After spending two years in the Mississippi High School Activities Association’s Class 2A, Cathedral High School will once again be in Class 1A starting in the 2001-2002 school year.

&uot;In Mississippi, every two years they have reclassification,&uot; said Cathedral head football coach Ken Beesley Sr.

Cathedral’s enrollment for the 2000-2001 school year was 204 students, eight fewer than the cutoff number of 212 to be in Class 1A.

&uot;Two years ago we were the second smallest 2A school,&uot; Beesley said.

Starting next school year, Cathedral will be competing in Region 4-1A, which will have a total of 10 schools.

Cathedral’s opponents in this region will be St. Aloysius of Vicksburg, three teams from Lincoln County – West Lincoln, Bogue Chitto and Enterprise – Dexter, Salem, and three teams that are currently in Region 8-1A – Mount Olive, Mize and Stringer.

&uot;In the past, we had four districts in the South (region),&uot; Beesley said. &uot;Now we’ve gone to two regions in the South.&uot;

The top four teams from Region 4-1A will face the top four teams from Region 3-1A, he said. The winner of that playoff will be the winner from the South.

Beesley said he his glad Cathedral is going back to Class 1A, especially for his football team.

&uot;We’ll be playing teams more our size,&uot; he said. &uot;Where we struggled in 2A was in depth.&uot;

Mize and Dexter made the Class 1A football playoffs this year, with Mize winning the state championship.

&uot;You might lose a game early, but if you get things together, you can still make the playoffs,&uot; Beesley said.

He said the football team will have a better chance of having winning seasons in Class 1A than it did in 2A, but &uot;it’ll be tough in basketball. It may be harder.&uot;

Beesley said there won’t be much of a difference in the level of competition in 1A from what it was in 2A.

&uot;Some of the schools in 1A won’t be as strong as the others,&uot; he said. &uot;A regular 2A game was like a playoff game in previous years.&uot;