LONGVIEW, Texas — It's a new district and a new classification for the Pine Tree Pirates who moved down from %A-DII to 4A-DI after UIL realignment in February.
Pine Tree will now face teams like Chapel Hill, Lindale and, this Friday, rival Kilgore, to open district play.
Last season, the Pirates went 6-5, but are coming into Friday's matchup undefeated. However, Kilgore won district last year and Pine Tree head coach Jason Bachman knows it will be a tough game.
"I think we're getting better every week, said Coach Bachman. "There's still a whole lot to clean up and I don't believe that we've played our best ball. But, at the end of the day, it's about finding a way to win, and our kids have done that to this point. There's a lot of lessons that have been learned. There's still a lot of lessons that got to get fixed. So we'll get a strong test on Friday, that's for sure, with them."
Kilgore vs. Pine Tree is set to kick off Friday at 7:30 p.m.