In 2008, Oxford High School had enough students to compete in 5A. Fast forward eight years later, OHS is getting ready to move up again.

The Mississippi High School Activities Association has recently publicized the enrollment numbers for all high schools in the state, which is done every two years for reclassifcation. The biggest 32 high schools in the state are considered to be 6A, Mississippi’s highest classification. According to the enrollment numbers released, OHS is the 24th of the top 32 largest schools with an enrollment of 1,198 students. OHS will move up to 6A, which will go in effect at the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year.

“Our enrollment numbers continue to rise because Oxford is a great community and a great town,” OHS principal Bradley Roberson said. “We are excited for the opportunity to move to 6A, it was something that we were expecting with the increase in enrollment. We are up almost 100 students from last year as well.”

OHS will now be competing at the highest level in athletics in Mississippi. OHS prides itself as one of the top athletics programs in the entire state with numerous All-Sports Awards and 63 total state championships to back it up.

“Parents, coaches, administration, and teachers are very competitive locked and they want to be first in class which is our [Oxford School District] motto,” OSD athletics director Mike Martin said. “The city of Oxford, the residents demand excellence. When I say demand it, they won’t settle for second best or third best or fourth, they want to be the best at whatever they compete at.”

Bigger schools call for bigger competition according to Roberson.

“When you have more kids to choose from, you typically have the better athletes, just because of shear numbers themselves,” Roberson said. “That’s why I think you see such high performing 6A schools. This is not something that is going to be totally new to us. We play a lot of 6A schools already in a lot of out sports and are able to compete and compete well.”

OHS assistant baseball coach and AP Statistics teacher Logan Dodson graduated from Homewood High School, currently an Alabama 7A school. Dodson too accepts the challenges that bigger competition may bring.

“When I was there [HHS], we had a graduating class of 500 people, huge classes,” Dodson said. “Its just more talent across the board just because you have more people to choose from. We knew that we were going to be here. I’m excited, high school is exciting because you know you compete against the best and the biggest. So thats what we are going to do now.”

The divisions across all sports/activities have yet to be decided. According to Roberson, the divisions will be decided at the conclusion of the MHSAA Football State Championships in early December.