By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

There are eight high schools in Jackson County that are members of The Mississippi High School Activities Association.
Five different prep baseball teams have won state championships over the past sixty-plus years.
Two different schools have won state football titles, and three more have played for at least one.
A trio of schools have won a state softball crown in some form or fashion.
There have also been various teams titles claimed in volleyball, soccer, track and field, cross country, golf and even perhaps Jacks, Rock, Paper, Scissors, and maybe even marbles over the past century.

Heck, a Jackson County squad even won the first-ever state championship in Girl’s Flag Football last year.
However, hoops is a much different story entire.
In the 104 years since the Mississippi High School Association and its predecessor, The Mississippi High School Literary and Athletic Association, have been handing out state championship hardware since 1922, NO prep basketball program has won a state basketball title.
That’s 0-103 over the last 103 years Y’all.
Heck, only three teams ever have even made it to the state finals. The Moss Point girls in 2020, Pascagoula boys in 1977 and the Ocean Springs Boys in 1961.
The Moss Point girls are still alive this season as well, remaining as the only Jackson County program on the female side still standing as the respective Quarterfinals round play starts Wednesday around the state.
However, there are a pair of boy’s teams, Pascagoula and its cross-town neighbor Resurrection, that are still standing on the other side of the ledger.

Can one of this trio break through this season and make history on the hardwood in the annals of Jackson County Sports?
Each team needs three more wins, one this week and two more next week during the overall state championship week at The Mississippi Coliseum, to achieve that feat and become the first ever to do so.
The two boys squads are up first in their quest for a trip to the “Mother Church”of prep basketball in the state of Mississippi, “The Big House” in the Capital City.
Both the Panthers and Eagles get going late Wednesday night. Pascagoula faces Jackson Jim Hill in Poplarville on the campus of Pearl River Community College at 8:30 p.m., in the Class 6A South State Quarterfinals Round, while Resurrection also faces a team from the Jackson area in the Piney Woods School at 8:30 p.m., also in the Class 1A South State Quarterfinals Round at Raymond High School.

Meanwhile, the Moss Point girls swing into action two days later a little closer to home in Perkinston at the Class 4A South State Quarterfinals on the campus of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College where the Lady Tigers take on Newton County at 4 p.m.
Will this be the year that either the boys or girls drought for state prep basketball championships in the southeastern most county in the state finally ends?
Or both?
Is the 104th time the charm?
Stay tuned….