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Drawing On A Past Experience
Pontotoc High boys basketball head coach Jon Ginn won a state championship with Ashland High School in 1997, his last year as Ashland's head coach.
Now that Pontotoc has advanced to its first MHSAA Class 4A State Tournament, Ginn said he will look back at his notes from his '97 Ashland state championship team and draw from those experiences to help him prepare his Pontotoc team to take on St. Stanislaus in the state semifinals on Monday afternoon at 2:30.
"I will look back at my notes and see the way we practiced," Ginn said on Wednesday afternoon. "We are going to draw on that experience and how the kids reacted then."
Red Bay, Ala., Connection
Two Northeast Mississippi high school basketball coaches, who will be leading their teams in this year's State Tournament, hail from Red Bay, Ala.
Belmont girls coach Chris Higginbottom is originally from there, and Pontotoc's Jon Ginn was born there before living in Virginia, New Orleans and Memphis.
Byers' Best
To say the least, H.W. Byers girls coach Jason Thompson has plenty of talent on his roster.
The Lady Lions coach has five players who are currently receiving interest from NCAA Division I schools.
Precious Rodgers, Kyra Gulledge, Brionne Gulledge, Kourtney Coleman and Alexis Hardaway are all getting Division I looks.
Hardaway, a 5-foot-10 sophomore guard, is getting the most looks, says Thompson.
"It's a who's who list," the Byers coach said.
Among those colleges recruiting her are: Rhode Island, Seton Hall, West Virginia, Memphis, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Louisville, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Old Dominion, Maryland, Virginia and Virginia Tech.
Dress To Impress
For the past couple of seasons, the State Tournament has become a fashion show for coaches.
H.W. Byers girls coach Jason Thompson and Durant boys coach Kenyon Ross have looked forward to seeing who can wear the most impressive, specially-tailored suits on the sidelines of the Mississippi Coliseum.
"My buddy (Ross) and I from college will try to make small humor of it," Thompson said. "We'll do it and laugh at each other. We like to make it a fun thing."
Thompson says he has at least two more new suits to wear at this year's State Tournament.
"Most of them I got at the same place," said the Byers coach, " and I got a guy who tailors them for me and keeps them customized. I get my suits at G & D's Botique in Holly Springs.
"He’s learned me. I've been shopping with them for six years. He basically knows what I want. I'll tell him a color and he designs it to my liking. He'll say, 'Do you want a pinstripe or a solid?' I'll say, 'Fix it up and surprise me.'"
Fallen Soldier
The Ripley girls team still managed to make it to the State Tournament without its best defender.
India Howard, a "big, big, big-time player," says her coach Katie Bates, was lost around the postseason last year due to an injury and her Ripley team stuggled to finish the season.
Unfortunately, Howard, a left-handed guard, went down with another season-ending injury this year. However, that hasn't cost the Lady Tigers (22-9) greatly this season.
"This year when she went down, we went through a two-game lull – the game she got hurt we lost and the very next game we lost.
"And after that, the next game was against Belmont. That's where we jumped back in it."
In her absence, Mersades Carter, Jayla Chills and LaNaesha Cox have stepped up, said Bates. The coach added that Cox has really taken over the scoring role.
"We definitely miss her (Howard), but I think we're still OK without her," Bates said.
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