By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

GULFPORT — For the fifth straight season, and for the sixth time in the past seven years, Gulfport will open the prep football season at home in historic Milner Stadium.

But, it might be the last.

The Admirals welcome in perennial state power Picayune on Fri., Aug. 29th, in week one. It will mark the 11th straight season Gulfport has met the Maroon Tide on the gridiron, and 12th time in the past 15 seasons.

Gulfport snapped a five game losing streak last season to Picayune thumping the home-standing Maroon Tide 41-21.

However, the Admirals haven’t beaten Picayune at Milne Stadium in 10 years, since 2015.

Plans are under way by the Gulfport administration to build an on campus facility to play football in by the time the 2026 season kicks off.

Not so Familiar Foes

After that week one game with a familiar foe in the Maroon Tide, the Admirals will enjoy an open week before facing an old opponent and not so familiar face in Laurel in the first road trip of the season for the Admirals.

Gulfport will be heading to historic R.H. Watkins Stadium in week three.

The trip to Laurel on Sept. 12th, to face the Golden Tornadoes, “Between the Bricks”, is the first for the Admirals in 26 years, since 1999. It also marks the first meeting between the two teams in 25 years, since the 2000 season.

Then, in a return trip home the following week, Petal comes calling to Milner Stadium.

And although the Admirals and Panthers have met three times since the beginning of the 2018 season, two of those games came in the state playoffs so this will be first regular season meeting in seven years when the two teams opened the 2018 season against one another.

Rivalry Renewed

While it has only been a two season absence without longtime Gulf Coast rival Pascagoula on Gulfport’s schedule, the Admirals and Panthers will renew one of the longest-running prep football rivalries in South Mississippi again this season.

Gulfport finishes up its non-region portion of its schedule with a trip to War Memorial Stadium to face the Panthers on Fri., Sept. 26th.

This will mark the somewhere between the 95th and 100th all-time meeting on the gridiron between the two teams, depending on who’s doing the research.