Walnut Grove High School gathered its fall sports community Wednesday, Aug. 19, for "Meet the Wildcats," a kickoff event marking the start of a season unlike any in the three-year-old school's brief but decorated history.
The Wildcats enter fall competition as a Class 6A program for the first time, jumping from 5A Division II to Texas's largest UIL classification. They carry a 5A Lone Star Cup championship, a No. 4 overall MaxPreps state athletic program ranking across all classifications and a football program that has gone 23-3 with back-to-back district titles under athletic director and head football coach Tommy Allison.
Prosper ISD Athletics posted photos from the event, calling it "a great night celebrating all the fall sports of Walnut Grove."
The reclassification drops Walnut Grove into District 6-6A alongside Allen, Dallas Jesuit, McKinney, McKinney Boyd, Princeton and two familiar neighbors: Prosper and Rock Hill. For the first time, the Wildcats will face fellow Prosper ISD schools in district play.
"I'm having a blast. I'm having the time of my life," Allison told Dave Campbell's Texas Football in an Aug. 5 profile. "I've done this for 30 years now, and I feel like a kid again."
The enthusiasm is backed by results. Walnut Grove claimed the 2025-26 UIL Lone Star Cup, announced July 1, for Conference 5A with 112 points, six ahead of Aledo and 12 ahead of Argyle. The award recognizes the top-performing school in each classification across athletics, academics and fine arts. Key contributions included state championships in boys golf and boys soccer, a film sweepstakes award, state runner-up finishes in girls soccer and boys swimming and diving, and a state semifinal run in girls basketball.
The boys soccer team won back-to-back undefeated state titles, beating College Station 2-0 in the April championship. Senior Austin Randall added an individual state golf championship to the boys golf team's repeat title.
Junior wide receiver Chase Jolley captured the sibling-rivalry angle of the 6A move in the same Texas Football profile, noting his brother Mason was a first-team all-district linebacker at Prosper High. "I'm glad we get to play them this year," Jolley said Aug. 5. "Hopefully we beat them so I can talk to my brother about how we're better than Prosper."
The school also hired Brian Jones as head baseball coach on June 11, bringing more than 30 years of experience, 600-plus wins and a 6A state championship to the program. More than 220 youth athletes attended a Walnut Grove football camp in late July, a sign of the pipeline feeding the program from Bridges Elementary and Rogers Middle School.
Walnut Grove's Lone Star Cup trophy presentation is scheduled for later this fall at a date chosen by the school.
