Every other winter the UIL redraws its map, and the 2026-2027 edition landed hard on Bell County. Four county programs share a single 6A district now. Killeen and Shoemaker dropped to 5A. Four schools will run out a new head coach this fall. The lines may have moved, but the rivalries didn’t. Here is the county, class by class.
6A District 12
Harker Heights remains the standard, and the reason is a father-son operation. Head coach Mark Humble, a member of Killeen’s 1991 state championship team, has won a share of four straight district titles since coming back to his hometown. His quarterback is his son. Hudson Humble is a senior in the class of 2027 and is currently committed to play college football at Jackson State. He is the reigning 12-6A Overall MVP after throwing for 3,478 passing yards, 36 touchdowns, and eight interceptions on 76 percent passing as a junior, with 27 career wins already. The Knights won their fourth consecutive title in 2025, beat Temple 24-14 for it, got past Cedar Hill in the first round of the playoffs, and then lost a 48-44 track meet to Forney in the area round. New district, same math: Heights is the team to beat, and it returns the best player in the county. The beginning of October will be the defining stretch for this team, as they host Lake Belton on October 1st and then travel to face Temple on October 9th.
Temple is the program with the most history and the biggest question. This is one of only four programs in Texas high school football history with 800 career wins, and Coach Chad President’s debut season went about as well as a first year gets: 7-4 and a thirteenth playoff berth in fifteen years. The catch is at quarterback. Champ Mayo, who ran the offense in 2025-26, has graduated and President has turned to junior Kylan Basinger to lead the offense this season. If Basinger can settle into the offense early on, the talent is good enough to close the gap on Heights. That, plus a playoff win, is the bar.
Lake Belton is the swing story of the Fall. The Broncos have reached the playoffs in all four season they have fielded a varsity, have yet to win a postseason game, and now jump to 6A after a 5-6 year. They make that jump with a serious hire. Kirk Rogers sent 12 seasons as the offensive coordinator at Austin Westlake, coached in five state title games and won three in a row from 2019 through 2021. He replaces Brian Cope, who left for New Caney West Fork. Belton ISD was explicit that it wanted someone who could run a 300-plus-player 6A operation, and Rogers fits. Going over .500 in this district would be a real result in year one.
Chaparral drew the hardest assignment. The Bobcats move up to 6A for the first time in school history, their second straight bump in classification, after a 2-8 season that ended with them last in their 5A district. Coach Tyrell McCrea is leaning on youth. Returning starter Bryson Coleman (1,035 yards, 10 touchdowns) is back at quarterback behind lineman Jonah Taliva’a, and senior receivers Jaylen Moultrie and Marcus Majors give Coleman targets. Chaparral has never had a winning season, and this roster would like to be the first. However, a schedule that consists of Bryan, Waco Midway, Harker Heights, Lake Belton and Temple makes that a difficult task.
Class 5A: Two Killeen programs, Two New Coaches
The quieter move happened a rung down. Killeen and Shoemaker both fell out of 6A into the new District 12-5A Division I, which is not a soft landing. It also holds College Station, A&M Consolidated, Georgetown, Leander Glenn, Connally, Hendrickson, and Weiss.
Killeen starts over. New Head Coach Roderick Sneed comes from North Mesquite, where he was defensive coordinator at his own alma mater and helped push the Stallions to their first playoff appearance since 2015. He replaces Josh Sadler, who stepped down in March. After going 2-8 in 2025, the Roos need a jolt, and a class drop is the kind of reset a program with Killeen’s tradition can use.
Shoemaker kept it internal, promoting nine-year assistant Roy Locks to lead the Grey Wolves. Shoemaker was the more competitive of the Killeen schools last fall, after going 7-3 in 2025, and if it carries down a classification, the Grey Wolves are a factor right away.
In 5A Division II, Belton and Ellison landed in the same district alongside Brenham, Bryan Rudder, Waco, and Waco University. Belton reached the playoffs in 2025, before a 63-21 first-round loss to Iowa Colony and should be back in the mix under new head coach Joshua Mann. These two squads play each other on October 23rd, which could easily be a battle for playoff positioning.
The Smaller Schools Redraw Too
Salado (4A) is still the county’s steadiest program below the big-school ranks. The Eagles put together a legitimate playoff run in 2025 on the strength of their run game and again project as the best team in Bell County outside of 6A and 5A.
Little River Academy and Troy (3A Division I) are back in the same district, one that also includes Cameron, Yoe, Franklin, Lorena, McGregor, Rockdale and Caldwell. Academy beat both Troy 49-7 and Salado 41-28 last year, and projects to be the strongest 3A team in Bell County. Troy made the playoffs but got a hard lesson from the district’s best and looks to be rebuilding.
Rogers (3A Division II) shifts into a district with Florence, Lexington, Thrall, Schulenburg and Anderson-Shiro, a group a playoff-adjacent program can crack. Top four is within range.
Holland and Bartlett (2A Division II) share a district with Bremond, Burton, Chilton, Milano, Snook and Sommerville. For both, the season gets measured in steps forward and the odd Friday upset.
What I’ll Be Watching
The Temple, Harker Heights, and Lake Belton triangle decides the top of District 12, and the head-to-heads settle who hosts in December. Below that, the question is whether Killeen and Shoemaker adjust to 5A under first-year head coaches. And the one I am most curious about is Lake Belton: a very young program that has already produced a five-star prospect in Micah Hudson, climbing to 6A with a three-time state champion calling its offense is worth watching closely, win or lose.