When he lines up under center tonight, St. Aloysius quarterback Regan Nosser could find himself staring across the line at his cousin.

Tallulah Academy coach John Weaver will hear some if his aunts and uncles rooting against him, then watch his cousin receive a championship ring — from St. Al — at halftime.

For two teams with no history together, St. Al and Tallulah sure seem to have a lot of history together.

The Flashes and Trojans will face each other for the first time ever tonight at Balzli Field. It’s the first time a Warren County school from the Mississippi High School Activities Association will play one from the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools — formerly known as the Mississippi Private School Association — in football.

The proximity of the two schools, however, just about 20 miles apart, has led plenty of their players and coaches to cross paths at one time or another off the field.

“I like it. It’s kind of weird, but I like it,” said Nosser, whose cousins Caroline and Hunter Windham are a cheerleader and defensive back, respectively, for Tallulah. “We’re close. It’s right across the river. I know we’re all looking forward to it. He’s been talking a lot.”

Weaver played high school football at Warren Central with St. Al head coach B.J. Smithhart and assistant Will Vollor, and played junior college ball at Hinds with St. Al assistant Chris Busby. His cousin, Sean Weaver, was the starting catcher for St. Al’s 2009 Class 1A championship baseball team, which will receive its championship rings at halftime tonight.

John Weaver, in his first season as Tallulah’s head coach, did radio play-by-play during St. Al’s baseball playoff run in the spring.

“On my end, it’s like a homecoming. I have family that went to St. Al. My mother, aunts and uncles all graduated from St. Al and I have cousins that go there,” Weaver said. “I played with B.J. in high school. Will drove me to school as a freshman. We’ve joked about it this week. Some of our guys know some of theirs. They see each other at parties and things like that.”

The family and friendship ties are about the only things that bind St. Al and Tallulah. St. Al has never played an MAIS school since the organization was founded in 1969. St. Al did play Chamberlain-Hunt, which later joined the MPSA, until the mid-1960s. Until 2006, the MHSAA did not allow its members to play MPSA schools.

The public-private split has often stirred debate about what brand of football is best or which association has the better athletes. MAIS schools have held their own on the field — they were 2-4 last week against MHSAA schools — but have still had to fight off a negative perception. Smithhart said he’s tried to drill into his players this week that Tallulah, which reached the MPSA Class A playoffs in 2008 and beat Porters Chapel in its opener last Friday, is as good as any they’ll face from the public school ranks.

“It doesn’t go to MPSA or MHSAA, it goes to the team. It’s not a different brand of football. It’s still good quality football,” Smithhart said. “Their thing is, we’re not playing the MPSA, we’re playing Tallulah.”

Weaver echoed those sentiments. After playing at WC, as well as the college level at Hinds and Delta State, and coaching at four different MAIS schools over the past 15 years, he said he’s seen a once-large talent gap between the public and private schools narrow considerably in that time.

“The level of competition now, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “You’ve got private school kids all over the state that play Division I ball and public school kids that play Division II or III. It’s more on the kids and the teams, not the association.”

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By Ernest Bowker at ebowker@vicksburgpost.com