After a lot of hand-wringing and speculation about the changes to its football schedule, St. Aloysius won’t see much of a difference after all.

St. Al’s first three games of the season remained unchanged in the revised master schedule released Wednesday by the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools. The Flashes will open the season Aug. 21 at Cathedral, then host Pisgah and Madison-St. Joseph the next two weeks.

All three games were originally on St. Al’s schedule before it left the Mississippi High School Activities Association to join the MAIS last week. Cathedral and Greenville-St. Joseph also switched affiliations, forcing the MAIS to rework its schedule to accommodate all three teams.

“I’m excited that the association worked so hard to get everybody squared away in a short time,” St. Al coach BJ Smithhart said. “Hopefully it’s the start of a good, strong relationship.”

St. Al’s opener against Cathedral will be the first for both schools as members of the MAIS. Pisgah and Madison-St. Joe are both in the MHSAA, meaning St. Al’s first game against a previously-existing MAIS opponent will be Sept. 11 at Washington School in Greenville.

St. Al’s District 3-AAA games are at home against Hartfield Academy on Sept. 18 and Riverfield Academy on Oct. 23, and on the road at Manchester Academy on Oct. 9 and Central Hinds on Oct. 16.

St. Al also hosts Adams County Christian, last year’s Class AA runner-up, on Sept. 25, and is at Greenville-St. Joe on Oct. 2. Unlike on its original schedule, St. Al does not have an open date. Smithhart said, however, that he had no complaints about the revamped lineup.

“They did us a favor at this late date, letting us in and working us into the schedule. They could have lined us up with all AAAA schools and we wouldn’t have said a word,” Smithhart said.

Smithhart said keeping the early part of the schedule the same should have some benefits for his team. Besides not having to change any travel plans, Cathedral, Pisgah and Madison-St. Joe are all teams the Flashes played last season and have played on a regular basis for a number of years. So is Greenville-St. Joe.

“It wasn’t something we demanded, but they worked it out. We like playing some familiar teams,” Smithhart said. “We know Pisgah and Madison, so that’ll get us going and we’ll learn about the others from watching film as we go.”

Smithhart was also happy that Cathedral remained in place for the season opener. The Green Wave handed St. Al its only two losses last season, including in the MHSAA Class 1A championship game.

Having a chance at revenge was nice, but so was opening with a school that shares a bond both through religion and in joining the MAIS together.

“You can’t start the season off any better than that,” Smithhart said. “I don’t know how the atmosphere can get any more special than that one.”

 St. Aloysius schedule

Aug. 21 – at Cathedral

Aug. 28 – Pisgah

Sept. 4 – Madison-St. Joseph

Sept. 11 – at Washington School

Sept. 18 – *Hartfield Academy

Sept. 25 – Adams County Christian

Oct. 2 – at Greenville-St. Joseph

Oct. 9 – *at Manchester

Oct. 16 – *at Central Hinds

Oct. 23 – *Riverfield

*District 3-AAA games