Crossroads Sports Rewind 2022

Crossroads Magazine

2021-22 Sports Rewind Edition

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A PRODUCT OF THE DAILY CORINTHIAN

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2021-22 Sports Rewind Edition

2021-22 Sports Rewind Edition

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Crossroads

Alcorn Central volleyball players celebrate their 2021 state 3A championship – the first for volleyball in school history and the first for Alcorn County.

Magazine

2021-22 Sports Rewind Edition

EDITORIAL Publisher Reece Terry Editor Mark Boehler Contributors Joel Counce

Lady Warrior soccer standouts Emma Hall (left) and Haley Guare celebrate a Corinth state playoff victory.

Larry Glidewell

What’s Inside Kossuth bowling teams sweep state Class I titles . . . . . . Page 7 Lady Golden Bears win the 3A state volleyball championship . . . . . Pages 10-11 Corinth girls soccer program has a landmark season . . . . . . . . . . Pages 16-17 Biggersville football finishes 9-3 and advances in state playoffs . . . . Pages 20-21

Tanner Marlar

Kossuth cheer earns 3A game day state title . . . . . Pages 24-25

Randy J. Williams

ADVERTISING Advertising Manager Derinda Nunley

Biggersville’s Jathan Hatch celebrates a touchdown vs. South Delta in the state playoffs.

Cross Country state dominance continues at Corinth . . . Page 27 Kossuth football wins division title, advances in state playoffs . . . . Pages 28-29

Advertising Representative Kenny Carson

Biggersville basketball: Is the job finished? . . . . . . Pages 32-37

Creative Designer Susan Good Kossuth High School’s Cheer Team celebrates their 3A Game Day State Championship.

ON THE COVER Biggersville’s 2021-22

Alcorn Central wins state archery championship . . . . . pages 40-41

basketball teams celebrate as they accept the 1A state championship trophies, completing a rare school sweep in the same year.

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Kossuth softball team wins 2020-21 division title . . Page 39

Kossuth’s Tate Rogers runs for a hard-earned first down against Amory in the state playoffs.

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Kossuth boys and girls powerlifting teams sweep 3A state titles . . . . . Pages 44-45 2021-22 Sports Rewind Edition

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Kossuth High School Lady Aggies – 2022 Girls Class I State Bowling Champions

Kossuth High School Aggies – 2022 Class I Boys State Bowling Champions

Kossuth bowling teams sweep state titles

Lady Aggies win fourth straight Class I championship; Aggies win fifth overall tournament.

The Lady Aggies continued their bowling dominance, earning the Both the men’s and women’s bowl- fifth state championship in the ing teams of Kossuth High School program’s young history. They comcompleted their quest for gold in peted the 2021-22 season without early 2022, sweeping both Class I suffering a defeat, setting their final state titles and earning the fourth record at 13-0. The team isn’t even straight state championship for the close to being done yet, though, girls and their fifth for the boys. according to Lee. “The whole team contributed to Understandably so, the Lady this win,” said head coach Michael Aggies had numerous bowlers Lee of the boys’ title match after make the all-state team. Sophoplay had concluded. The Aggies mores Lynley Woodruff, Maddie finished their season with a 10-3 re- Mask, Emily Mann and Sally Kate cord overall, and had to battle from Gardner all earned all-state honors fourth place to claim the second for their performances. seed of the final tournament. The Gardner was atop the leader title capped off a lengthy resume board throughout the bowling for the Aggies this season, after season. they placed third in the tournament “The Lady Aggies haven’t been of champions earlier this season beaten since early in the 2018-19 in Jackson and another podium season with a young but extremely finish at the Blue Mountain College seasoned team. There are five sophBy TANNER MARLAR

For Crossroads Magazine

2021-22 Sports Rewind Edition

omores, two freshmen, and two 7th graders,” said Lee. The girls squad isn’t the only one with enough youth to maintain their success, though, as the men’s squad boasts a successful young roster themselves.

The boys’ roster boasts two juniors and a whopping 10 sophomores, placing KHS right back in the hunt to repeat in both divisions.

“I absolutely love these teams with all my heart,” Lee explained.

