After a year of living large, Porters Chapel Academy is rejoining the smaller schools of the Mississippi Private School Association.

PCA, which moved up to Class AA this year, is moving back to Class A in 2007 under the MPSA’s new realignment plan. The 2006-07 school year was the first time PCA had been classified as a Class AA school since its athletic programs started in the early 1970s.

PCA headmaster Lynn Baker said a large senior class this year was responsible for the bump, and then the fall.

&#8220That’s just how it is. We were only two people away from the ones that went to AA,” Baker said. &#8220If you have one considerably larger class, it’s going to happen. We had 39 seniors, which is big for us. When you have a class like that it can throw the numbers off, and it did last year.”

Baker, as well as PCA football and baseball coach Randy Wright, are viewing the move back to Class A as a positive.

PCA reached the Class AA football semifinals this season, but is losing 11 seniors that account for 16 of 22 starting positions. Those seniors make up the core of the basketball and baseball teams, too. The move back to Class A will help all of the programs to better compete as they regroup, Wright said.

&#8220We’re losing an awful lot of athletes, and it’s probably good timing,” Wright said. &#8220We are a 1A school. We belong in 1A and we’re glad to be moving back down.”

The drop will also benefit PCA financially.

Because there are fewer AA schools – 28, compared to 54 in Class A – it means longer road trips and more money for buses. In football, the Eagles took five road trips of more than 100 miles. Next year, most of the eight teams in its district are half that distance from Vicksburg.

Most of the other MPSA schools in the Vicksburg area were unaffected by the new alignment.

Tensas Academy and Tallulah Academy stayed together in a district with Louisiana and South Mississippi schools, while Briarfield Academy remained in a district with Sharkey-Issaquena and a number of Mississippi Delta schools.

Only the numbering of the districts changed, owing to the drop from eight to six districts total. Tensas and Tallulah moved from District 7-A to 6-A, while Briarfield and SIA went from 3-A to 2-A.

Central Hinds was one of the few that did see a major change. After a decade in Class AA – as well as a brief stint in Class AAA in 2000 and 2001 – the school dropped to Class A for the next two years and will be in District 5-A with Porters Chapel and Rebul, among others. Central Hinds has not been in Class A since the 1994-95 school year.