MAIS football schedules, etc.

Maroon Eagle

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May 24, 2006
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This was posted on the MAIS bulletin board earlier today— the first schedules I’ve seen.

Some things that are different from my previous MAIS post several months ago:
Macon Road Baptist School and Rossville Christian— both from Tennessee— are in the MAIS & in Class 4A & 3A respectively.

Central Holmes is in 3A instead of 4A.

Ben’s Ford which was in 4A has decided to play 8-Man and is in 2A.

Link to pdf of schedules: Here.
 

J-Dawg

Junior
Mar 4, 2009
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Pardon my ignorance, but is the enrollment gap between 5A& 6A extremely large or something? I don’t understand why there is only 1 6A division.
 

Maroon Eagle

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MAIS doesn’t publicize enrollment numbers so I guess it’s large enough to matter— think of 6A as their old AAAA-Div. I & 5A as a combination of old AAA & AAAA-Div. II.

Just a guess on my part but I bet the enrollment difference between the larger old AAA & old AAAA-II wasn’t much.
 
Dec 3, 2008
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It is really dumb they are separating football divisions from every other sport.

Also some of the divisions make no sense. Take the 4A South divisions. There are 3 teams in one and 5 in the other. Why not make it an even 4 and 4? Quite a haul for teams in that division as well going to River Oaks and Riverfield
 

Maroon Eagle

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Yeah. That is messed up. My guess is that it was a late decision by Bens Ford— they must have decided at the last minute to play 8-Man.

Ben’s Ford was in that 4A district that now only has three teams. By the way, their traveling for football is worse what with them being 8-man. The closest school to Bogalusa in their 2A district is Kemper.
 

vhdawg

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I don't think there's a single team on Hillcrest's schedule that we ever played when I was in school there.
 

bruiser.sixpack

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Aug 13, 2009
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Amazing what the merger between Cleveland and Cleveland East Side did for Bayou. That was at best a 2A school before and now it is a 5A school while Indianola used to be a large private school and is now 3A.
 

Maroon Eagle

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Oh. One other thing. The other schools in that three-team district are kind of used to having a school not playing football-- Laurel Christian School has been in their district in other sports for years and has no football team so it may also be a case something familiar happening there again.

I probably would have checked to see if Brookhaven was willing to be in that district for football only.
 

johnson86-1

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Aug 22, 2012
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Amazing what the merger between Cleveland and Cleveland East Side did for Bayou. That was at best a 2A school before and now it is a 5A school while Indianola used to be a large private school and is now 3A.
I haven't checked, but I figured when people were making a stink about cleveland they were going to successfully make sure there was not a single reasonably integrated public school district in the delta. We can't ever skip an opportunity to make the perfect the enemy of the good.
 

patdog

Heisman
May 28, 2007
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Yep. I suspect the flip side to Bayou moving up so much is that the consolidated Cleveland HS will move down to 4A in the next MHSAA reclassification.
 

Maroon Eagle

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Heh. Looks like the post on the bulletin board was a mistake and MAIS didn't want to show the schedules yet-- it's been removed. The link still works for the time being though.
 

Uncle Ruckus

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I don’t understand the need for so many divisions with less than 80 teams total. I played in the early 2000s and it was a aa aaa-i and aaa-ii. It wasn’t perfect then, as the school I went to was moved to the north my senior year and we were one of the more southern teams in the then mpsa.
 

Trojanbulldog19

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in my opinion it's been way too small for so many classifications and divisions for a while. The problem is that there are so many schools with different number of students it's hard to class them. Back when i went and it was mpsa, it was broken up pretty well, but the highest classification was still only a few teams. I can remember when my school moved up years after I graduated and that they made the playoffs after only winning like two conference games because they were in a smaller division and classification. I remember thinking that was ridiculous.

i've been saying they should scrap MAIS for years and merge with MHSAA, but I don't think that will ever happen. I remember talking to friends in college that thought it was crazy MS had a private school league and public school league. They went to private schools in alabama, tennesse, and louisiana and played in the public school system. I know some schools in MHSAA don't want the MAIS schools because they think they recruit. I know MAIS schools don't want to merge because of how they get some of their students from out of state and other several distances. I also know MAIS parents want their kids to shine and are too afraid their school and kid won't win as much if they play public schools. I think the product would be better if they could merge. I know that'a pretty unpopular opinion.
 

Maroon Eagle

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Decreased enrollment in a lot of the rural academies and the rise of 8-man football plays a big role.

