Friday morning Picayune Memorial High School was presented with the National Guard national ranking trophy during the MaxPreps Football Tour of Champions.

MaxPreps representative Laura Hill announced that Picayune’s football team is ranked by the website 87th out of 16,000 schools nationwide.

MaxPreps is a website dedicated to reporting on high school sports. Rankings are determined by how well a school performs against opponents. For instance, if a lower ranked school wins a game against a higher ranked school, the winning team is awarded more points, thereby increasing their rank on the website.

Picayune earned their ranking of 87 out of 16,000 in part by the win against Oxford 42-35 on Dec. 7, to earn the Region 5A State Championship title. It was the second time in three years the school has earned the state title.

Capt. Gerald Young with the Army National Guard 857th Engineer Company, stationed in Picayune, presented Head Football Coach Dodd Lee with the National Guard national ranking trophy. After receiving the trophy, Lee said football has been played at the school since 1922, but he feels the class of 2014 is the school’s greatest.

“I’ve been coaching for 35 years and this is the best school I’ve ever been to,” Lee said.

He went on to say that while the school may not be perfect, it does many things well and they all get along. He reminded the students to ignore negative comments about the school and to instead focus on the positive.

During the event, the school’s Theater Director, Bill Rester, was commended for his work with High Tide Productions in bringing home the Mississippi Theater State Championship trophy this year. Also recognized were players in each of the many sports offered by the athletics department.