longhorn75

My understanding of the rule is that no financial consideration on athletics by the school or its associated organizations. If that's the case, that's how people are gettin away with it.

PCS also has a great tradition in track since its inception. That's what made it such a great building project when Joey Hawkins went there and made them into a contender in football, and a powerhouse in Boy's Track until he retired. Regarding MRA's; most of the people who were in the football scandal on that are long gone. In fact, MRA cleaned house right after those sanctions got levied. Now there have been stories about parents that have put their kids in school there and have on their own paid for students so that their child had a really good team to play with, and honestly, you can't stop a parent from doing that. Is it insane? Yes, but at the end of the day, it's their money. Now if the booster club or the school was paying players, then it's wrong. With regard to PCS, this is a slam dunkthire they've made potentially equaling the Joey Hawkins hire in 2009. It's quite amazing that JA, Prep, and PCS all have new football coaches this year. And all are seasoned coaches from Alabama.

Well; so far it appears more that kids are starting to "act out" a lot more. Since COVID, and the rise of these TikTok Challenges, it's been really difficult to maintain a lot of educational institutions. Also, most high school coaches are also teachers, and teachers truly don't make nearly enough to substantiate the long arduous hours. Especially now with coaches, you are seeing more parents, boards, and administrations that have began to slam more pressure on their staff, and not supporting them in the due way. It's become a "what have you done for me, lately?" type of business. and people are more concerned with wins and rings, than relationships and character building. We have seen a lot of coaches leave because the stresses and environment has been insane. Further it's a tough job now, because society has gone into a win-first mentality

MRA also dramatically changed the culture from being a country school that focused a lot on sports, to having an academic product that they could be considered at a level similar to Prep, St. Andrew's, Madison Central, etc. Then they have some of the top athletic facilities in any high school in Mississippi. If I am a student-athlete, I want to go to a place where I get a great education, and I have top-notch facilities like what MRA has. Not only do they have the geographic advantage, but their academics are top notch and at the best value with exorbitant costs from the other comparable schools. Hartfield is in the situation that MRA previously was in before Forrest Williams and Herbert Davis took over. They are beginning to even the playing field to an occasional defeat of the powers that be, MRA used to beat Prep and JA once in a while before they began dominating, which is exactly where Hartfield is right now. The question arises though can the Rankin County growth, Hartfield's recruiting benefactors, their high profile coaches, and such, let them leapfrog Prep like MRA leapfrogged JA?

Another reason why Jackson Prep will remain relevant and competitive, is the fact that they attract students my themselves due to them having such a good name in academics. When you're a parent, the first thing you want for your kid is a good education. Geography can also sometimes not make much of a difference for some schools if they hike tuition up too much. Look at St. Andrew's. They have good academics, yet their athletic programs are blow hot blow cold. They were decent in football when Bradberry was there the first time, but that's it. But they still have super success with track and cross country which Till built from scratch and people kept up with the legacy, and then as of recent, boy's basketball because of Brian Cronin changing the culture. But still, the school costs over 20k a year. Even though they've got a fantastic school campus in Ridgeland across from the Renaissance, and great academics, tuition hikes is holding them back. JA has honestly had a ton of turnover in the past few years. A lot of the fixtures that were in the golden days of JA are now gone, former coach/athletic director at Hartfield, football coach at Heritage, boys basketball coach at Hartfield, former football/track coach in Hattiesburg, and Flora, baseball coach at Prep....

Also the fact that private school tuition all over the state has ballooned. Prep, JA and MRA are close to 10k a year. It's getting crazy to send a kid to school. Also, MRA has bolstered their academics in recent years by a huge way.

They hired Aubrey Blackwell from Montgomery Catholic. He's been 54-19 over six years and went to the championship game. Makes sense. The new Headmaster is from that area as well. But the problem is, out of state coaches are hit-or-miss in the MAIS. and most the time, they don't acclimate well to the MAIS.

He's also taking over as the Offensive Coordinator, I heard.

