County on the other hand sees Christian County take the Eagles place and loses Marshall County as a district opponent, with familiar opponents in McCracken County and Henderson County staying put. Panthers Head Coach Matt Brannon said that the alignment didn’t come as too much of a shock to his crew, saying that the district stayed pretty consistent for them.
“Marshall County decided to stay down in 5A so we lost an opponent there and Christian County with their merger coming in probably next season, we knew that was a likely addition,” Brannon said. “I think early on we expected Christian County to be in 6A… I think Warren Central was a little bit of a surprise moving up to 6A and that kind of bumped Meade County into the Louisville districts.”
The realignment affects the playoffs as well, with the Panthers likely to see a team that they play in the regular season early on—-something that Brannon said might not be a bad thing because they can see how they measure up with their opponents.
Daviess County could also potentially see a tough opponent in Frederick Douglass in the postseason, but it would be later in a playoff run with them being on the east side of the bracket. The changes don’t have any effect on their rivalry week game with Apollo, as Brannon and Edge fully expect to continue their city-county battle.
Owensboro Catholic remains in Class 2A, District 2, but will not be joined by Butler County, McLean County or Hancock County for the next two seasons. Meanwhile, two spots filled out the district, with Edmonson County and Fort Campbell joining.
While knowing that the team’s schedule won’t be any easier, Head Coach Jason Morris and the Aces are looking forward to the challenge in 2023.
“Our district had a pretty good makeover,” Morris said. “We’ll be playing Fort Campbell, Edmonson County, and Todd County. I’m looking forward to competing against different teams. This made us have to pick up yet another non-district game so our schedule will be tough like always.”
