Warren Central’s sports neighborhood is getting an impressive new addition.

Madison Central will join WC, Clinton and Murrah in a revamped Region 4-6A for basketball, soccer, baseball and fast-pitch softball, the Mississippi High School Activities Association announced in its realignment plan for the 2019-21 seasons.

Madison Central will replace Greenville, which had formed the core of the region with Warren Central and Clinton since 2005.

Greenville will join Germantown, Starkville and South Panola in Region 3-6A. The MHSAA divides its 32 Class 6A schools into eight four-team regions for most sports other than football.

The change will have differing effects on different sports, WC’s coaches said. In basketball, for example, trading Greenville for Madison Central is almost a wash. In basketball and soccer, however, Madison Central is a perennial state championship contender that will certainly raise the difficulty of navigating through the league schedule and earning a playoff berth.

“I like changing things up. I like the idea of having a competitive division that’s not between me and Clinton every year,” Warren Central baseball coach Conner Douglas said. “It makes the scenario a lot more interesting and makes teams have to compete. It gives us a tougher schedule and is more fun for fans and players and coaches. The last few years we’ve had games that we had to play that haven’t been very fun.”

Warren Central boys basketball coach Bruce Robinson had a different point of view for his sport. Greenville struggles in most sports but has a strong basketball program whose fans travel well. Travel will be a bit easier — Madison is about half as far as Greenville — but Robinson said he’ll miss seeing a longtime rival.
Robinson said he plans to try to keep Greenville on the schedule as a non-region game.

“We built a pretty solid rivalry with Greenville, where they bring fans to us and we take fans up there,” Robinson said. “I always thought Warren Central and Greenville would be joined at the hip because of geographical reasons. We’re the one big school that’s close to them.”

Robinson added that, despite losing Greenville as a rival, he was happy with the layout of the new league.

“It’s most definitely not a downgrade. It’s a lateral move,” Robinson said. “It won’t be a cakewalk by a long shot. It stayed competitive or got more competitive.”

Vicksburg High’s non-football alignment also got one tweak as Provine replaces Germantown. Provine dropped from Class 6A to 5A under the upcoming realignment plan, while Germantown moved up to 6A.

The new Region 4-5A will include Vicksburg, Provine, Ridgeland and Callaway, with all but Provine being holdovers from the current lineup.

Jim Hill will replace Ridgeland in the soccer alignment. Ridgeland will be in Region 3-5A along with Canton, Cleveland Central and Neshoba Central.

2019-21 MHSAA REGION ALIGNMENTS
BASKETBALL, BASEBALL, SOFTBALL
Region 4-6A
Warren Central
Clinton
*Madison Central
Murrah
*New to the region
Moved out: Greenville

Region 4-5A
Vicksburg
Callaway
Ridgeland
*Provine
*New to the region
Moved out: Germantown
Note: Jim Hill will replace Ridgeland in the soccer alignment