While lots of MAIS folks hate 8-man football, the people who support it are upset that there are larger enrollment schools playing 8-man which is why there is an additional classification.
 

msudawg12

Senior
Dec 9, 2008
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Pardon my ignorance, but is the enrollment gap between 5A& 6A extremely large or something? I don’t understand why there is only 1 6A division.

to compare:
Lamar has 600+/- students in grades k-12
Jackson Prep has just under 900 in grades 6-12 alone
 

$altyDawg

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Aug 30, 2018
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I like it that the public and private schools starting playing each other in sports. Seems like it was the early 2000's when Prep broke the ice by playing George County in football. Now even smaller schools like Winona Christian (they were Winona Academy when I played against them in the mid 80's) and Central Holmes that I used to play against have one or two public schools on their schedules.
 

patdog

Heisman
May 28, 2007
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Makes so much more sense to play public-private than to take a 3 hour bus trip somewhere.
 

johnson86-1

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in my opinion it's been way too small for so many classifications and divisions for a while. The problem is that there are so many schools with different number of students it's hard to class them. Back when i went and it was mpsa, it was broken up pretty well, but the highest classification was still only a few teams. I can remember when my school moved up years after I graduated and that they made the playoffs after only winning like two conference games because they were in a smaller division and classification. I remember thinking that was ridiculous.

i've been saying they should scrap MAIS for years and merge with MHSAA, but I don't think that will ever happen. I remember talking to friends in college that thought it was crazy MS had a private school league and public school league. They went to private schools in alabama, tennesse, and louisiana and played in the public school system. I know some schools in MHSAA don't want the MAIS schools because they think they recruit. I know MAIS schools don't want to merge because of how they get some of their students from out of state and other several distances. I also know MAIS parents want their kids to shine and are too afraid their school and kid won't win as much if they play public schools. I think the product would be better if they could merge. I know that'a pretty unpopular opinion.

Not sure that'd really be a problem. Private schools in areas with a decent public option will probably punch above their weight. They'll benefit from a lot of solid to good players going to a smaller private school where they can play rather than sitting the bench for a larger school (although occasionally that goes the other way, as really good players move to the larger schools for better competition and visibility). Then you also will have a much smaller percentage of your potential athletes sidetracked by a poor family life. A lot of the private schools where there is no decent public option might struggle with the competition as they don't really benefit when the selection mechanism is just everybody that can afford to go there, goes there.

I think merging would probably be fine although there'd be some unhappy people no matter how you did it as far as equalizing the competition. But I think you'd get a lot of the benefit from just more cross-organizational games. Playing actual local matchups might create some animosity, but a lot schools could avoid longer drives by MAIS/MHSAA games between teams say 30 minutes away.
 

Trojanbulldog19

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I always tried to get the AD, Principal, Coach, and the mayor on board with us playing the cross town public school. I wanted to play those guys. We always ragged each other who sucked worse than the other. it would have been fun to play them in a rivalry match, but they never would schedule them or make city bowl that I thought would have been a pretty cool idea.

i think it's good when they do play each other
 

Trojanbulldog19

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agreed. I just said that because i've heard that from parents before when they took their kid out of the public school because they wanted their kid to actually be able to play at the smaller private school. I know it's not like that at the bigger private schools. lot's of competition to get on the field.

I think they would overall benefit the validity of the MAIS or at least the private schools. When i played, kids from privates schools in MS rarely got D1 offers in football. Some of the bigger schools are starting to get several d1 athletes. I think a lot of them are validated now because they play better competition by playing across both leagues.
 

Maroon Eagle

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Bayou is currently a 3A school-- most of the 3A schools will be in the new 5A but I think Bayou's enrollment has solidified.
 

bruiser.sixpack

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Aug 13, 2009
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Did rent Tupelo Christian start as 8 man football several years ago? I think they just ran it every play and every game was in the 60’s.

Seems like the league would just let Sharkey issaquena and Deer Creek merge their football teams and keep academics separate and play 11 man.

Same with North Sunflower. Amazing that a school that small would not merge with Bayou or didn’t merge with Strider. In the metro area and in some counties, public school kids are bussed 15 miles to school everyday. There were Brandon kids going to MRA and that is quite a haul to drive.
 

Maroon Eagle

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May 24, 2006
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I can’t remember if Tupelo Christian played 8-Man in that league that Immanuel/Columbus Christian and Hebron were in or not. I think they played just 11-man when they were in the MAIS.

I wonder if co-op football teams ever occurred to folks at those schools. I know Benton County used to have a co-op team.
 