“They will give their all every single frame. They will leave it all on the lanes and never give up. The fight in them is priceless.”

Overall, the KHS program is turning into a bowling dynasty, with the trophy case growing year after year, with plenty of opportunities to repeat their title runs in the future.

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Photo by Randy J. Williams

Alcorn Central High School – 2021 Class 3A State Volleyball Champions

Alcorn Central volleyball program makes history Lady Golden Bears win the 3A state championship

By TANNER MARLAR

For Crossroads Magazine

When the Alcorn Central High School volleyball team set out on their 2021 campaign, the Lady Bears knew they

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were in with a shot of finishing the season hoisting a state championship trophy.

The previous season, the Lady Bears made one of the deepest playoff runs in school history, but ultimately ended up letting the championship slip away in a postseason defeat.

The team went into the offseason hungry and ready to prove themselves. Head coach Eric Lancaster made some changes to the play-style after seeing what didn’t work during their post-season defeats, and set about resuming the quest for that elusive championship.

They had returned most of their production, including senior Mia Griffin, and had all set about to accomplish one singular goal – win it all.

They did just that, and hoisted their first golden ball in program history this past season at the state championship tournament in Clinton.

Lancaster spoke about what that meant to him, his players, the program and the fanbase as a whole.

“I had never one a state championship, and I’ve kind of wondered what it would feel like, and when we did get that final point, all I wanted to do was just sit back and watch the girls,” Lancaster said.

“I didn’t run out onto the court, I didn’t go hug them, I just wanted to watch them celebrate ... just, the feeling of getting that escort back into town, it was really, really fun.

That’s one way to sum it up – it was fun. The girls had a blast.”

It almost wasn’t to be, though.

Right when the Lady Bears were neck deep in division play, near disaster struck. The team had to be quarantined due to a spike in

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positive COVID-19 tests and had to miss a straight week of divisional games. Those that couldn’t be rescheduled resulted in the Lady Bears forfeiting the contests.

Lancaster’s confidence in his team never wavered, though, as before a team practice he pulled his team captains into his office and told them that he had one message.

Lancaster still remembers the exact time, 3:12 p.m. on Sept.

13, 2021. Right then and there Lancaster told his girls they would not lose another volleyball game.

He told them they would be state champions, and they would finish the season without losing another game.

“The only thing that can beat y’all this year is COVID and yourselves, and COVID already tried,” Lancaster told his team after practice.

Continued on page 43 2021-22 Sports Rewind Edition

Alcorn Central volleyball players celebrate their 2021 state 3A championship – the first for volleyball in school history and the first for Alcorn County.

Photo by Randy J. Williams

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The Corinth High School 2021-22 girls’ soccer team won two state playoff games and made it to the North Half championship.

Corinth girls soccer program has a landmark season Lady Warriors kick their way to north half

By TANNER MARLAR

For Crossroads Magazine

At the start of the 2021-2022 season, Corinth High School girls’ soccer head coach Cameron Glenn had no idea what to expect.

West Lauderdale, who typically runs the state championship on the girl’s side of 4A, was lacking their usual crop of talent.

Corinth, however, had one of its most cohesive groups the program had ever seen.

The opportunity was there to make a deep state playoff run, but according to Glenn, that wasn’t the focus.

“I think even a couple of girls PAGE 16

on the team said that if you would have told them that they’d be playing for the north half title, they would have kind of just laughed in your face,” said Glenn.

“It hadn’t really been a reality for us for a while, just because West Lauderdale is so dominant in girls’ soccer.”

With West Lauderdale out of the picture for at least this season, the door was open to any and all challengers. Coach Glenn and his band of Lady Warriors knew this, but it didn’t hit them until later on in their season.

It was in a game against Caledonia, in which the Lady Warriors lost 2-1 via a last-minute goal from the Caledonia strikers.

In the words of coach Glenn, “it was a kind of a heartbreaker.”

However, Corinth soccer fans couldn’t have told it by the attitude of the players. Each one of them held their heads high after that game, knowing full-well that they had just taken an incredibly competitive team that is used to making deep playoff runs down to the wire.

