St. Al gets a bigger region
Published 12:03 pm Friday, December 3, 2010
For Vicksburg and Warren Central, the latest round of realignment turned out to be much ado about nothing, but St. Aloysius will see changes.
The public schools will remain in Region 2-6A for football and Division 3-6A for basketball when the Mississippi High School Activities Association shuffles its lineup next fall.
The Division 3-6A lineup — which covers all non-football sports — will maintain its current look, with Greenville-Weston and Clinton joining Vicksburg and Warren Central.
Jim Hill will move into Region 2-6A for football and replace Grenada, which moved into Region 1-6A.
Joining Jim Hill and the two Warren County schools will be current region members Greenville, Clinton, Madison Central, Murrah and Northwest Rankin.
Vicksburg and Warren Central will compete for the North State championship in all sports.
St. Aloysius will see some new faces.
In football, Class 1A newcomers Stringer, University Christian and Hinds AHS will join St. Al in a revamped Region 4-1A. Bogue Chitto, Salem, Cathedral, Dexter and Mount Olive will return to the lineup, while Resurrection, a Catholic school in Pascagoula which has played an independent schedule the past few years, will also join the fold. The top four teams make the playoffs.
The 10-team football alignment will create some scheduling difficulties for St. Al. In addition to a four-hour trip to the Coast to face Resurrection, the addition of two region games to the schedule will limit the teams in Region 4-1A to two non-region games.
The good news is that the Flashes were able to keep up Catholic school rivalries with non-region foes Greenville-St. Joe and Madison-St. Joe.
“We’ve definitely got some long trips ahead of us, but it is what it is,” St. Aloysius coach B.J. Smithhart said. “We’ve been in an 11-team region and this is nothing new. This new alignment definitely makes it harder and the teams that make the playoffs will definitely have earned it.”
In all other sports, St. Al will be in Division 7-1A with Bogue Chitto, Cathedral, Hinds AHS, West Lincoln and Piney Woods.