Chris Mannix

Redshirt
Dec 29, 2016
797
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Full disclosure I went to and graduated from Brookhaven Academy. I was captain of the football team and we were a very successful sports school.

That being said you guys are sure beating around the bush hard. When I got into college ball I learned quickly that public school ball was completely different. The reason the private schools (outside of the Jackson area and other populated areas) do not want to consolidate with public schools is the same reason it was when they were founded. The truth of the private schools is the same truth that is was 60 years ago. Some parents simply do not want their kids going to school with black kids. That is why they were founded and why many of them continue to exist today. Many of larger ones in the Jackson and more populated areas are not nearly as racist as they once were, but many of the smaller ones still are.

I can remember being at a board meeting with my father ( he was on the BA board as a college professor they always wanted him to teach there which he never did. He actually worked as a professor at Jackson State for 33 years) and I can still remember when the issue of playing the public schools was brought up a few like my father supported it. One man said and I quote “ I do not want my kids going to school with n words”. This man was not some racist trailer dwelling redneck, he was the biggest donor to the school and owned the largest company in Brookhaven at the time. This was 04 and not the 60s.

The education at most of the small ones sucks. They can’t pay teachers and they favor family legacy with money. My friends wife, that also graduated from BA, was offered 19500 a year to teach there and she has a PHD. When I got to State I had to take classes to teach me the math they should has been teaching at BA. We were not too much worried about academic subjects but sports and Jesus classes did very well.
 
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johnson86-1

All-American
Aug 22, 2012
15,262
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Full disclosure I went to and graduated from Brookhaven Academy. I was captain of the football team and we were a very successful sports school.

That being said you guys are sure beating around the bush hard. When I got into college ball I learned quickly that public school ball was completely different. The reason the private schools (outside of the Jackson area and other populated areas) do not want to consolidate with public schools is the same reason it was when they were founded. The truth of the private schools is the same truth that is was 60 years ago. Some parents simply do not want their kids going to school with black kids. That is why they were founded and why many of them continue to exist today. Many of larger ones in the Jackson and more populated areas are not nearly as racist as they once were, but many of the smaller ones still are.

I can remember being at a board meeting with my father ( he was on the BA board as a college professor they always wanted him to teach there which he never did. He actually worked as a professor at Jackson State for 33 years) and I can still remember when the issue of playing the public schools was brought up a few like my father supported it. One man said and I quote “ I do not want my kids going to school with n words”. This man was not some racist trailer dwelling redneck, he was the biggest donor to the school and owned the largest company in Brookhaven at the time. This was 04 and not the 60s.

The education at most of the small ones sucks. They can’t pay teachers and they favor family legacy with money. My friends wife, that also graduated from BA, was offered 19500 a year to teach there and she has a PHD. When I got to State I had to take classes to teach me the math they should has been teaching at BA. We were not too much worried about academic subjects but sports and Jesus classes did very well.
So in response to talking about playing sports against public school, this wealthy donor made an irrelevant comment about who his kids went to school with? I'm going to say he was either senile or you are making this up.

And while the reason for most of the private schools existence was racism, that's not really a good reason to libel parents decades later who just want their kids to go to a safe school, and preferably where they can get a decent education. However racist you and your family were (I'm not sure what kind of public schools Brookhaven had), a lot of Mississippi has just awful public schools and parents don't have much choice other than to move or send their kids to private school, even when the private school may not be good if you are comparing it to something other than the local public school.
 

GloryDawg

Heisman
Mar 3, 2005
20,858
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Just keep it simple. A,AA.AAA. No matter what they do they will not be able to offset Prep. They will dominate any division. Maybe they should just surrender and kick Prep out of MAIS.
 

FQDawg

Senior
May 1, 2006
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So in response to talking about playing sports against public school, this wealthy donor made an irrelevant comment about who his kids went to school with? I'm going to say he was either senile or you are making this up.

And while the reason for most of the private schools existence was racism, that's not really a good reason to libel parents decades later who just want their kids to go to a safe school, and preferably where they can get a decent education. However racist you and your family were (I'm not sure what kind of public schools Brookhaven had), a lot of Mississippi has just awful public schools and parents don't have much choice other than to move or send their kids to private school, even when the private school may not be good if you are comparing it to something other than the local public school.

Let's be real, though. "Safe school" is just a euphemism for "I'm a racist who doesn't want my kids around minorities."
 

