During Monday night’s meeting of the Attala County School Board, McAdams High School made a hire so big the splash will reverberate around the Mississippi High School sports scene.
The board approved the hiring of Sallis native Kenyon Ross — who formerly led McAdams, Durant, and Louisville High School to state basketball championships — as its director of athletics and head boys basketball coach as well as lead teacher. This past season Ross coached girls basketball at Northwest Rankin, a Class 6A school.
Moses Bates and Dustin Alford were also hired as coaches/teachers, but their coaching assignments were not detailed.
Attala County Superintendent of Education Kyle Hammond confirmed that plans were for Kenneth Nelson to remain as head football coach and Michael Huffman as girls basketball coach.
Look for more on this breaking story in next week’s edition of the Star-Herald.
— Austin Bishop
HOLMES SIGNS CCHS’ WELLS
Choctaw County senior Landon Wells has signed to play baseball at Holmes Community College.
Wells pitches for the Chargers, plays in the infield and occasionally in the outfield if needed. He's not sure where he will fit in at Holmes. “If it comes to my choice, I want to pitch and play in the field.”
Wells batted .303 last year with six doubles and 19 RBIs. He was off to a fast start this year, batting ..364 (8 for 22) in seven games, with six singles, a double and one home run.
— Laurence Hilliard
ECCC HIRES LOCKHART
Former Ole Miss basketball standout and Rebel assistant coach Rahim Lockhart is the new head men’s basketball coach at East Central Community College (ECCC) in Decatur.
Lockhart served as interim head men’s basketball coach at ECCC during a portion of the 2019-20 season, compiling a 7-12 record after taking over the team in late November. The search for a permanent head coach began on Feb. 21, a day after the completion of the 2019-20 season.
A native of Mendenhall, Lockhart served one season as an assistant basketball coach for the Ole Miss Rebels in 2017-18 under former head coach Andy Kennedy.
In his most recent two seasons as a head basketball coach before coming to ECCC, he had a combined record of 59-3 at Yazoo County High School and Jones County Junior College for a 95 percent winning percentage. Lockhart was 30-1 and led the Panthers to the Class 3A Semifinals as head boys’ coach at Yazoo County High School in 2018-19.
As head coach at Jones County Junior College [now Jones College] in Ellisville, he led the Bobcats to a 64-15 record in three seasons including three straight National Junior College Athletic Association Region 23 Tournament appearances. His final Bobcat team finished 29-2 overall and advanced to the round of 16 in the NJCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. He was also named Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year.
— Bill Wagnon
DRAKE TAKES MACJC HONORS
Holmes Community College freshman infielder/outfielder Cole Drake of Brandon has been named the MACJC Baseball Player of the Week for his play in the last week of the season
Drake, who played at Brandon High School, received the MACJC final player of the week honor after the MACJC and NJCAA cancelled the remainder of the season due the coronavirus.
In two games against Crowley’s Ridge Drake was 5-of-7 scoring six runs. He had four RBI, five stolen bases with one double and a three-run homerun.
The NJCAA had no national player of the week nomination this week so Drake was the conference player of the week only.
— Steve Diffey
OLE MISS ATHLETES HONORED
Ole Miss soccer student-athletes Julia Phillips and Chanel Thomas have both been awarded the Taylor Medal, the highest academic honor awarded by the University of Mississippi.
Phillips and Thomas are the 21st and 22nd Rebels to earn the Taylor Medal distinction since 2007, and just the second duo from the same team to do so in the same season since softball's Corrine Doornberg and Amanda Hutcheson did in 2012. Ole Miss has had at least one Taylor Medal recipient every year since 2010 and have now had multiple honorees seven times in that timespan.
— School Reports
