The Noxubee County and Louisville high school football programs will take center stage this season.
The tradition-rich programs will be featured Thursday, Oct. 20, in Macon in the third season of Cellular South”s “Y”all vs. Us” television broadcast package.
The series features some of the oldest and biggest high school football rivalries in Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. Last season, select game telecasts reached more than 12 million cable and satellite households in seven Southeastern states.
Noxubee County High football coach Tyrone Shorter said he learned about three weeks that Cellular South was interested in broadcasting the Tigers” annual showdown against the Wildcats. He said representatives from the series came to the school, outlined coverage plans and ways to promote the event, including a county-wide pep rally, and talked with him to help lay the foundation for the matchup.
“It is a great honor,” said Shorter, who is in his second season as head coach at the school. “With the tradition there and at Noxubee County for the past 12 to 13 years, it says a lot about the programs and lets you know you”re one of the top teams around.”
Noxubee County defeated Louisville 19-12 last season to clinch the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 4A, Region 4 title. Noxubee County advanced to the Class 4A North State title, where it lost to eventual state champion Lafayette.
Louisville, which is led by former Noxubee County head coach M.C. Miller, also lost to Lafayette in the second round of the Class 4A North State playoffs last season.
Both programs have an impressive track record in the past decade. Louisville won Class 3A state titles in 2007 and ”08 under coach Brad Peterson, who is now the head football coach at Brandon High.
Noxubee County lost in the Class 4A state title game in ”07 before defeating D”Iberville 12-10 for its first football state title in ”08.
Noxubee County has won four games in a row in the series, and is 9-2 against Louisville in the past 10 years. All but one of the meetings have come in the regular season. Louisville beat Noxubee County 21-20 in its second game in the Class 4A North State playoffs in ”02. That victory avenged a 36-22 loss to the Tigers in the regular season.
“It makes us feel good about all of the hard work we have put in in the past 13 years,” said Shorter, who served as an assistant coach/defensive coordinator for Miller. “It”s an honor to get to play in front of a national crowd like this. The kids are fired up about it, the coaching staff is fired up about it. The rivalry itself is amazing. Noxubee County-Louisville is always a game that you have to get there early.”
Per MHSAA guidelines, the game likely will start at 7 p.m. MHSAA mandates football games in August and September start at 7:30 p.m. until the start times are moved up an hour beginning in October.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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