Chris Mannix

Redshirt
Dec 29, 2016
797
0
0
So in response to talking about playing sports against public school, this wealthy donor made an irrelevant comment about who his kids went to school with? I'm going to say he was either senile or you are making this up.

And while the reason for most of the private schools existence was racism, that's not really a good reason to libel parents decades later who just want their kids to go to a safe school, and preferably where they can get a decent education. However racist you and your family were (I'm not sure what kind of public schools Brookhaven had), a lot of Mississippi has just awful public schools and parents don't have much choice other than to move or send their kids to private school, even when the private school may not be good if you are comparing it to something other than the local public school.

Be clear in your words the reason all private schools in Mississippi exist is because of the Brown decision. Are do you think it is sheer circumstance that they were all founded in the wake of the Brown decision?

You are free to call me a liar all you want. The quote was said and supported by many in the room. The donor was not concerned with the ramifications of playing the public schools or how it would increase the competition levels of our sports teams. His concern was simple.

Notice I never called the current parents racists or implicated that they were. I said the schools were founded for racist reasons, truth is they were. If you want to send your children to those schools that is, of course, your choice.

The education at the public schools is better than the one at most of the small academies. The ones in the Jackson areas obviously have better because they simply have more money to spend.

I can tell you this sir, the schools in the Brookhaven area are much better than the private school. This was something I had to learn when I got into serious college.

The old tired excuse of the private schools are safer and offer better educations is a good one. It was used in the 1960s as well to justify why these schools had to be created.
The simple truth is on the average there is no great difference in the education offered at a small Mississippi private school and a small local public one. The public schools will, at least, have certified teachers in the classes. The private schools do not. Now obviously this is not true of the bigger private schools. Hell man, my senior accounting teacher had a degree in what they use to call home economics. She was in the class because she was the only one that wanted to teach it.

I would be willingly to bet you are a supporter of school choice as well. The single best source of public education in this nation is the public school system. Do the public schools have issues? Of course they do and so do the private schools.
 
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RutherfordBHayes

Redshirt
Nov 4, 2014
767
14
18
Full disclosure I went to and graduated from Brookhaven Academy. I was captain of the football team and we were a very successful sports school.

That being said you guys are sure beating around the bush hard. When I got into college ball I learned quickly that public school ball was completely different. The reason the private schools (outside of the Jackson area and other populated areas) do not want to consolidate with public schools is the same reason it was when they were founded. The truth of the private schools is the same truth that is was 60 years ago. Some parents simply do not want their kids going to school with black kids. That is why they were founded and why many of them continue to exist today. Many of larger ones in the Jackson and more populated areas are not nearly as racist as they once were, but many of the smaller ones still are.

I can remember being at a board meeting with my father ( he was on the BA board as a college professor they always wanted him to teach there which he never did. He actually worked as a professor at Jackson State for 33 years) and I can still remember when the issue of playing the public schools was brought up a few like my father supported it. One man said and I quote “ I do not want my kids going to school with n words”. This man was not some racist trailer dwelling redneck, he was the biggest donor to the school and owned the largest company in Brookhaven at the time. This was 04 and not the 60s.

The education at most of the small ones sucks. They can’t pay teachers and they favor family legacy with money. My friends wife, that also graduated from BA, was offered 19500 a year to teach there and she has a PHD. When I got to State I had to take classes to teach me the math they should has been teaching at BA. We were not too much worried about academic subjects but sports and Jesus classes did very well.
This is just frankly not true.

Most (not all) private schools in Mississippi exist because of the Brown decision, but that was 3 and 4 generations ago.

Mississippi private schools today are college prep schools, Christian schools, or operate in failing school districts. Nearly all these schools have minorities enrolled.

That’s just ignorant.
 

patdog

Heisman
May 28, 2007
61,154
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113
Sometimes that's what it is. And sometimes, it really is "I want my kid in a safe school."
 

patdog

Heisman
May 28, 2007
61,154
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113
In towns like Brookhaven, you're 100% correct. In small Delta towns though, as bad as most of those academies are, they really are a much better alternative than the public schools.
 

johnson86-1

All-American
Aug 22, 2012
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Let's be real, though. "Safe school" is just a euphemism for "I'm a racist who doesn't want my kids around minorities."

Congratulations I guess on not having much contact or experience with schools in the state??
 

Chris Mannix

Redshirt
Dec 29, 2016
797
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In towns like Brookhaven, you're 100% correct. In small Delta towns though, as bad as most of those academies are, they really are a much better alternative than the public schools.

