Denton High School coaches are expecting another rough year of play as the numbers in the school and athletics department continue to waver after the opening of Guyer in the fall of 2005.

Denton ISD administrators project Denton’s enrollment to be about 1,650 students for the 2008-09 school year. The school turned in a number of 1,479 to the UIL before February’s realignment. That number is down from 1,900, which the school turned in for realignment in the spring of 2004.

The drop in numbers is contributing to a decline on the field of play. The Broncos sent just two of their eight team sports to the playoffs in 2007-08 with none of them capturing a district title. That number is down drastically from 2006-07, when the school sent five teams to the playoffs and won two district titles.

That trend will likely continue as the school’s teams struggle to find athletes and fill out their rosters.

“We’re doing everything we can to make athletics a positive experience for the students at Denton High School,” said Denton athletic coordinator Randy Patzkowski.

DISD approved new attendance boundaries for the high schools in April that will go into effect for the 2009-10 school year in an attempt to balance out attendance at the three high schools. The district projects Guyer’s enrollment to be 2,351 in 2008-09. The number turned in for February’s realignment was 1,994.5.

Jamie Wilson, DISD deputy superintendent, said the primary reason high school boundaries were redone was to balance enrollment numbers as the district is not opening a new high school.

“Whenever the Guyer attendance boundaries were initially set, they were set larger so they could take kids away from Ryan and Denton High School to populate the school and to make the school be efficient enough to open and work,” he said. “As the land that was there has grown out, there’s a need to move that boundary further south.”

Boundaries were also redone for elementary and junior high schools that will affect the high schools.

“You look at the K-12 enrollment of the Guyer attendance boundary, the Ryan attendance boundary and the Denton attendance boundary, there were huge discrepancies,” Wilson said. “There were so many more kids in kindergarten and first grade in the Guyer feeder system than there were in the other campuses, so there was a need to do some balancing there.”

With the new attendance boundaries, the district projects Denton, Ryan and Guyer’s enrollment to be within 200 of each other by the 2012-13 school year with Ryan being the biggest at 2,548. Denton is projected to be at 2,455 with Guyer at 2,388.

“I think the new alignment is going to balance the district back out,” said DISD athletic director Ken Purcell. “It’s going to bring Guyer’s numbers down considerably.”

Guyer’s numbers ballooned after the housing developments around Guyer filled out its large zone. The district also allowed a one-time transfer period where students could enroll at any of the three high schools, also to help overcrowding and fill up Guyer.

While it did bring Ryan back down to 4A numbers, the plan worked too well as a huge disparity grew between Denton and Guyer’s numbers. Guyer will likely go 5A in the next realignment while Denton teetered on brink of 3A during February’s realignment.

Wilson said he does not believe the transfer period caused the discrepancy.

“There were a lot of students that chose to stay at Denton High School rather than go to Guyer,” he said. “If every student that lived in the district now that lived in Guyer’s attendance zone now went to Guyer as apposed to going to Denton or Ryan, then their enrollment number would be higher than it is now. For every transfer that went in, there was a transfer also out. It’s not like the transfers made us have to redo the lines.”

While the new boundaries will help the Broncos down the road, Denton should get an immediate boost from its new state-of-the-art athletic facility, which is set to begin construction soon and open for the 2009-10 school year.

The Broncos will have a two-story facility, two field-turf practice fields, and Bronco Field will get new field-turf. The facility will be among the best high school athletic facilities in the state, if not the nation.

Denton coaches argued that the lackluster facilities the school has now contributed to students, and specifically athletes, transferring from Denton to Guyer during the one-time transfer period.

DISD disputes that, claiming the transfer period had little affect on the numbers. Either way, coaches are confident the new facility will give the school something that can attract move-ins and keep students it has now.

“The one thing I’m pleased with at the moment — if there’s anything to be pleased about — it’s the fact that the new facilities are starting to bring us some of the quality players wanting to come to Denton High,” said Denton girls soccer coach Iseed Khoury. “They all have heard about our new facilities, and that’s not a hindrance anymore. This coming year, I have about five freshmen that are going to be quality players. That certainly will help our program a great deal.”

JEFF ANDREWS can be reached at 940-566-6873. His e-mail address is jandrews@dentonrc.com .

courtesy of DISD projections based on 6 percent growth rate