Vidalia — Football season is still more than five months away, but already the Vidalia Vikings have recorded a win.

After being told it would be redistricted to play against Monroe schools, Vidalia got its wish to stay in Alexandria’s LHSAA District 3-3A out of for the next two years.

The decision means Vidalia will continue to play Avoyelles, Bolton, Buckeye, Bunkie and Marksville and will also take on Jena, which was added to the district.

“We dodged a big bullet,” Vidalia football coach Dee Faircloth said. “That’s because our principal (Rick Brown) had to get up to the podium three times to save us. Had he not done that, it would be a done deal.”

Vidalia’s argument was that moving to Monroe’s district with Carroll, Madison, Ravyille and Richwood would put the Vikings no less than 90 miles away from their competition.

Because of Vidalia’s location in the state, there are no other 3A schools nearby, so the Vikings have had to do a lot of traveling.

Brown argued the athletic association’s proposed redistricting multiple times in a meeting that lasted nearly an hour and a half.

“It got almost childish toward the end,” Brown said. “The committee would discuss it a little bit, then the Rayville principal (Georgia Ineichen) would stand up and throw something out there. When they saw her get up to speak, they’d look at me to see if I was going to follow her.”

Brown said the back-and-forth argument between he and Ineichen happened three times, but he was the last to speak.

Brown said she had contacted schools in the Monroe, Shreveport and Alexandria areas that approved of the newly proposed districts but had never contacted anyone in Vidalia.

Brown also said when he talked to LHSAA commissioner Kenny Henderson the night before the hearing, during Vidalia basketball’s semifinal game, he was told that unless he could get an Alexandria school to speak on behalf of Vidalia, the proposal would go into effect.

“I couldn’t get any Alexandria teams to speak up for us,” Brown said. “They want us out of their district because they’re tired of getting beat by Vidalia. But why move us out into a new district when they really couldn’t give me a good reason why we had to move? We just didn’t feel like they had a sound reason.”

In the end, the committee sided with Vidalia, which will start the 2009 season with an Aug. 21 scrimmage against Buckeye. The Vikings season opens against Block Sept. 4.

And Faircloth couldn’t be happier, mostly because he thinks the Vikings aren’t wanted in District 3.

“We’re like the stepchild,” he said. “When we walked in the district meeting the other day to get our schedule, I wanted to say, ‘We’re back!’ We’ve created a lot of rivalries already.”

Faircloth said the monetary returns for all schools involved are better if Vidalia plays closer teams with better rivalries, and the distance is even more important for sports like basketball and baseball, which play multiple games each week.

He even had a couple promises ready if his team did have to change districts.

“I told them, if y’all move us, my boys are going to have to play in tennis shoes for the next two years because we won’t be able to afford cleats.’ I said, ‘If they put me in that district, I’m going to jump off the Mississippi River Bridge.’

“That didn’t exactly endear me with the districting people — they will never send me a Christmas card.”