Ever since the Mississippi High School Activities Association and Mississippi Private School Association agreed to allow their member schools to play each other, fans at St. Aloysius and Porters Chapel Academy have wondered how they’d fare against the other.

They’re about to find out.

St. Al and PCA will meet for the first time in any sanctioned high school sporting event when they play in the Red Carpet Basketball Classic Jan. 24 at Vicksburg High. It’s the first time any of Warren County’s four high schools will play an in-season game against a team from the other association since the agreement was made in 2007.

In the other Red Carpet Classic games, Warren Central will play New Hope, Vicksburg’s girls team will play Brookhaven, and the Vicksburg boys will face St. Stanislaus from the Gulf Coast.

“It’s going to be the game of the year. We’ve already been talking about it,” St. Al basketball player Alex Lanier said.

The idea for the meeting was hatched by several Red Carpet Bowl committee members, including Dr. Calvin Masterson, who also sits on PCA’s board of directors. PCA basketball coach E.J. Creel thought it was a good way for the school, which has never played in a Red Carpet football or basketball event, to finally get involved, and agreed to the game.

“I said why not? We’re the only school in the community that doesn’t get involved. As long as our administration was OK with it,” Creel said.

RC Classic

Jan. 24, at VHS

• St. Aloysius vs.

Porters Chapel

• Warren Central

vs. New Hope

• Vicksburg (G)

vs. Brookhaven

• VHS (B) vs.

St. Stanislaus

While this is the first meeting between the schools, it may not be the last. St. Al athletic director Jim Taylor said he was hoping to schedule more MPSA schools in basketball, baseball and other spring sports. St. Al will play Jackson Academy in baseball next season, and Taylor said deals were in the works to play Trinity and Tri-County in basketball in the 2009-10 season.

Taylor said part of the reason was the lack of MHSAA Class 1A schools located close to Vicksburg. St. Al’s closest division rivals, Cathedral, Pelahatchie, Pisgah and Puckett, are all more than an hour’s drive. By contrast, nearly a dozen MPSA schools are located in the same radius.

“There’s really no 1A schools in close proximity that play tennis and golf. Hopefully we’ll schedule them,” Taylor said. “A lot of public schools are seeing that as a better avenue to schedule games. For us, with basketball and spring sports, this’ll be an avenue to get some competition closer to us.”

The reasons why Taylor wants to schedule more MPSA schools are also why Porters Chapel hasn’t scheduled any MHSAA teams. There are simply more similar-sized MPSA opponents close by. Creel said playing larger MHSAA schools is not in the best interests of PCA, which is in the smallest MPSA classification, Class A. Both schools are also in large basketball districts that eat up more than half of their available playing dates.

Creel said she’d like to work out a multi-game arrangement with St. Al in the future.

“I’d like maybe to play them one year in the Red Carpet Bowl, then a game at Porters Chapel one year and the next year at St. Al,” Creel said.

Although Warren County’s two small high schools are finding common ground, when it comes to the “big three” sports of football basketball and baseball they won’t meet anywhere except the hardwood for a while. PCA baseball coach Randy Wright said there are no plans to play St. Al in that sport. And in football, a limited amount of playing dates makes scheduling difficult. Nine of St. Al’s 10 regular-season football games are region games. Taylor also said a preseason meeting in the Red Carpet Bowl was out because it would take away a lucrative home game.

“The chances of us playing in football are slim. Financially and schedule-wise it wouldn’t be a good idea,” Taylor said.