Bill Ward, one of the newest members of the Mississippi Association of Coaches (MAC) Hall of Fame, spent most of his coaching career at Pelahatchie High School, where he won a state championship in football. But he also coached at Kosciusko High School for three years in the early 1980s.
Ward is among five former coaches and administrators inducted into the MAC Hall of Fame in ceremonies last week at the Hilton Hotel in Jackson.
He began his coaching career at Mantachie before moving to Kosciusko in 1981 for three years. He was head coach for girls’ basketball, track and ninth grade football and a varsity football assistant.
“They needed someone to coach girls’ basketball,” he said. The team enjoyed success, as did the other teams he coached at Kosciusko, including the ninth-grade football team with an undefeated season his first year.
“That’s one of the best memories I have.”
He left Kosciusko for the opportunity to coach varsity football at Pelahatchie and remained there for 33 years until retiring in 2017, with the 1A state championship in 2001. Pelahatchie stopped a late two-point conversion attempt by Durant for a 21-20 victory at Mississippi Memorial Stadium.
Some of the players on that team had been freshmen three years earlier when Pelahatchie lost to Smithville in Ward’s only other trip to the championship game.
“They had a will to win no matter what it took. When a team has that kind of will it’s tough to beat them. If you could have seen how beaten-up we were you would have been amazed that we could have even played that game.”
Ward is a Choctaw County native who attended French Camp for three years, then transferred to Weir for his senior year when the school was first integrated. “Instead of running away from it (integration), I ran to it.”
He played football and baseball and ran track at French Camp. At Weir, he only played football in an undefeated 1971 season. “We just had a great team.”
That was before Mississippi had championship playoffs. “I wish they did because we could have been in contention for it.”
He is a Mississippi State graduate with a degree in physical education and a minor in science. Girls basketball at Mantachie was his first coaching position.
Ward served on the MAC Board of Directors for 13 years. He was vice president for the 2013-14 academic year and president for 2014-15 and appreciates the honor of being chosen for the organization’s Hall of Fame.
“There are a lot of great coaches, a lot better than me, who have not been honored. For me to have actually gotten it, I’m very grateful. I’m very humble.”
The other new members of the Hall of Fame are Danny Carlisle, Mike Gavin, Don Hinton and Anthony Jenkins.
Carlisle was Starkville baseball coach from 1984 to 2012, with three state championships. He will be inducted posthumously. Gavin was football coach at three Mississippi Gulf Coast schools for 18 years, with 110 victories. Hinton retired December 31 after serving as executive director of the Mississippi High School Activities Association for nine and a half years. Jenkins was a long-time football, track and powerlifting coach at Hernando.
In retirement, Ward calls himself a professional car driver. “I drive cars for Gray-Daniels Toyota. When I’m not doing that, I’m drinking coffee at the truck stop.”
