Published: September 17, 2008 11:22 am         

Region 3-1A just gets hotter

Things are about to get interesting in Region 3-1A.

Actually, they are already pretty interesting, as the league is home to three of the top seven teams in MHSAA Class 1A according to the Mississippi Prep Sports Source.

“It’s a tough league,” said Weir head coach Jim Wood. “But we knew that. Durant has a good team and Nanih Waiya is good. Sebastopol is improved, McAdams is improving and Ethel is just going to get better and better.”

Those very sam sentiments are shared by most all of the coaches in the 11-team league.

And even though South Leake is 0-3, the Wildcats are big, strong and athletic and can give folks fits. Noxapater is off to a unusually dismal 0-3 start, but the Tigers still have enough weapons to ruin a team’s shot at the playoffs.

There is also French Camp, who finished in a three-way tie for third last year, and despite tons of losses on both sides of the ball, picked up its first win of the season last week.

“Every week it’s going to be tough,” said Durant head coach Ashley Kuhn, who saw his team climb to No. 2 in 1A in the MPPS rankings and No. 3 in the class according to the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. “You can’t afford to have a let down. Everybody can hurt you.”

One of the things that makes the schedule extremely nasty — in addition to the fact that everybody has to play all of the other 10 teams in the league — is that all but one team has to face traditional powerhouses Durant and Weir on back to back Friday nights.

“That’s a pretty tough deal,” said Nanih Waiya head coach Tate Hanna. “But, that’s just the way it turned out. You have to play your schedule the way it is given to you and that’s the way it went.”

At this point most coaches in the league clearly point to Durant, Weir and Nanih Waiya as the top three teams to beat, with that No. 4 spot, and possibly a notch or two higher, being wide open.

At this point Sebastopol has stepped up as a threat to be one of the teams to make the playoffs as a result of a 3-0 start to the season.

Nobody understands the toughness of the league schedule any more than McAdams coach Ras Bayles.

His Bulldogs host Durant this Friday night, then visit Weir the week after. AFter that, Sebastopol comes in on Oct. 3, preceding an Oct. 10 trip to Nanih Waiya.

“Those may be the four toughest teams in the region and we have them all in a row,” Bayles said. “We feel like we are turning it around here and have a playoff quality team. We are about to find out.”

Ethel, which split its first two games before taking last week off, has a chance to build up a good record before facing the Durant-Weir combo on Oct. 17 and Oct. 24.

The next four teams the Tigers play — French Camp, Noxapater, South Leake and Edinburg — only have one win between them.

“Every game is important when you are trying to make the playoffs,” Ethel head coach Paul Dees said. “They all count the same.”

Weir is ranked No. 5 in the MPSS Class 1A rankings, while Nanih Waiya is No. 7 and Sebastopol is one of four teams listed as honorable mentions.