By Matt Vines, The DeSoto Parish Journal

BATON ROUGE – The Louisiana High School Sports Association has finalized its new district alignments, and all three districts featuring DeSoto Parish high schools will undergo changes.

North DeSoto in District 1-4A will see the greatest change as the district will lose Evangel Christian and Huntington while gaining Southwood and Loyola Prep.

Lakeview High will be dropping from 3-2A to 3-1A, meaning Mansfield will lose the Gators from its district slate while Logansport adds the Campti-based school in Natchitoches Parish.

North DeSoto football’s path to a third straight district title should get easier with the exit of two of the district’s contenders in Evangel and Huntington. Huntington’s enrollment pushed it to Class 5A, while Evangel decided to play even higher above its slated classification in Class 5A.

Huntington is also a force in boys and girls basketball, although incoming Southwood will match what the Raiders did on the hardwood.

As big of a departure as Evangel is in football, baseball might be the sport of biggest impact for the Eagles.

Evangel is traditionally a state championship contender and was part of a deep District 1-4A.

School enrollment numbers are evaluated every two years, with schools changing classifications because of enrollment increases or decreases or because a school chooses to play above their listed classification.

Loyola, whose enrollment increase moved it into Class 3A, chose to play up in Class 4A because it was slotted in a Monroe-based district.

District 1-4A now consists of North DeSoto, Booker T. Washington, Southwood, Loyola, Northwood, Woodlawn, Bossier and Minden.

In terms of Mansfield’s District 3-2A, the loss of Lakeview with no replacement means Wolverines’ football will need to find an extra non-district game.

Lakeview drops to Class 1A and adds a team for District 3-1A, which includes Logansport.

Lakeview football has had success against the middle and bottom of the district, but the Gators are a long ways off from challenging Logansport for district supremacy.

Basketball is a different matter as both Lakeview boys and girls are state championship contenders, creating a nice district rivalry with fellow state contender Northwood-Lena.