Last season, Picayune renewed an old rivalry on the gridiron with Slidell High after the teams hadn’t played in over 15 years.

This season, the Maroon Tide will renew another more recent rivalry in place of the old one renewed last year.

Picayune head coach Dodd Lee confirmed that the Maroon Tide and perennial Class 5A power Oak Grove will clash once again on the football field next season.

The Tide and Warriors were in the same division and competed in some quiet competitive regular season and playoff games back a few years when Picayune was in Class 5A.

Oak Grove replaces Slidell this year, after the Tigers had scheduling conflicts.

Luckily, Oak Grove had an open week the same date, so the game was put together.

“I’m just glad we were able to find someone to play this late and in the middle of the two year scheduling process,” Lee, whose team is the back to back defending Region 8-4A champs, said. “We had some good games with them over the years. I thought it was a good fit for us.”

Oak Grove has beaten Picayune three straight times.

The teams will meet in Oak Grove this season on the third playing date of the year.

“We just didn’t want to have that open date if we could help it,” Lee added. “We were lucky to find someone that also had the same spot open.”

Picayune has had an open date in the regular season for the past three seasons, two that were scheduled in 2005 and 2006 and last season when a game at Pascagoula was cancelled. due to threatening weather.

The Maroon Tide is now slated to open the season on the road at Moss Point and then host Madison Central before travelling to Oak Grove and the closing out their pre league slate by hosting Pascagoula.