If a 10-team jamboree at Mississippi State”s Davis Wade Stadium is an ideal way to kick off the 2011 prep football season, there”s no better way to open the regular season than with two state champions.
At 7:30 p.m. Aug. 20, South Panola High School will travel to Clay County to take on West Point High.
A year ago, West Point traveled to Daytona Beach, Fla., to take on Mainland High, a perennial power in the state of Florida. This season, West Point coach Chris Chambless said things finally fell into place for the Green Wave to schedule a meeting that has been talked about for years on Internet message boards.
“We were going to travel this year, but we had a chance to schedule the game, so I talked with Lance Pogue about playing and it just happened to work out this year,” Chambless said. “We will get a chance to make a little money and see if maybe we can compete with them.”
Chambless said West Point will travel to Batesville early in the 2012 season to complete the series.
West Point”s stadium seats 7,500-8,000, but Chambless said the school will bring in as many temporary bleachers as it can to accommodate the fans. He anticipates a crowd at least the size of a 2004 home game against Starkville that drew a crowd estimated at 12,000. Chambless said people were standing five to six deep all the way around the fence line surrounding the field.
“We”re going to get all of the bleachers we can and put them in sports where we can,” Chambless said. “We anticipate a lot of people, and we”re going to try not to turn anyone away because of the fire code. We”re going to try to get all of the extra seating we can just in case.”
Chambless also said tickets will be pre-sold in an attempt to give people a chance to make sure they can get into the game. He said details are still being finalized and information could be released at the end of the week.
West Point and South Panola played in the spring two years ago. Chambless said he didn”t have any qualms about playing South Panola in the season opener. In past years, West Point has scheduled tough opponents like Shannon, but Chambless said this game was too good to pass up. He hopes it will be a great gauge to see where his team, which has to replace key parts on offense, including quarterback Justin Cox, and nearly its entire defense, is as it tries to win a third title in a row.
“Hopefully they”re not going to kill us that bad so we will have a chance to heal,” Chambless said.
The game marks a difficult first two weeks for South Panola, the Mississippi High School Activities Association defending Class 6A state champion. On Aug. 27, South Panola will travel to Hoover, Ala., to take on one of that state”s perennial powers.
In June, MaxPreps published a list of the state of Mississippi”s top football dynasties in the past five seasons. South Panola, which went 15-0 last season and is 58-2 in that stretch.
West Point, which was No. 4 on MaxPreps” list with a 47-7 record in the past five years, will have an off week following the game against South Panola. It will play at Columbus on Sept. 2.
South Panola has won a record nine state titles in football. Its success has earned it the nickname the University of South Panola.
The school held the third longest winning streak in high school football history — 89 — from 2003 to 2008. Meridian defeated South Panola in the Class 5A championship to end that run. Since then, the Tigers have won back-to-back titles in Class 6A, the state”s largest classification.
West Point defeated Brookhaven last season in the Class 5A state title game for its seventh crown. West Point and Louisville area tied for the second most titles in state history.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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