The Mississippi High School Activities Association announced new classifications and regions Thursday morning. The following will change beginning next school year (2017-18) through 2019.

As far as the regions and classifications, not much as changed for area teams, except its region foes. This time,  6A, Oak Grove and Petal remain in Region 3, but the group of teams welcome George County, which replaces Forest Hill. That just made the region significantly tougher.

Hattiesburg's 5A region sees Wayne County enter the mix, as Pascagoula moves up to 6A. With Columbia moving down to 3A, Purvis and Sumrall now have to play Lawrence County. Sacred Heart and Lumberton say in Region 4-1A, but in comes East Marion, a former 2A school.

Region 4-1A

East Marion

Lumberton

Mount Olive

Resurrection

Sacred Heart

Salem

Stringer

Region 7-4A

Forrest County AHS

Greene County

Lawrence County

Poplarville

Purvis

Sumrall

Region 4-6A

Gautier

Hattiesburg

Long Beach

Wayne County

Pearl River Central

Picayune

Stone

West Harrison

Region 3-6A

Brandon

George County

Jim Hill

Meridian

Oak Grove

Pearl

Petal

Terry

For Basketball, there aren't many changes to the basketball regions that are different from football. Regions are always cut down to four to six teams for basketball, depending on the classification, so most of the teams are similar from football to basketball.

However, there  is one difference, though, as North Pike is in the same region as Hattiesburg, PRC and Picayune. Stone was moved to the coast region.

Region 8-1A

East Marion

Lumberton

Resurrection

Sacred Heart

Salem

Region 7-4A

Forrest County AHS

Greene County

Lawrence County

Poplarville

Purvis

Sumrall

Region 7-5A

Hattiesburg

North Pike

Pearl River Central

Picayune

Region 5-6A

George County

Meridian

Oak Grove

Petal

On the field of soccer, the only thing significant about the new soccer regions is Sacred Heart's new region. The Crusaders and St. Patrick have had an interesting playoff rival for a few years, and now they have to play each other in-season to decided seedings for the playoffs.

Region 8-1A

OLA/St. Stanislaus

Perry Central

Resurrection

Sacred Heart

St. Patrick

Region 6-4A

Lawrence County

McComb

Mendenhall

Purvis

Sumrall

Region 7-5A

Hattiesburg

North Pike

Pearl River Central

Stone

Region 5-6A

George County

Meridian

Oak Grove

Petal

For volleyball, here is the new classification;

Class I Region 8

Lumberton

OLA

Resurrection

Sacred Heart

St. Patrick

Class II Region 7

Bay

Hattiesburg

Long Beach

Pass Christian

Sumrall

West Harrison

Class III Region 5

George County

Meridian

Oak Grove

Petal