Warren Central High School is a school of a little more than 1,300 students. Nearly four times that many will be trying to find a seat — and a parking spot — Friday evening as Warren Central plays host to Clinton in the second round of the Class 6A football playoffs.

About 7,500 fans were in attendance when the teams played a regular-season game at Viking Stadium in October.

Even more are expected this time, as temporary bleachers have been added to the seating plan to accommodate more people.

With only one way in and one way out of the school’s primary parking lot, Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace, along with school and Vicksburg Warren School District officials, are asking for two things: the first is for everyone to plan on getting to the game early and the other … be patient.

The playoff game is scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. School officials are planning to open the gates at 5. Pace said he and his deputies will be there waiting.

“Normally, we would be on site about 5 p.m., but this time, this game, we will be out there earlier,” Pace said as he and school officials continued working the traffic and safety plan for Friday’s game, which begins at 7 p.m.

Everyone is expecting a sold out crowd, and Pace said there is nothing special to his department’s normal game plan, other than adding a few more players.

“Overall, between officers in uniform and plain clothes officers, I would say we would have 15 to 20 officers out there Friday,” Pace said.

He said there will be those officers whose job it will be to just handle parking, others to handle just traffic, others tasked with safety inside the stadium and then others whose only job is to watch over the hundreds of cars that will be parked nearby.

“They will be watching over the cars at the high school, over at Beechwood Elementary, those at Hinds Community College, even those parked along the road,” Pace said.

As for the traffic before and after the game, Pace said for everyone to be patient and plan on coming early.

“I have contacted the Mississippi Department of Transportation and they are looking at changing the traffic light timing at the intersection of Highway 27 and Old U.S. 80,” Pace said, noting that a majority of the traffic coming to the stadium Friday will be those coming down U.S. 61 North, off of Interstate 20 from Clinton, and from Clay Street.

All three major roads converge on that one intersection.

Pace did encourage those who are able, to come to the school by way of Paxton Road and the Porters Chapel area to avoid that main intersection.

“When you only have one way in and one way out, then you are going to have some congestion,” Pace said. “We would just remind everyone that it’s going to take time to get parked, and it’s going to take time to leave.”