NATCHEZ — Despite rumors to the contrary, Natchez High School is staying put in Class 6A, at least for the next two years.

But it wasn’t by much.

The Mississippi High School Activities Association announced the class and region alignments for 2011-2013 on Wednesday, and it was just 12 students that kept Natchez in the largest classification.

The MHSAA alignments are done by enrollment, with the largest 32 schools making up Class 6A.

Natchez is the 32nd largest school in the state, with 1,091 students, making it the smallest Class 6A school.

Callaway, the largest Class 5A school, has 1,079 students.

While some Natchez High fans were concerned that the Bulldogs would drop into Class 5A, head football coach Lance Reed wasn’t worried one way or the other.

“Some of those things are out of your hands as far as enrollment,” Reed said. “So from my viewpoint I never worried about how it fell. You’ve got to make do no matter where you are.”

While Natchez maintained its Class 6A status, its region got quite a bit tougher with some new additions.

Natchez, Terry, Brandon, Meridian, Oak Grove and Hattiesburg all remained in Region 3 like they have been the past few years.

However, Wingfield dropped to Class 5A and Jim Hill moved to Region 2, and the two teams replacing them are Petal and Forest Hill.

“It makes this region a very challenging one when you bring in a perennial playoff team like Petal,” Reed said. “And Forest Hill is also a very good program that’s up and coming. From top to bottom, we have competition week in and week out in our region. But it’s nothing we run away from. We welcome that opportunity, being in a solid region like that.”

In basketball, Natchez is in Division 6 along with Terry, Brandon and Forest Hill.

Cathedral also will have to deal with some change in its region, as several new teams will be joining Region 4-1A next year.

Bogue Chitto, Dexter, Mount Olive, Salem and St. Aloysius all return to the region along with the Green Wave, but those teams will be joined by Hinds AHS, Stringer, Resurrection and University Christian, which is moving from MAIS after this school year.

The eight-team region the Green Wave played in this year will become a 10-team division, which means two less non-region games and a more pressure-packed season.

“It would be nice to have a smaller district so we have play some games closer to home,” Cathedral football coach Ron Rushing said. “With the bigger regions like this, every game counts. You’re talking about high school kids, and it’s hard to stay up nine weeks in a row, especially when it’s all district games.”

Rushing is also concerned about travel, with several region opponents a long way from Natchez.

“Making a four-hour trip to Pascagoula (where Resurrection is located) for a district game is going to be tough,” Rushing said. “If you look at the regions as far as the state, (Region 4) is the one in the south. Basically, the other three regions are above Jackson. But that’s just the way it’s set up.”

Cathedral will reside in Region 7 in basketball, along with Bogue Chitto, St. Aloysius, West Lincoln, Hinds AHS and Piney Woods.

Franklin County, Jefferson County and Wilkinson County will also remain in their current region, Region 7-3A, as does Hazlehurst.

However, the region does get less challenging this year as Tylertown moves up to Class 4A.

Amite County also exited Class 3A, as they dropped down to 2A.

Replacing those two teams in Region 7-3A will be Crystal Springs and Prentiss.

Region 7-3A is the same in basketball as it is in football.