“No one at the end of that game was like ‘wow, that’s the most heartbreaking situation ever,’” said Glenn. “I think everyone was just like ‘alright, well, we expected to come down here and get routed 7-0’, and it could have easily been that way, but we went down there with a tactical game

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plan and really frustrated them … the huddle after that game, every single one of those girls that were on that field was like ‘I feel good about this. I feel good about what we just did.’”

Once the girls realized they could hang with and play with anybody, the season began taking on a magical form, particularly at the hands of team leaders Belle Mitchell and Emma Hall.

Mitchell, a senior defender, was a vocal on-field leader and team captain. She was part of the glue that held the squad together, according to Glenn, making sure that everything and everyone was in the right place at the right time.

2021-22 Sports Rewind Edition

Regan Houston was another vocal leader for the Lady Warriors. Houston unfortunately suffered a torn ACL during the season, but never let that dismay her from pursuing the team’s goals in whatever ways possible. Houston was at every practice and every game, giving halftime speeches and offering her teammates the words of encouragement they needed.

With Houston sidelined, more onfield leadership duty fell to a familiar name in the Warrior fan base, Emma Hall.

Hall was a do-it-all player for CHS – assists, goals, tackles, you name it, and Emma Hall delivered it when it mattered for the Lady Warriors this 2021-22 season.

The Lady Warriors won two games in the state playoffs.

Unfortunately, the Lady Warriors lost in the North Half Championship game, but nonetheless had a landmark season in the history of the program, as evidenced by the number of fans that became involved with the sport during their playoff run.

“You’d just have girls walking up and down the hallway, and they’d come up to me and be like ‘Coach Glenn, everybody is talking about soccer,’ like it’s so cool,” said Glenn, “But I felt like a celebrity walking down the hallway. People stopped me just to talk about soccer.”

That level of fan and community involvement did the girls good, according to Glenn, as it gave them the lift they needed. They knew that not only did they believe in themselves, but the community believed in them, too.

Going forward, Glenn believes that this deep run will bode well for the program, now that the girls know what it takes to reach the upper echelon of their division. Coach Glenn brings an interesting perspective to the issue, though, that may bode well for the team’s future.

“Most coaches may complain about this, but we have to wait until early November to get going even though the state has expanded the season and teams are playing by the third or fourth weekend of October,” said Glenn.

“The reason we wait is because all our girls run cross country. I’d say 80 percent of our boys and girls run cross country … and so getting them in that state championship mentality that they have with that program and getting them into our practices and games and bringing that mentality, I just feel like that’s a huge advantage for us.”

For record’s sake, the CHS girls won a ring this past year (2021) in cross country. If the two programs continue to succeed, their success might just depend on one another.

2021-22 Sports Rewind Edition

Lady Warrior soccer standouts Emma Hall (left) and Haley Guare celebrate a Corinth state playoff victory.

“... all our girls run cross country. I’d say 80 percent of our boys and girls run cross country … and so getting them in that state championship mentality that they have with that program and getting them into our practices and games and bringing that mentality, I just feel like that’s a huge advantage for us.”

CAMERON GLENN

Corinth High School girls’ soccer head coach CROSSROADS MAGAZINE

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Biggersville running back Zae Davis looks for running room in the state playoff victory over South Delta on Nov. 12, 2021.

Photo by Randy J. Williams

Photo by Randy J. Williams

Biggersville’s Jathan Hatch celebrates a touchdown vs. South Delta in the state playoffs.

The Lions’ pride: Gridiron edition Biggersville football finishes 9-3 and advances in state playoffs

By TANNER MARLAR For Crossroads Magazine

Biggersville High School is not just a basketball school. These Lions can also bring it on the gridiron.

BHS has been on cutting edge of excellence in 1A basketball, but what many may not realize is that they’ve been on the cusp of that same status in football as well for the past few seasons, and this year (2021) they were closer than ever.

The Lions finished the season with a 9-3 record and advanced to the second round of the playoffs, ultimately losing to Simmons in a road contest.

Coming into the year, first-season head coach Case Ingram had high hopes.

“We had a lot of skill guys coming back that could really do a lot 2021-22 Sports Rewind Edition

of stuff,” said Ingram. “We knew they could be special if we were able to give them the ball and things like that.”

