By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

HATTIESBURG — While seven state football championships will be contested here over a three day span starting Thursday night, there are also a pair of former “Southern Six” products that will be playing for state tiles as well with their new teams.
Including one here in this Hub City and another in Birmingham, Ala., and both players are playing for teams that are undefeated at 13-0 entering the state championship round in Class 6A in each respective state.
Former Harrison Central standout Tyree Barnett transferred to Hattiesburg High over the Summer and has been a starting wide out for the unbeaten Tigers all season long. He will help guide HHS up against Grenada Saturday night here at M.M. Roberts Stadium on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi in the Class 6A state title tilt.

Meanwhile, in Birmingham, former Gautier wide out Dillion Alfred is in his second season at Saraland High in lower Alabama and he and his Spartans will meet Birmingham Parker Friday night at Birmingham’s Protective Stadium for the Alabama Class 6A state championship.
Barnett has an offer from Southern Miss in hand while Alfred is committed to Ole Miss and will be signing with the Rebels on Wednesday, apparently.

Poplarville Prime
Poplarville is playing in its fifth state championship game under head coach Jay Beech in the past nine season, but the Hornets are 0-4 in the title tilt during that span.
Poplarville is facing perennial state power Louisville at 3:30 p.m., Saturday afternoon in the Class 4A North State title tilt. It marks the third meeting in the Class 4A state title game in the past seven seasons between these two teams, with the Wildcats winning the past two.
Both decisions were agonizing defeats in which the Hornets led in the fourth quarter, only to see the Wildcats rally.
In 2018, in the first championships held at USM, Louisville scored the go-ahead touchdown early in the final period, and stopped the Hornets twice, once on a fourth-down, the other on a fumble.

In 2020, at Jackson, Louisville scored a touchdown with 36 seconds left in the game, then scored the winning points on a PAT run for a 15-14 victory.
The Wildcats are the back-to-back and defending Class 4A state champions. Louisville has its eye on its 13th overall state championship in football, which would set a new state record. Poplarvile is 12-2 overall while Louisville is 13-1.

Gautier Grind
However, West Point is playing in its eighth straight Class 5A state championship contest when the Green Wave face off with Gautier Friday night at 7:30, and West Point is the defending state champ in that classification after thumping Laurel 35-7 last year at M.M. Roberts Stadium.
But the Green Wave also has 12 overall state football titles to its credit and could get to 13 before Louisville with a win over the Gators who are playing in the state title tilt for the first time ever.
It marks the first-ever meeting between the Gators and the perennial state power Green Wave on the gridiron. Gautier is 12-1 on the season, which ties the school record set back in 2000 for most wins in a season, while WPHS sits at 10-3 coming in.

County Affairs
This marks the first time in five years that there are two teams from the”Southern Six” in the state finals during the same season, when Pearl River County neighbors Picayune and Poplarville made it.
And even though both the Maroon Tide and Hornets came home empty handed that season, Pearl River is the home of four state champions in the past 14 seasons (all by Picayune) and a total of 10 state championship appearances from the Maroon Tide and Hornets during that span.
On the other hand, Jackson County, which used to be the home of one of the most traditionally successful squads in the state with once mighty Moss Point and at one point Pascagoula, has sent four three teams to the football state title round in the past 20 years.

Gautier is looking to become the first team from the three southernmost counties in the state of Mississippi to win a state football championship in 15 years.
St. Stanislaus was the last team to do so, when the Rock-A-Chaws beat Lafayette County 35-16 in 2009
However, Gautier is the first team from Jackson County or the three coastal counties to play for the state football championship since 2017, when East Central fell in the Class 4A state championship game to Noxubee County. NCHS also beat SSC in 2014 and 2015 for the Class 4A state crown.
Since the 2004 season, when Ocean Springs fell to then perennial state power South Panola in the Class 5A state championship contest, only that Hornet team in 2017, Pascagoula in 2012 and this year’s Gator team has made it this far.