New Hope beat Caledonia 14–13 in 2005. In 2006 the Trojans won 36–35 at Caledonia. New Hope won again in 2007, 13–12. Three years, three points in all.
Then came six straight shutouts, starting in 2008. The last of the six was a 51–0 New Hope win in 2013.
On Sept. 21, 2018, Caledonia won 44–28 at New Hope. That ended the Trojans' run of 13 straight.
These two are rivals ahead of anyone else on either schedule, and those 14 years tell you most of it. New Hope has won far more of these games than it has lost. Caledonia keeps answering. Thursday night at New Hope they play again, with the Region 1-5A top seed on it.
New Hope is 6–3. Caledonia is 3–6. After Week 10, the Press Coverage Power Index (PCPI) has New Hope by 21. That's a 94% chance.
One county
Dr. Sam Allison, the Lowndes County superintendent, narrates this week's rivalry video. "Same county, same school district, same churches on Sunday morning," he says. He says he doesn't take a side, but that "nobody else in this area is neutral."
Caledonia is a town northeast of Columbus, first settled in the 1820s, and its first high school graduation came in 1910. New Hope is a census-designated place 8 miles southeast of Columbus. Its high school opened on Sept. 4, 1923, a merger of five schools: Mount Vernon, Little Hope, McCrary, Windham and Dunbar.
The county's Sports Hall of Fame has one name from each school in its 2026 class. Aubrey Nichols of New Hope, class of 1960, was a senior on the 1959 team that won the Big Black Conference. That team beat Caledonia 27–0 in 1959. He went on to play basketball at Mississippi State, and he was one of six Mississippi State players in the 1963 NCAA Tournament game against Loyola of Chicago, the Game of Change.
Derek Sherrod of Caledonia graduated in 2007, after four seasons starting on the offensive line. Those four seasons include Caledonia's 14–10 win over New Hope in 2004, and the one-point losses to New Hope that followed in 2005 and 2006. He became an All-American offensive tackle at Mississippi State and a first-round pick of the Green Bay Packers. His brother Dezmond, Caledonia's class of 2003, played tight end at Mississippi State and spent the 2008 season on the Pittsburgh Steelers' practice squad, the season they won the Super Bowl.
Since 1958
The Commercial Dispatch called last year's game the 61st meeting, which makes Thursday the 62nd. The oldest game we have a score for is a 33–0 New Hope win on Oct. 3, 1958.
Caledonia has won nine of those 61. New Hope and Caledonia tied 14–14 in 1973. That leaves New Hope with 51.
Those nine Caledonia wins are why it's still a rivalry. The first came in 1962, when Caledonia won 13–12. Three more came in the 1970s, in 1970, 1971 and 1977, and the 1977 win was 23–12 at New Hope. Two followed in the 1980s, in 1982 and 1989. Since the 1960s, the 1990s are the one decade when Caledonia didn't beat New Hope, and the next win waited until 2004, 14–10 at New Hope.
New Hope's run of 13 started the next fall, with the three one-point wins. Six of the 13 were the shutouts. They've played one-point games, shutouts and a tie, early in the season and late, at both schools. They're still at it.
Since 2015
Since 2015, the two have met 10 times. New Hope has won seven of the nine played on the field, and it won the 2021 meeting by forfeit.
Caledonia has two wins in that span. The first was 44–28 at New Hope in 2018, the one that ended the run of 13. The second came in 2023, when Caledonia won 28–14.
New Hope has won the last two, starting with 49–0 at home in 2024. Last fall the Trojans won 55–22 at Caledonia.
Now it counts in the region
From 2015 through 2024, this was never a region game. The two schools sat in different regions every one of those years and met in August or September.
Caledonia reached the Class 4A state semifinals in 2021, then moved up to Class 5A in 2025, into Region 1-5A with New Hope. Their first region game since at least 2015 came on Nov. 6, 2025, at Caledonia, in the last week of region play. On Thursday night they close region play again, this time at New Hope.
What Thursday decides
New Hope is already in the playoffs. With a win Thursday, it takes the Region 1-5A top seed.
Thursday is Caledonia's season finale, and it still shapes the top of the region. A Caledonia win sends the top seed to the winner at Lafayette.
Pontotoc and Lafayette are each 3–1 in region games, and they play each other Thursday at Lafayette. New Hope has beaten both. It won 28–14 at Lafayette on Oct. 9. New Hope beat Pontotoc 35–28 on Oct. 23.
The coaches
Caledonia's first-year head coach once worked for the other sideline. Michael Campbell was on the New Hope staff years ago, and Thursday is his first of these as the Cavaliers' head coach.
He and Allen Glenn have crossed paths over the years and know each other well. Both came to their current jobs from Petal, though they didn't coach together there. Glenn was Petal's head coach for three seasons, after five at Amory, and New Hope hired him in February 2024. Campbell was Petal's offensive coordinator under the head coach who came in after Glenn, before Caledonia hired him.
Glenn is in his third season at New Hope. The Trojans went 0–10 in 2023, the year before he got there. They went 8–3 in 2024, his first season. In 2025 they went 7–4. He has coached New Hope in two of these games, and the Trojans won both.
Caledonia went 1–9 in 2025. The Cavaliers are 3–6 this season, with Thursday left to play.
Same four opponents
In Region 1-5A, the two have played the same four teams, so their region records compare straight across. New Hope won three of those four games. Caledonia won one.
West Point beat them both. New Hope lost 50–48 there on Oct. 30, and after Week 9 the PCPI had New Hope by 7 in that one. Caledonia lost 41–16 there on Oct. 23.
Lafayette, which lost to New Hope, won 28–21 at Caledonia on Oct. 30.
Pontotoc, which also lost to New Hope, beat Caledonia 41–6.
Columbus is the one Caledonia beat, 27–8. New Hope won 41–14 at Columbus.
Where we think it goes
New Hope by 21 over Caledonia is a wide number, and the region games point the same way. The Trojans won at Lafayette and at Columbus, and Caledonia's closest region loss, to Lafayette, was by 7 points.
New Hope's 94% chance still leaves room. Caledonia has won at New Hope before, most recently in 2018.
Notes
- How the numbers work: we studied the rating methods used for NFL, college and high school football, tested them on ten seasons of Mississippi games, and built one for Mississippi from what worked. The PCPI ratings and the projection here are after Week 10 and don't move after that.
- The series: the 61st-meeting count is from The Commercial Dispatch's headline on last year's game (November 2025). New Hope's 51 is what's left after Caledonia's nine and the tie, and it counts the 2021 forfeit.
- Sources: "New Hope vs Caledonia (Rivalry Week)", MixedMedia Photography and Videography with Next Stage Media (narration by Dr. Sam Allison); Lowndes County Sports Hall of Fame (2026 inductees); WCBI on Allen Glenn's hire (February 2024) and New Hope's 2026 preview (August 2026); Columbus-Lowndes Public Library archives (New Hope High School collection); Fred Darnell and Jim Egger, History of Caledonia; Wikipedia (Caledonia, Mississippi; New Hope, Mississippi; Derek Sherrod; Dezmond Sherrod); the Lowndes County School District's athletics page and Caledonia High's staff directory.