Thanks to some recent reshuffling of districts by the Mississippi High Athletics Association, the 2025 football season will bring many challenges and a lot of firsts for Columbus High School.
The Falcons, who fluttered to a 3-7 finish last year in what was their last season in the Region 2-6A ranks, are being tossed into the 5A fire generated by a heap of hungry and talented teams that make up the new Region 1-5A: West Point, Pontotoc, Caledonia, Lafayette and New Hope, and head coach Barrin Simpson is fired up about it.
The thought of hitting the field and playing some great teams in a region closer to home has the football blood of the 11-year Canadian Football League veteran boiling in the middle of July.
“Oh, I am excited,” said Simpson, who is entering his second year of leading Columbus. “I love competition. That’s my mentality. So, coming out of 6A with Warren Central and Neshoba Central and Ridgeland; those were all good football teams, and we were in those games. Now, we dropped down to 5A, and we have the state champion in our division. I love that component of it because we get to play the best.”
But to Simpson, the best part of the season isn’t just the chase of the state title – it’s the creation of a whole new crown for which to vie. One he calls the “Columbus Championship.”
For the first time ever, Caldeonia, Columbus and New Hope will all play each other in meaningful district games, in which the victor has the rights to claim itself the best team in Columbus. To make the season even sweeter, the Falcons kick off district play with Caledonia then take on New Hope the following week.
“Our kids are excited about it. It sparks up that Columbus rivalry when you get to play your other two high schools in Columbus,” he said. “Having that opportunity to play our inner-city rivals again, that’s always fun for the kids and the coaches and fun for the community and city when games like that come up. Then you got Pontotoc and Lafayette and West Point to round out the district, so looking to be a good season and a great opportunity to work and be champions. That’s the goal, and that’s the mentality.
“There’s three of us in the same city, and we get to play each other and we are in the same district. So, that’s an exciting thing to have. And we are definitely looking forward to playing all of our games, but getting into that district and having an opportunity to make some noise in that district, and then you get to play West Point as well. There’s nothing like playing the state champions, and they’ve been in the state championship a good bit, so that’s always a great challenge to have.”
Leaving last season behind
Part of that drive to shake up 5A ball is that the Falcons get an opportunity to get rid of the bitter taste of an 0-4 stretch in the middle of last season, including a close 27-25 loss to rival New Hope, that left Columbus scrambling for wins to snap a playoff absence that dates to 2022. A 41-26 loss to Ridgeland toward the end of the season hampered the Falcons’ playoff chances, a 41-27 win over Vicksburg the next week reignited their hopes but a 35-0 shutout by Warren Central in the regular season finale slammed the book shut on their 2024 campaign with a 1-4 mark in district games. No playoff chapter was to be written.
“I think after that New Hope game, we lost a lot of discipline with our seniors and kind of put us in a bad spot,” Simpson said of his first year at the helm of Columbus. “We were just trying to change the culture from a discipline standpoint and consistency. New Hope went 8-2, and we lost to them 25-27. We were a lot better than what our record said, but we weren’t because of our inability to figure out discipline. … We didn’t have a whole lot of seniors last year, we only had like 10 or 11, so we have a good group coming back. I’m excited about this group.”
He said his squad is familiar with playing tough opponents, after taking on the likes of Vicksburg, Warren Central and Neshoba County for the past few years, and is bringing back seven starters on offense and “six or seven” starters on defense with that knowledge of high-level ball.
“(That) makes for a good experienced team coming out of a tough district last year going into another tough district,” he said. “We have that experience under their belt now, and these guys will definitely be better than they were last year.”
In Simpson’s eyes, playing against the top teams in the state is the best way to sharpen the Falcons. It’s why they open the season with nonconference contests against Houston, Southhaven, Lake Cormorant, Meridian and Neshoba Central. So when it comes time to strap on their helmets and pads against Caldedonia on Oct. 10 to start district play, they’ll be ready to run the gauntlet.
“I tell our kids all the time, ‘Our jamboree game is against Tupelo. Our spring game was against Noxubee. The previous year’s jamboree was against Starkville.’ I told them, ‘We are always going to play the best teams that have been in the state championship. We are always going to play the best teams,’” Simpson said. “That’s the goal, to let them know what’s the goal. Our goal is to be state champions, so there’s no shame in my game in saying it. That’s the mentality we want to have. We play the game to win.”
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