9th Grade Unification

January 19, 2024

Dear Plano ISD Families,

We have some exciting news to share regarding the next alignment piece of the high school and senior high athletic programs. The Athletics Department will begin to unify 9th grade sports teams and cheer teams across the district for the 2024-2025 school year. As we have successfully restructured our JV programs, next year’s alignment will include combining 9th grade volleyball, basketball and football teams.  

This alignment will merge 9th grade athletes from each high school into one 9th grade team aligned to their feeder senior high school. Football games will continue to be played at district stadium sites while volleyball and basketball games will continue to be played at all high school campuses on a rotational basis. Practice locations and schedules will be shared later this spring which will include transportation shuttle service. 

Cheer will combine the 9th and 10th grade cheer teams at each high school campus into one Game Day Junior Varsity (JV) cheer team at each high school feeder and will cheer at 9th, JV and  JV2  games. Likewise, 11th and 12th grade cheer teams will be combined at each senior high school into one Game Day Varsity cheer team and will cheer at Varsity games. An additional JV Competition cheer team for 9th and 10th grades will be formed for each combined high school feeder. A Varsity Competition team comprised of students from grades 9-12 will also be created at each senior high school. All cheer teams will be selected through a tryout process.

There will be no impact to the high school fine arts programs with this change, including band and drill team. This alignment will only impact athletics and cheer as detailed above.

This information, along with an FAQ, will be available on our athletics website. In addition, this spring our high school and senior high coaches will set up middle school nights to talk with students and parents about the high school athletic program, including information about practice locations and times, transportation schedules and game details.

We are excited for this unification of our 9th grade teams and believe this will strengthen the school community and enhance the student experience at the high school level. This alignment will be a game changer as we level up for the upcoming 2024-2025 school year.

Respectfully,

Dr. Selenda Freeman
Deputy Superintendent for Leadership & Operations

9th Grade Unification FAQ