SOUTH MISS 6 SPORTS

August 26, 2025

Prep Football Notebook: Sims looks for big win in Cat Battle; “Super 7 in the Southern 6 Poll” debuts

Veteran Pascagoula head coach Lewis Sims returns for his 15th season at the helm of the Panthers this year. (Photo by Steve Coleman)

By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

With a fifth straight win in the 85th annual “Battle of the Cats” between arch-rivals Moss Point and Pascagoula Friday night, veteran Panthers head coach Lewis Sims will become tied for most wins all time in the long-running rivalry.

Sims currently sits at 13-2 overall as the only head coach to lead both the Panthers and Tigers in the series. He went 3-0 vs. PHS as a head coach at his alma mater MPHS before crossing Jefferson Street to take the helm of the Panthers 15 seasons ago. Since then, he is 10-2 against the Tigers, including a 48-0 thumping last year that marked the largest margin of victory in the series in over 90 years. The only larger deficit was a 53-0 PHS win in 1930.

With a win this week, Sims will tie his mentor, Jerry Alexander, for the most wins total in that series at 14 wins. Both also have two losses in the series.

Veteran Pascagoula head coach Lewis Sims has made his mark on both benches during the annual “Battle of the Cats”. (Photo by Steve Coleman)

Pascagoula has won four straight over MPHS and five out of the last six games also. Since coming over to PHS to begin the 2011 season, Sims has also pushed his Panthers into a somewhat comfortable lead in the all-time series also.

In his first game of the series at the helm of the Panthers in 2011, PHS trailed slightly at 34-35-3 all-time 5-35-3. But with 10 wins since he became PHS head coach, Pascagoula holds a 44-37-3 advantage all-time as we head into the 85th (almost) annual “Battle of the Cats’ this week.

A fifth straight win by Sims would tie his best streak ever in the series. He won five straight upon taking over at PHS from 2011-2015.

Meanwhile, Alexander posted six straight wins twice in the series, beginning with his first five seasons from 1991-1995 (the teams played twice in 1993). He duplicated the feat from 1997-2002.

The two teams did not meet in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid pandemic.

Pascagoula and standout linebacker Jarrad Loper hope to clebrate another big win over arch-rival Moss Point this week. (Photo by Steve Coleman)

“Super 7” in the “Southern 6”

Every Tuesday through the first week in December, we will publish our “Super 7 in the Southern 6” weekly poll involving all 24 prep football teams in our coverage area.

The weekly poll is the only one in the state that is voted on by a panel of veteran sportswriters, a few selected area coaches and other media members.