Fortunately for everyone involved, this situation was nothing new.

When the MHSAA released its realignment for the next two school years, longtime rivals Cathedral and St. Aloysius found themselves in different regions in football. The two teams have traditionally played the last game of the season, but that won’t be for the next two years in the realignment.

Region 4-1A will lose St. Al as the Flashes will go north. So the two schools go together and did the most logical thing &045; play in a Classic game Week 1, a decision that will take Cathedral out of the Vidalia jamboree.

&uot;We’ve always been able to kind of keep them on our schedule,&uot; said Cathedral head coach Ken Beesley Sr., whose team still played St. Al when the Wave spent two seasons in 2A. &uot;They were supposed to play Greenville, and Greenville couldn’t play the game because of scheduling things they had to do. So we’ll open up the season with (St. Al).&uot;

That may be the biggest shakeup to come out of the realignment, although the Green Wave picked up two schools on the coast in place of St. Al and Mize after the Bulldogs moved up to Class 2A.

Natchez High shuffled its football region and basketball division to be closer aligned with Jackson schools, and the MHSAA also split the current Region 7-3A right down the middle with Jefferson County going north.

The Wave, meanwhile, may put more miles on the bus in football the next two seasons by picking up St. John and Mercy Cross in Region 4-1A.

&uot;We’ve never played St. John, but we’ve played Mercy Cross,&uot; Beesley said. &uot;I don’t think we’ve played them once or twice because they’re so far away. We played Mercy Cross quite a bit in the playoffs in baseball. We’ll have one at home and one on the road, so that’ll help out. At least we won’t have to make that trip twice.&uot;

The remainder of the region will stay the same with Bogue Chitto, West Lincoln, Dexter, Enterprise, Mount Olive, Salem and Stringer. The two teams on the coast will add another long drive for the Green Wave in football on to the trek to Stringer every other year.

A trip to Stringer is anywhere between 3 1/2 to four hours.

&uot;(The coast) is not much farther than us going to Stringer,&uot; Beesley said. &uot;We’ll be four-laned all the way there. Stringer is a pretty long trip. We have to go there this year, so we know we have two long trips this year.&uot;

At Natchez, the Bulldogs will save on travel the next two seasons in football with Region 3-5A losing Hancock and picking up Wingfield. It keeps the Bulldogs in a tighter region geographically with four Jackson schools and two Hattiesburg schools, although Meridian will remain a member.

The Bulldogs made the trip down to Hancock this past season, and the Kiln-based Hawks will play in 4-5A with other schools on the coast.

&uot;We don’t have to go to Hancock,&uot; Natchez High athletic director Robert Cade said. &uot;We only have one what you’d call a long trip, and that would be to Meridian. We have four teams coming out of Jackson, and we need to be in that area. When all the Jackson schools went down to 4A, it made us go farther.&uot;

In 7-3A, Jefferson County will go north in Region 6 along with Hazlehurst to join that Jackson-area region. The lineup will include Bailey, Crystal Springs, Raymond, Richland and Yazoo County.

The remainder of the current 7-3A will remain and absorb South Pike, Tylertown, Columbia and West Marion to form a powerful football region. Port Gibson will go up to 4A, and Amite County will drop to 2A.

Port Gibson will return to 4A after two years in 3A.

Work, however, may continue if not this realignment but possibly the next. Beesley said he received a questionnaire of schools in 1A returning to smaller divisions instead of the current 10-team regions.

&uot;I don’t know if it’ll go through, but it’s up for a vote,&uot; Beesley said. &uot;I like the divisions. It did cut down on the travel. We’ve got an open date right now, but if we went to divisions, you might have had three or four open weeks. It’ll be a lot harder for us to make a schedule out right now.

&uot;I do know that all of the teams we’ve been getting pounded on in the playoffs are moving up &045; Scott Central, Mize, Union and Pelahatchie. That’s four of the teams we’d run into every year in the playoffs.&uot;

Cade said he’s unaware of such a movement in 5A, although the Bulldogs are different in having an eight-team region with four non-region games. The non-region schedule will likely remain the same, although the school is open for business in the rivalry department.

&uot;We’ll still play Vicksburg as one of the non-conference games,&uot; Cade said. &uot;We’re trying to create some type of rivalry with somebody in the area that would generate some excitement &045; something like a Vidalia-Ferriday. Because we’re down here in this part of the state, we haven’t gotten that.&uot;

The Bulldogs will have their biggest change in basketball with the loss of Vicksburg and Warren Central in Division 6-5A. Both Vicksburg schools will go north in 3-5A with Greenville Weston and Madison Central, while Natchez and Forest Hill will join Jim Hill in Wingfield in 6-5A.

Cathedral will rejoin St. Al in basketball as part of Division 7-1A that will lose Mississippi School for the Deaf and Pelahatchie and pick up Dexter and Salem.

Down in 3A, regions 6 and 7 will remain as in football.