They were indeed successful, but the season didn’t come without its trials and tribulations.

“Obviously (the) offensive line, we knew that was going to be our biggest hurdle to get over because we lost four of our five starters from the state championship runnerup team (2020),” Ingram said, “and so we knew if we could kind of develop them and get them going we had a good shot.”

The Lions struggled in the early part of the season, starting off their 2021 campaign 3-2. Ingram said that at that point, he thought some teams wrote the Lions off as

an average team on the schedule, and that wasn’t going to work for Ingram and company.

“I knew that if we could ever get things rolling and get some confi-

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dence up, that we could be pretty good,” Ingram added.

That confidence came soon thereafter, as the Lions went on to Continued on page 42

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Photo by Randy J. Williams

Kossuth High School – 3A Game Day Cheer State Champions

Kossuth cheer earns 3A game day state title many have ever done, especially not many from Alcorn County.

The team traveled to Orlando, When people think of the most Florida, where they competed at a award-winning athletic programs national competition with 35 other in the Alcorn county, their mind teams from across the United States. may immediately shift to baseball, There, the girls placed sixth overall, basketball or football. cementing their names in the However, at Kossuth High School, record books of the well-decorated there’s another program that has program. consistently stacked up on accolades Turner spoke about what the trip – Kossuth Cheer. meant to the girls and everything it Head coach Baylee Turner has tak- took to get there. en her squads to multiple state titles, “It was huge for the girls,” said including this past season, when Turner, “Kossuth’s never been to nathe team won first place overall in tionals. We had state (competitions) the 3A game day division. That is in December, and then we had until not all, though. This past season the February 11-12 (2022) to prepare.” team was able to do something not Turner went on to explain that

By TANNER MARLAR

For Crossroads Magazine

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throughout their preparation, they had to deal with several absences due to members of the team playing other sports, such as captain and Lady Aggie basketball player Kaitlyn Bonds.

The team soldiered forward, though, due in large part to the leadership of the other captains and team members.

“Our seniors did a great job,” Turner explained, “We had Alanna Mitchell, Kaitlyn Bonds as our captains and then

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2021-22 Sports Rewind Edition

Photo by Randy J. Williams

Kossuth High School’s Cheer Team celebrates their 3A Game Day State Championship.

our co-captains Emily Ross, Marlee Morgan and Isabella Duncan, and they did a great job making sure that everybody was ready for practice, warm ups and everything in between.”

The head coach spoke about some specific leadership moments, such as when Mitchell would text members of the team individually to offer words of encouragement, constructive criticism and uplifting messages to better the morale in practices while simultaneously helping her team members work on their craft.

“You know, in practice it was encouraging words.

It was uplifting.

If we had a

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bad practice, Alanna would be like ‘c’mon guys!’, just encouraging words that really lifted them up,” Turner explained.

This was not the first time the girls had brought home some hardware, though. In fact, this is the second state title the girls have received under Turner. Repetition is not easy when you’re on top of the mountain, and Turner, and her girls know that.

“I think they’re held to that high expectation when they come in knowing that this is a great program, and that they’re held to that higher standard, so they have to keep that up. And they

work hard, and they know going into it that this isn’t a joke, this isn’t something that they can come in and just ride out,” Turner said.

“It comes with a lot of work, but victories along the way.”

When asked what her favorite moment of the season was, Turner said it had to be the week leading up to the team’s trip to nationals.

The girls had themed practices each day of the week, and on the final day of said practices, before the girls hopped on a plane to fly across the country to perform the routine they had worked on for countless hours, they held one more practice – this

CROSSROADS MAGAZINE

time, in front of the girls’ parents.

“I feel like with all of our parents and family and friends in the stands, because not everyone (of the parents) could go, that practice was more memorable and exciting,” said Turner. “I felt like at that moment I knew we were ready. All of the practice, it paid off and that we were ready from that moment.”

When asked about what the future looks like for the Aggies’ cheer squad, Turner’s hopes for the future were bright.

There is a large sophomore class, according to Turner, that breeds plenty of excitement. That group is 8-9 strong at the very least, and now that they’ve made the trip once, they’re itching to do it again.

