By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

When Ocean Springs opens the 2025 prep football season on the road at historic Ray Stadium in Meridian, it’ll mark an historic outing for both teams.

But that contest is not the only notable non-region game on the schedule for the Greyhounds this coming season.

The 2025 season opener between OSHS and Meridian scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 28th, will mark the first time ever that the Greyhounds and Wildcats have ever met in the regular season. Ocean Springs and once perennial state power Meridian have met four times overall, but all four of those meetings came in the state playoffs.

The Wildcats have won all four of the past games, including a stunning upset in Greyhound Stadium to open the Class 7A South State playoffs two years ago. That contest also marks the only time the two teams met in Ocean Springs.

The all-time series goes back just 19 years, to a 42-14 Wildcats win in 2006. The other two match-ups were blowouts by Meridian at home also, 50-14 the next season and 22-0 in 2010.

In addition, OSHS also will face Petal in non-region action. It’s the first regular season meeting between the two teams in 15 years, since the 2010 season, although the teams last met in the opening round of the 2014 Class 6A South State playoffs.

The Greyhounds and Panthers have played 20 times previously in a series that dates back 57 years, to the first meeting in 1973, including that 34-17 OSHS win 11 years ago which is the only meeting all time in the state playoffs. Ocean Springs leads the series 7-3.

Also, another pride of Panther is back on the Greyhound slate as Jackson County rival Pascagoula returns to the schedule after a two year absence.

This series evolved into one of the most competitive annual rivalries in South Mississippi over the years as the teams met for 37 straight seasons since first facing off in 1986 before the series was interrupted in 2023.

The other non region opponent for the Greyhounds this season is Picayune. The current perennial state power Maroon Tide and OSHS will meet for the third straight season, after the series was renewed in 2023 after an 11-year hiatus. This year will mark the 25th all-time meeting between the two teams on the gridiron.

Once Region 4-7A play starts, OSHS and new league foe West Harrison will square off for just the second time ever on the football field and first since 2019.

New opening foes

In addition to the OSHS-Meridian season-opener, a pair of Greyhound region rivals will also meet new opponents to kick off their respective seasons as well.

Biloxi hosts Holmes County Central on Friday, Aug. 29th, to begin the new campaign. It’ll mark the first-ever meeting on the gridiron between the Indians and Jaguars.

Also, D’Iberville is at home to open the season against Raleigh High marking the first-ever meeting between those two teams on the football field.