Heritage tweeted it out. It's a great hire by Heritage. That school still has talent.

Well, MRA has some of the top coaches in the state. Duease has been winning forever, and Herbert Davis has won everywhere he has gone. Also, more people are leaving North Jackson for a plethora of reasons, and the Madison area is super thriving. So, makes a ton of sense MRA is starting to get more students in general, and of those more athletes. Prep's had that talent, and they have the same thing with a booming Rankin County, and the overall academics and athletic tradition.

He was only head coach at JA for two years. He took JA to the state championship game his first year there, which was something that hadn't happened at JA since 2013 when Sykes was the coach, and then the second year he and Prep were eliminated the same round of the playoffs. To give him credit, first year Pogue was head coach, he got JA back in the championship game; yeah sure they got annihilated by MRA, but still. He was able to get them back for the first time since Sykes was coach. They are on the downward trend in terms of football and basketball. Like I've said earlier; JA's football program will be in a situation they haven't seen since the 80s. Their talent levels are dropping, rapidly; and they have to stop the bleeding.

Have we heard anything about JA? Last I heard was that the MRA defensive coordinator turned the job down.

If we are talking private school, I can't see why MRA won't four peat. Unless Prep can get back at them, they are and will stay at the top.

Pogue has been a fantastic coach and one of the all-time greats especially during his tenure at SPHS and he was doing a pretty good job at JA. But we have seen a lot of instances where excellent coaches have been pushed out due to people saying that they haven't won enough. A great example of this is Ricky Black at Jackson Prep a couple years ago. No doubt that Coach Pogue is one of the best defensive football coaches in the state of Mississippi though.

No way. They already struggle enough with only like six teams in 6A. And everybody makes the playoffs in 6A since they created 4A. When you have a top echelon when all you do in the regular season is compete for playoff seeds and not get eliminated in the playoffs, I bet you they won't ever go 7A.

I believe that there is a video game company that is preparing to launch a high school football video game. Would be similar to the NCAA series for Football. Any thoughts?

I think the MRA state championship teams from 2010 and 2012 had disqualifications. The first one was when an assistant coach during the Champ game threw a clipboard and was tossed; and then in 2012; was when a player and a couple coaches were suspended. That team went on to win a championship.

I think the only teams that MRA has had trouble with in the MHSAA were Taylorsville and St. Martin; they've usually done great with the others. Also, fact is that many private schools are able to devote more financial resources to the nature of the program. Like nice jerseys, able to staff good coaches, turf fields, the works.

Seems more to me that the administration wants their people in there. Another factor is that since 2018, MRA has been consistently dropping 30+ every game against the Preps and the JAs, including MRA dropping the most points on Jackson Prep in a single game twice (Dropped 50 on em two years in a row), and they are trying to get back to parity I guess. Going to be a tough road for the Raiders, though. Their football program hasn't been in this kind of a spot in almost 30 years.

JA is open. Pogue resigned.

Not only that. They cleaned house in football and boys basketball. the JV basketball coach took over as varsity coach. I guess it's cause the new administration wants their coaches in the program. Being reported that Bryan Madden is going to MRA. I think they have a coach the new admin is familiar with that they will bring in.

Didn't St. Andrew's leave the MHSAA and now play as an independent, at least in football?

Well recruiting sure, but I think a bigger problem with Hillcrest is the overall dilapidation of that area of South Jackson. Hillcrest had been bad at football, at least since around 2007 ish. Talking about Greenville Christian, that was a team that sadly got the success they did due to the COVID-imposed public school shutdowns. However, I can see the publicity the school has gotten in local and even national media; to maybe help them garner some attention.

Hillcrest's football program is the best example of a slow and painful death to a football program. Even historically, they never had a coach last more than four years. There was I believe a point in 08 when the rumor was that they were going to shut the program down, and just play basketball (the days of Hartzog and Ezi)

Why did Greenville Christian pull out of playing MRA in week 0?