Saturday’s basketball game between St. Aloysius and Trinity will be a first, but certainly not a last.

St. Al against the MPSA

Saturday, 1 p.m. – St. Aloysius hosts Trinity Episcopal

Other games scheduled against MPSA schools include:

Jan. 24 – basketball vs. Porters Chapel

Feb. 28 – baseball vs. Jackson Academy

Aug. 28 – football vs. Tallulah

The two teams will meet at St. Al’s gym at 1 p.m. Although members of the Mississippi High School Activities Association and the Mississippi Private School Association have been able to play each other for the past three years, it will mark the first time one of Warren County’s four high schools have done that in a major team sport.

“We’re a little slower than a lot of schools getting into it. We had to wait for the OK from the Diocese to compete,” said St. Al athletic director Jim Taylor. St. Al, a private Catholic school that competes in the MHSAA, must receive permission from the Jackson Diocese on some major decisions. “Trinity called us, and we had a date to play them. It worked out well.”

This will be the first of several games, in several sports, for St. Al against MPSA members in 2009. The Flashes will play crosstown rival Porters Chapel in the Red Carpet Basketball Classic on Jan. 24 at Warren Central, Jackson Academy in baseball on Feb. 28, and Tallulah Academy in football on Aug. 28.

Taylor said there are also plans to compete in track meets with MPSA schools this spring. The lack of other Class 1A schools within easy driving distance is one of the biggest factors behind the push, Taylor added. St. Al’s closest division rivals are Natchez Cathedral or Puckett, both about an hour’s drive. By contrast, there are nearly a dozen MPSA schools in the same radius.

“We traveled a long way in our division. Last year and this year, we’ve had some long road trips,” St. Al basketball coach Gary Miller said. “There’s not that many smaller schools for us to play around here.”

Although there are a lot of similarities between St. Al and MPSA schools — smaller student bodies, both private schools, to name two — and benefits from playing them, Taylor said he didn’t expect St. Al to swap associations any time soon.

The novelty of playing not only a different team, but one that they’ve never played, should also create some buzz. One of the factors behind adding Tallulah to the football schedule, Taylor said, was to draw a bigger crowd that would generate more revenue for the school.

“JA in baseball, we compete with bigger schools all the time, and Tallulah was just a great fit for us,” Taylor said. “For the kids and fans, I think it creates a lot of interest.”

That’s especially true for the game with Porters Chapel in two weeks. While St. Al’s basketball players said playing Trinity was just another game, they were eager to see for the first time how they stack up with PCA.

“It’s really just another game. Except for Porters Chapel,” St. Al guard Luke Burnett said. “We never get to play them.”

Forward Alex Lanier took Burnett’s thoughts a step further, and the opportunity to talk some trash.

“I just want to beat them really bad. I want to embarrass them. It’s about school dominance,” Lanier said, adding with a laugh, “If we lose, we might as well quit. I’ll definitely move.”

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Contact Ernest Bowker at ebowker@vicksburgpost.com.