“They’re super talented,” Turner said. “I’m really excited to see them come up. There is a bunch of them in the group who are leaders, and they’ve came a long way from freshman year. They’ve grown, and I’m excited to see how that group will go, because I see a lot of potential in them.”

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Photo by Chris Todd

Corinth High School – 2021 Class 4A Girls Cross Country State Champions

Cross Country state dominance continues at Corinth Lady Warriors win 2021 state 4A title, boys miss title by mere seven points

By TANNER MARLAR

For Crossroads Magazine

As the Corinth High School boys and girls cross country teams sat in their hotels on a damp, chilly night in Jackson, Miss., they had plans to do anything but sleep.

For hours, the two squads pined over their notes, over the rosters of teams they were to be competing with the next day. They would pour over MileSplit rankings, analyze every tiny detail down to the last millisecond of record times – all in preparation for another chance for gold the next day – this time for all the marbles, the Cross Country 4A State Championship.

Amidst all of that hustle, bustle and excitement, though, it came time for a tradition. First year girls head coach Emory Kirk had never participated in it, only heard.

Only heard that is, until now.

Kirk sat down with each of her girls who had made the trip to Choctaw Trails that week together in one room. Shoulder to shoulder, the girls that had endured and conquered all season to earn this opportunity finally, for the first time in a long time, sat in silence, 2021-22 Sports Rewind Edition

if but for just a moment.

“The whole Corinth ritual thing was new to me,” said Kirk, “but the night before (the meet) we go out and eat with our teams, and then we meet together with our team. And we all just talk about getting everything out in the air before race morning. That way we can go in with a clear mind and a clear heart, so everything is just out there. You can kind of get your emotions out of the way.”

According to Kirk, despite all the wins and surprises of this season that came during meets, this was her defining moment. This is when she knew it could be done in just her first year.

“What stuck out to me, and this goes back to the whole team, they just want to support each other.

Even the alternates were pinpointing saying ‘well I’m going to go here’ and ‘I’m going to go there’ and ‘we’re going to watch this girl’ and ‘we’re going to tell you when this girl is coming up behind you’,” Kirk said. “That was fun for me to see – all of them talk it out, all of them get a game plan.”

That game plan worked to perfection for the Lady Warriors, as the next day they went home

to take first place in the 2021 MHSAA Cross Country State Championship race for 4A. Senior Emma Hall was the team’s top finisher, ending with a 20:28.65 for 5th place overall.

Freshman teammate Elise Wilbanks soon followed in 7th place with a 21:09.40 – both of which are blistering times for Choctaw Trails, one of if not the toughest course in the state.

Junior Lexie Faulkner followed with a 21:47.75 for 10th place, before freshman Adelyn Mathis and junior Lauren Beech finished back-to-back in 15th and 16th, rounding out the top 5 for the Lady Warriors.

It truly was a group effort for the Lady Warriors, as they didn’t just win, they thrashed the next closest team, beating them by more than 70 points. Out of 130 runners who participated in the race, Corinth didn’t have a single girl finish outside of the top 25.

That’s unheard of, and it earned Kirk the honor of being named coach of the year in her first season at the helm.

“I’m very thankful, and I’m blessed. I love running, and I just hope that pours out to those girls

CROSSROADS MAGAZINE

that running is something you can take throughout your life, and being coach of the year is because those girls kicked their own tails and ran the mess out of themselves to make me look good,” said Kirk of her cdoaching honors.

Although the girls took home the gold, do not be fooled into thinking the Corinth boys squad wasn’t right in the midst of the action themselves. They took home second place honors, only missing out of the top spot by seven points.

The cross country kicker?

Nobody who finished in Corinth’s top five boys runners is graduating. Every single scored runner, including second place overall finisher Parker LeGoff, is back for the fall 2022n season, and according to head coach Luke Hatcher, they’re chomping at the Warrior bit to get back on the course.

Hatcher claims the goal is the same as it always has been, to win it all.

If that’s the case, next year’s rewind might sing the same tune – the sound of proud Warrior drums – when it comes to 4A cross country.

PAGE 27

Kossuth quarterback Jack Johnson throws the ball downfield in the state playoff game against Amory on Nov. 19, 2021.

