The Mississippi High School Activities Association announced new classifications and regions Thursday morning. The following will change beginning next school year (2017-18) through 2019.
As far as the regions and classifications, not much as changed for area teams, except its region foes. This time, 6A, Oak Grove and Petal remain in Region 3, but the group of teams welcome George County, which replaces Forest Hill. That just made the region significantly tougher.
Hattiesburg's 5A region sees Wayne County enter the mix, as Pascagoula moves up to 6A. With Columbia moving down to 3A, Purvis and Sumrall now have to play Lawrence County. Sacred Heart and Lumberton say in Region 4-1A, but in comes East Marion, a former 2A school.
Region 4-1A
East Marion
Lumberton
Mount Olive
Resurrection
Sacred Heart
Salem
Stringer
Region 7-4A
Forrest County AHS
Greene County
Lawrence County
Poplarville
Purvis
Sumrall
Region 4-6A
Gautier
Hattiesburg
Long Beach
Wayne County
Pearl River Central
Picayune
Stone
West Harrison
Region 3-6A
Brandon
George County
Jim Hill
Meridian
Oak Grove
Pearl
Petal
Terry
For Basketball, there aren't many changes to the basketball regions that are different from football. Regions are always cut down to four to six teams for basketball, depending on the classification, so most of the teams are similar from football to basketball.
However, there is one difference, though, as North Pike is in the same region as Hattiesburg, PRC and Picayune. Stone was moved to the coast region.
Region 8-1A
East Marion
Lumberton
Resurrection
Sacred Heart
Salem
Region 7-4A
Forrest County AHS
Greene County
Lawrence County
Poplarville
Purvis
Sumrall
Region 7-5A
Hattiesburg
North Pike
Pearl River Central
Picayune
Region 5-6A
George County
Meridian
Oak Grove
Petal
On the field of soccer, the only thing significant about the new soccer regions is Sacred Heart's new region. The Crusaders and St. Patrick have had an interesting playoff rival for a few years, and now they have to play each other in-season to decided seedings for the playoffs.
Region 8-1A
OLA/St. Stanislaus
Perry Central
Resurrection
Sacred Heart
St. Patrick
Region 6-4A
Lawrence County
McComb
Mendenhall
Purvis
Sumrall
Region 7-5A
Hattiesburg
North Pike
Pearl River Central
Stone
Region 5-6A
George County
Meridian
Oak Grove
Petal
For volleyball, here is the new classification;
Class I Region 8
Lumberton
OLA
Resurrection
Sacred Heart
St. Patrick
Class II Region 7
Bay
Hattiesburg
Long Beach
Pass Christian
Sumrall
West Harrison
Class III Region 5
George County
Meridian
Oak Grove
Petal
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