Thank you, someone that has either lived in South Mississippi or has someone close that does. I am sure things are different in the Delta. Maybe I should have said my experiences come from the schools south of Jackson. I know that BA doesn’t let in minorities to this day. I also know that, as of 04, all the schools in our district did not have minority students with exception of ACCS and Trinity out of the Natchez area. In the Delta I am sure it is different. I am also sure it different for the private schools in the Jackson Area. So let me clear up my statement I am talking about private schools not in the Delta and south of Jackson.
 

FQDawg

Senior
May 1, 2006
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Congratulations I guess on not having much contact or experience with schools in the state??

I've got decades of experience with schools in the state - both public and private. As do my parents, who were both educators in the state.

Try to justify it however you want but the only reason to put a kid in private school is because you don't want them around minorities (and, no, the 1 or 2 token minorities at academies don't count). That's why those schools were founded and it's the only reason they still exist.
 

Chris Mannix

Redshirt
Dec 29, 2016
797
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0
This is just frankly not true.

Most (not all) private schools in Mississippi exist because of the Brown decision, but that was 3 and 4 generations ago.

Mississippi private schools today are college prep schools, Christian schools, or operate in failing school districts. Nearly all these schools have minorities enrolled.

That’s just ignorant.

I am sure in the Delta that is very true Rutherford. What is ignorant is that you have no understanding of the private schools in the small towns of SOUTH Mississippi. Yet you speak as you do. I happened to grow up in one and attend one. I am speaking from lived experience and not opinion.

I will say I should of been clear that I am not talking about the Delta Area.
 

johnson86-1

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Aug 22, 2012
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Be clear in your words the reason all private schools in Mississippi exist is because of the Brown decision. Are do you think it is sheer circumstance that they were all founded in the wake of the Brown decision?
Is it really not clear to you that saying the schools came into existence because of racism is referencing the Brown decision? And try not to be strident and ignorant. All private schools in Mississippi weren't founded in the wake of the Brown decision.

You are free to call me a liar all you want. The quote was said and supported by many in the room. The donor was not concerned with the ramifications of playing the public schools or how it would increase the competition levels of our sports teams. His concern was simple.
Then maybe you are just not explaining the meeting very well?

Someone else: [something irrelevant to integrating the private school]
Wealthy donor: I say, I say, I don't want my kids going to school with [expletive]

Is there some context you are leaving out maybe?

Notice I never called the current parents racists or implicated that they were. I said the schools were founded for racist reasons, truth is they were. If you want to send your children to those schools that is, of course, your choice.

My bad. I intended to reply to the Chris Mannix that called current parents racists in this quote:

The truth of the private schools is the same truth that is was 60 years ago. Some parents simply do not want their kids going to school with black kids. That is why they were founded and why many of them continue to exist today."

The education at the public schools is better than the one at most of the small academies. The ones in the Jackson areas obviously have better because they simply have more money to spend.
I suspect this isn't true, but would have to see numbers. I'm guessing a lot of places you have mediocre private options and terrible public options, or bad private options and bad public options.

I can tell you this sir, the schools in the Brookhaven area are much better than the private school. This was something I had to learn when I got into serious college.

The old tired excuse of the private schools are safer and offer better educations is a good one. It was used in the 1960s as well to justify why these schools had to be created.
The simple truth is on the average there is no great difference in the education offered at a small Mississippi private school and a small local public one. The public schools will, at least, have certified teachers in the classes. The private schools do not. Now obviously this is not true of the bigger private schools. Hell man, my senior accounting teacher had a degree in what they use to call home economics. She was in the class because she was the only one that wanted to teach it.
I think maybe you came from a particularly racist area and you don't realize what it's like in much of the state. And also maybe you don't have kids yet and lack the imagination to realize that different kids do better in different environments so based on your background, can't fathom a reason other than racism that it might be better for a child to say go to a smaller school even if its academic offerings at the high end are not as good as those of the larger, local public school.

I would be willingly to bet you are a supporter of school choice as well. The single best source of public education in this nation is the public school system. Do the public schools have issues? Of course they do and so do the private schools.
Of course I am in favor of school choice. My kids will presumably be able to graduate high school without needing a private school, but I appreciate the fact that if the need arises, I will have the choice to send them to another alternative if that's what's best for them, and I have a hard time justifying depriving that choice from poorer parents when we are spending the money presumably for their kids anyway. I definitely couldn't drive through the delta for work and look at parents there and think, man, "you should move or be more affluent so your kids won't be stuck in such ****** schools" without thinking it's crazy that that's the system we have converged on.
 
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