Photo by Randy J. Williams

Aggie football shines proudly in 2021 Kossuth wins division title, advances in state playoffs

By TANNER MARLAR

For Crossroads Magazine

At the start of the 2021 football season, there were a lot of question marks surrounding the Kossuth Aggie football team.

Head coach Brian Kelly had retained a lot of starters in the trenches, which was a much needed constant, but had lost almost all of their offensive production to graduation from the PAGE 28

year before. Those skill players included Brock Seago, the former two-year starting quarterback.

Enter McNairy Central, Tenn., transfer quarterback Jack Johnson, a former starter for the Bobcats. Johnson stepped in and led the team to another division championship, continuing the Aggie tradition of division dominance under the lights.

Kelly spoke highly of his quarterback and his leadership abili-

ties both on and off the gridiron.

“You can tell he’s a leader. He leads on and off the field.

He’s a competitor,” said Kelly. “Early in the season he was trying to learn the offense and maybe do too much. (We) scaled everything back a little bit, got into division play, and in those big games with Booneville and Water Valley, he shined, and in the Nettleton game, he shined.”

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Brady Kelly fights for a first down in the Aggie playoff game against Amory.

Photo by Randy J. Williams

Those shining moments didn’t go unnoticed, as Johnson grew into the role of the main signal caller, even checking plays and making reads in the heat of play.

“Your quarterback has to be a leader. He’s got to be somebody you can trust and count on. He checks some plays at the line of scrimmage. It’s good to have somebody back there with that experience, and I’m glad we’re getting him back next year as well.”

2021-22 Sports Rewind Edition

Johnson, along with a host of other Aggies, led the team to a final record of 10-3 until a close playoff loss against Amory forced the season to come to a dramatic closure.

Jack Johnson had a special year for the Aggies – earning Offensive Player of the Year of the division – and even though the offense could score with the best of them at times, according to Kelly, the defense was the true anchor point of this team.

The Aggie defense allowed an average of nine points per contest in their divisional games, only allowing 14 in the game that ultimately cost them their season, and any time a team can hold

their opponents to numbers like that, they’ll be in a position to win games, according to Kelly.

Plenty of teams in MHSAA 3A football end up having to use players on both sides of the ball, and the Aggies are no different. Johnson routinely made the swap from quarterback to defensive back during the 2021 season, but he had plenty of help.

“We had a leader at each level (of the defense),” said Kelly, “Trace Wegman on the first level on the defensive line – he was the division 1-3A MVP. He led the team in tackles, and when your defensive lineman is leading the team in tackles that’s a good thing. He had a three-year starter sitting right behind him in Ethan Tucker at linebacker, then on the third level you had Jack Johnson playing safety.”

It wasn’t just the team leaders that put in work on the defensive side of the ball for the Aggies, either. According to Kelly, it was a host of role players who really made this 2021 defense what it was.

“Everybody was a role player.

Braxton Tucker, Evan Patton and

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Tate Rogers, they played great all year. It’s competitive. Everybody was competing.”

The most exciting thing about this year’s defense, though?

They’ll return almost all of their starters, with weak side defensive end Wes Phillips and linebacker Tate Rogers being the only seniors.

With most of their production returning, the KHS football team and staff as a whole are excited for what the future might bring.

They all know the opportunity that will present itself from returning a high percentage of a top-15 MHSAA 3A roster, and nobody knows that more than the players.

“The kids are working hard now. They know how close they are,” Kelly said, “Kossuth has never been past the third round. They’ve never played for the north state ... there’s a lot of good teams in the 3A north, but you’ve got to beat the north half champions (Amory) first.”

2021 brought its fair share of success for the Kossuth Aggie football program, but from the way it sounds, they’re looking for even more in 2022.

PAGE 29

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Randy J. Williams

Biggersville High School – 2022 Class 1A Girls State Basketball Champions

Biggersville basketball: Is the job finished?

Is the state sweep of 1A titles just the beginning?

By TANNER MARLAR

For Crossroads Magazine

There is always the ultimate goal of attaining excellence in sports.

The exact definition of that goal differs for many, but not the Biggersville basketball program.

Excellence, for them at least, is climbing the mountain top and bringing home the gold ball – nothing more, nothing less.

