Much like every other athletic director and coach in Mississippi, St. Aloysius athletic director and football coach B.J. Smithhart is awaiting Friday’s realignment by the Mississippi High School Activities Association.

St. Aloysius will remain in Class 1A. Hartfield Academy in Brandon is leaving the MSHAA and returning to the MAIS. Sacred Heart of Hattiesburg will be coming into the region.

That’s about all Smithhart knows for certain.

“Our deal could change more than anybody,” Smithhart said. “When I started here as the football coach, we were in Region 3 with Noxapater and Nanih Waiya. For the last two years, we’ve been in Region 4. Because we’re right on that line on I-20, we could go either way. I don’t even know how many teams there’ll be. One year, it was 12 and we played an all-district schedule. Another year, it was eight and this past season, we had 10. As best I can, I’m going to try and keep our (non-region) games with Madison-St. Joseph and Greenville-St. Joe.”

One issue that Smithhart wishes the MHSAA would consider is reducing the size of the regions for Class 1A. An example would be instead of four 10-team regions, there would be eight five-team divisions.

“They need to realize the smallest schools have the smallest budgets and, when teams have to travel long distances, we get smaller gates,” Smithhart said. “I would rather play four closer division foes to save costs and create better rivalries.”

This season, St. Al had road trips to Stringer, Dexter and Salem. All three are more than 200 miles round trip.

Smithhart said the school rents a charter bus for those games at a cost of $1,500 per trip.