(This is a column of opinion by Curtis Rockwell, Sports Director at SouthMis6 Sports)

This has to be the year, right?
I mean, come on…If not now, when?
This has got to be the year when the Mississippi Gulf Coast once again gets a representative in the in high school state football championship game in the largest classification for the first time in 21 years.

Right?
The woes of the nine programs that have competed on the gridiron from the three southernmost counties in the state in Class 5A, then Class 6A and now Class 7A have been well documented over the past two decades.

Only two, Ocean Springs and Moss Point, have managed to play for state titles in the largest classification in the past 25 years.
Since MPHS moved down just before the 2008 season, Ocean Springs, Biloxi, Gulfport and Harrison Central have always been in the largest classification as has D’Iberville and St. Martin for the most part. Pascagoula and Hancock have spent their fair share of time on that top level as well, as has West Harrison a bit including rejoining those ranks this year.
In the 44 years since the Mississippi High School Activities Association implemented the state playoff system, there have been 237 state championships won across the various classifications (currently 1A to 7A), with teams from the three coastal counties winning just eight of those, or less than four percent.
And those eight titles have been won by just four schools: Moss Point (1983, 1991, 1996, 1997, 2000), Pascagoula (1987), D’Iberville (2002) and St. Stanislaus (2009). Only the wins by Moss Point and Pascagoula came in the highest classification at the time.

At one point, entering the 2022 season, the eight Class 6A schools from the Miss. Gulf Coast had just a 20% winning percentage in postseason games over the past 11 seasons.
Since that season, Ocean Springs has done its part to improve those numbers with four playoff wins in the past three seasons, including a pair of South State championship appearances.
However, the Greyhounds have yet to punch their ticket to the title round since that last trip in 2004, when they fell to South Panola 39-21.
And no one else has even been close. Last year, Gulfport fell in the first round for the third straight time and has lost four playoff games in a row overall and has won just one playoff game in its last 13 tries dating back to 2010.
The Admirals haven’t made it to the third round of the state playoffs since 1999.

Biloxi has lost eight straight games in the playoffs dating back to 2011. The Indians are 1-10 in their last 11 postseason outings over the past 23 years, since 2001. Biloxi is 0-4 all-time in the second round of the state playoffs and the Indians have never advanced to the third round.
Since moving up to the largest classification 11 years ago, D’Iberville is 3-11 in the state playoffs.
But, after what we’ve seen during regular season play this year, things have to be different this year. Right?
After all, after years of dominance by the neighboring “northern” Region 3 for so many years led by Oak Grove, which has won three state titles in the past 12 years, and both Pearl (2017) and Meridian (2008) winning one each as well as Brandon and Petal playing for numerous state championships the power seems have tilted back down south this season.

It took until the last week of the regular season for Oak Grove to earn that region title this year because of a mid-season loss to Petal.
Those Panthers finished as the second seed, despite losing their last two home league games in embarrassing fashion to seemingly over-matched opponents. Petal also lost on the road 27-17 loss to Ocean Springs earlier in the season.
Meanwhile, Northwest Rankin is 6-4 overall coming into the playoffs. And Brandon, which has played for three state titles in the past four years, in on its third different head coach in the past 10 months and had to win its last two games of the season to sneak into the playoffs after a mid-season coaching shuffle.
The Bulldogs are just 5-5 overall, their worst record in a non-Covid season in 17 years, since 2008.

Meanwhile, the top three teams in the Gulf Coast region have a combined record of 25-5 overall (Ocean Springs is 9-1 while both D’Iberville and Gulfport are each 8-2), which is the strongest top half mark since regions expanded to more than four teams 32 years ago in 1993.
So this has to be the year a team from the Mississippi Gulf Coast once again plays for the top title in the biggest league on the football field in the state, right
And if not this year, when…???

(This is a column of opinion by Curtis Rockwell, Sports Director at SouthMis6 Sports)