Multiple sources within District 11-5A Division II late Friday confirmed to Dave Campbell’s Texas Football that Austin LASA (Liberal Arts/Science Academy) would not compete in varsity football for the next two seasons. This decision leaves the eight other schools in the district scrambling to now find a Week 3 game as the district was originally slated to be nine teams after UIL Realignment.

LASA’s football history has gotten off to a bit of a rocky start as it began its own football program in 2020 after splitting off from Austin LBJ. Bryan Crews led the program through two sub-varsity seasons, but left before ever coaching a varsity game.

Derrick Lewis was hired in the summer of 2022 to guide the Raptors to their first varsity season. He’s led LASA to a combined 8-12 overall record, including a 6-4 mark in 2023.

Austin ISD has given no public comment or reasoning behind the decision as of yet, but multiple coaches in 11-5A Division II expressed disappointment and concern regarding the post-realignment timing of the news dropping.

Also of note, Austin ISD has been without an athletic director since September 2023 after Leal Anderson was moved to a new role within the district. Since Anderson’s reassignment the district has not had a full-time athletic director and also made the decision to not name an interim athletic director.

LASA becomes the second UIL school post-realignment to announce they would not participate in football in 2024-2025 as Tornillo made the announcement last week.