Faith Academy sports’ new districts feature many familiar foes

CAPTION: The father and son duo of sophomore Landon Silvers (9) and head coach Jay Silvers look to retain what the Flames have while playing new district teams. Photo by Stennis Shotts

The Faith Academy of Marble Falls athletic department announced the results of realignment as a member of the Texas Association of Privates and Parochial Schools.

Faith, which submitted an enrollment of 133, will remain in Class 3A.

In six-man football, the Flames will play in Division I, District 3 against San Antonio Lutheran and will welcome Laredo St. Augustine, Round Rock Christian, The Christian School at Castle Hills in San Antonio, and Texas School for the Deaf.

“We’re happy with it,” athletic director Zakk Revelle said. “The district is a little bit different. And it looks to be a fun district. So you’ll get five non-district, five district games and then hopefully move on to the playoffs.”

TAPPS is making two key changes to the football playoff system. It will have a state champion in Divisions I, II and III.

“So they’re kind of mimicking what the (University Interscholastic League) does with the large schools and the small schools,” Revelle said. “So (TAPPS) is going to have a large schools and small schools bracket. What’s kind of fun about that is you don’t put all your eggs in one basket just yet. Even if you win your district, you might be size wise, school wise, you might be in the medium bracket. We would never be in the small school, but we would be in the larger medium, so to speak. So that’ll be fun.”

The top two teams from each of the four districts will still qualify for the playoffs. But TAPPS is creating wild cards that will go to eight teams based on a points system. Squads earn points based on the opponents they play. Wins receive the most points.

Revelle called it “really kind of neat in my opinion.”

“It’s kind of opposite of the — not to poke fun — but it’s kind of opposite of the College Football Playoffs,” he said. “It awards you playing hard teams. Now you do have to win those games, so I guess the College Football Playoffs did get it right. But what it also does is it gets good games in non-district play, which I think is much needed. You’re not going to see as many lopsided games because teams won’t play you or you can’t find a game or whatever. But then your district games matter, not only for district standings but also for wild card points. Hopefully you’re winning all your games, so you don’t worry about it. ”  

The Flames will play baseball in District 3-3A against Bulverde Bracken, San Antonio Lutheran, Temple Central Texas Christian, San Marcos Academy and Waco Valor Prep.

The Flames and Lady Flames will play basketball and volleyball in District 4-3A against Austin San Juan Diego, Bracken, San Antonio Keystone, San Antonio Lutheran and San Marcos Academy.

In cross country and track and field, the Flames will compete in District 3-3A against Bracken, Central Texas Christian, Keystone, Lutheran, San Juan Diego, San Marcos Academy and Valor Prep.

While Bracken is not in the football district, it is in the baseball, basketball and volleyball districts.

“It was a regional thing,” Revelle said. “They just got put in like a more southern district, which is interesting because we have Laredo in our district. How do you get more south than that? But I believe that they also may have been put into a Division II district. They’re a 3A school but maybe not as many kids as some of the bigger 3A schools.”

Gone is Waco Live Oak, which was aligned to go north. Still, the athletic director believes the district members will challenge and prepare Faith athletes.

“We have good relationships with those schools, we enjoy working with them,” Revelle said. “It’ll be great competition to get us ready for district, for the playoffs. I don’t know that every team does this or every school does this, but I know we do. When you look at the beginning of the year, everybody kind of knows who are the top four or five teams that really have a shot at winning. And then everybody else is kind of in the mix. It’s a really neat deal for us to be able to look around and go ‘OK, we’re going to be in the mix, we think we’re going to be in the mix.’ But then we get to play a couple of teams that also could be in the mix but also avoiding some of those teams that are in the mix until we see them in the playoffs.”

CAPTION: Faith Academy sophomores Ella Claiborne (20) and Elizabeth Neely are jumping for joy as they prepare to challenge for the district championship. Photo by Stennis Shotts