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New leadership for Millsaps women’s basketball team Chuck Winkelman brings more than 25 years of head coaching experience to Millsaps College. He was the head women’s basketball coach at Hendrix College for nine seasons (1995-2004), leading the Warriors to three SCAC Championships, three runner-up finishes and three trips to the NCAA Tournament. Winkelman also brings in a talented former player, Jerrie Cooper, as assistant coach for the Majors. Cooper was All-State for Winkelman at Class 5A Mesquite High School from 1990-1994. She was named Newcomer of the Year in the Southland Conference and Southland Conference Tournament MVP during the 1996-97 season. The 1996-1997 team led by Cooper earned a berth in the NCAA Division I playoffs. “We’re in the process of trying to bring along a group of young ladies who we do not know very well, but we’re developing relationships,” Winkelman said. “I have expectations of a championship program. If we can be excellent in so many ways on this campus and have such a storied history as an institution, then why not women’s basketball as well?”
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millsaps magazine
Winkelman said he is pleased to have Jerrie Cooper as assistant coach. “Having her is crucial to this program’s rebirth,” he said. “Coach Winkelman has very high expectations,” Cooper said, “It’s a challenge for some of us to accept those expectations and push ourselves to meet the goals. But we’re making improvements, and we’re surprising ourselves at how good our work can be if we just believe in ourselves.” Winkelman admits the Majors face a tough schedule. “You like it to be even the first year, but we inherited a tough schedule. We have a very small window to institute a whole new style of play, and then before you know it, you’re in conference play. In this year’s conference schedule, we’re nine on the road, seven at home with three of those home games right up front. The rest of the way out, we’re nine on the road, four at home. In January of the four weekends, we’re on three road trips, tough ones.” “I remember some of the great games that Hendrix had against Millsaps in the early nineties, when both of our schools were going to the national tournament,” Winkelman said. “We want to reestablish the tradition Millsaps had in the nineties of being successful in terms of how they conduct themselves on the court, how they play together, just how they go about their business as scholars and as athletes.”
—Jesse Yancy, freelance writer
Stellar studentathletes a Millsaps College tradition
Millsaps College student Victoria Romano wears many hats: Student. Athlete. Sorority member. Campus leader. Between hitting the books, playing for the Lady Majors volleyball team, and philanthropic activities with her sorority, she still finds time to lead. Romano is organizing the Mississippi Young Women’s
Leadership Conference, to be held Jan. 28 on the Millsaps campus. Her philosophy? “I believe that the training of the whole person, mind and body, is essential to becoming a welleducated and well-rounded individual,” the senior public management major said. Romano’s time management skills and dedication to excellence embody Millsaps College’s strong tradition of educating and training scholar-athletes. Last year, Millsaps received the prestigious David M. Halbrook Award, given for the highest student-athlete graduation rate (92 percent) among private colleges in Mississippi. It’s the third consecutive year the College received the award, an achievement Millsaps has earned for 19 of the past 25 years. This winning combination of academic excellence and athletic opportunity continues to attract outstanding students to the College campus. “I chose to come to Millsaps because it was well known for its academic prowess and hands-on learning environment,” Romano said. “I would have the unique opportunity to be a studentathlete and contribute to the campus and community in many extracurricular activities.” Junior business administration major Brian Merkel knew he wanted to play basketball on the collegiate level. The question was: Where? “I was recruited by several schools to play basketball, and Millsaps was one of the last schools to contact me,” Merkel said. “Once I left Millsaps from my visit, I knew that Millsaps was the school for me. I wanted to go to a school where I could play, but also get a great education. After meeting the coaches and hearing of the outstanding academic reputation Millsaps has, the decision was a no-brainer for me.” Millsaps’ recipe for success in recruiting student-athletes played a key role in the decision made by Lauren Williams, a tennis player and junior business administration major. “I knew that I wanted to play tennis in college, but it was not until my senior