In 2021, head coach Cliff Little and his boys squad took home the gold ball, while the girls team fell short. This year, though, Little and his teams achieved their ultimate goal – utter dominance on both sides of 1A basketball in 2022.

The season was filled with magical moments, from the boys making a road trip all the way to Kentucky to beat a perennial power Webb School of Knoxville, Tenn., to the epic comeback ability of the girls’ squad led by Division 1-1A Girls Basketball player of the Year Hannah Seago, and according to Little, it all started after last year.

Cliff Little is a huge Kobe Bryant fan, and that mentality tends to trickle down into his teams and practices. Bryant was once asked after a playoff game in which he led the Los Angeles Lakers if he was happy that his team went up 2-0 in the seven game series. His answer?

“Why should I be happy? Job’s not finished.”

Little and his teams used this motto all season.

PAGE 32

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2021-22 Sports Rewind Edition

Randy J. Williams

Biggersville High School – 2022 Class 1A Boys State Basketball Champions

After they won the first one with an extremely young roster last season, Little had to figure out a way to motivate his boys team to climb the mountain-top yet again, and he used Bryant’s words of competitive spirit to do just that.

All season long, Little reminded the players that the job wasn’t finished. They still had to do it once again and prove to everyone else and themselves that 2021 was no fluke – they were here to stay.

This past winter, they did just that, hoisting the coveted golden ball high in the air for a second straight season and solidifying themselves as quite possibly the premier program in Mississippi 1A basketball.

When asked about everything that has and will continue to go into a program with such a winning tradition, he attributed it to the community and culture around the Lions basketball program as a whole.

“I don’t think we would be where we are right now without (the coaches before me) and their starting of the foundation, but as far as the consistency of where we’ve been the last 11 years, it’s a lot of hard work,” Little said.

“A lot of sacrifice from a lot of kids, a lot of parents, a lot of the community. You know, parents have to sacrifice a lot for these kind of things.”

Little knew he had the talent, experience and competitiveness on the boys’ roster to make a deep run in 2022, and quite possibly repeat, but according to him, it didn’t really hit him until 2021-22 Sports Rewind Edition

the second game of the season in which the Lions met up with the Tupelo Golden Wave.

Tupelo is a 6A school, the highest ranking in the state, and with Biggersville being a 1A school, the expectations might have been that Tupelo would walk in the gym, get an easy win and leave.

That was not the case.

When Little saw his team holding future division one athletes to less than 10 points in a single

teams across the entirety of the north half of the state.

Not only did they complete a clean sweep of the county tournament, winning both varsity boys matchups handily, but they also went on to make light work of their division tournament.

When asked about who stood out for his team during this stretch of the season, Little gave a very different answer than most coaches.

“I don’t think we would be where we are right now without (the coaches before me) and their starting of the foundation, but as far as the consistency of where we’ve been the last 11 years, it’s a lot of hard work. A lot of sacrifice from a lot of kids, a lot of parents, a lot of the community. You know, parents have to sacrifice a lot for these kind of things.”

CLIFF LITTLE

Biggersville basketball head coach contest, when they had averaged near 20 their whole career, it finally hit that this group was something he had never seen before.

“I knew we could be pretty good, but when we held Tupelo, who was averaging like 90 points a game to 44 and they had to change to a zone to slow us up, you know, that would have been the time when I was like ‘woah okay, hold up, we’re pretty freaking good’,” said Little.

“You just knew man, you just knew,” the head coach said.

When they reached that point where Little just knew that he had the right team, there was no looking back. The Lions went on to dominate or compete with

“That’s the thing, there was no superstar. The closest thing would be Zae (Davis), and even on certain nights, it was different kids,” Little said. “The only thing I’ve ever known this crew to argue about, and this should tell you a lot, is who can guard each other better.”

As for the girls team, this was their first taste of the sweet feeling of being a state champion, and boy, did they relish in it.

Don’t be fooled, though, it did not come without sacrifice.

While the boys knew exactly what they had from the offset of the season, the girls team started off on much shakier ground.

“We started the season off a little rocky. We won, we were

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winning, but I thought our girls lacked a little bit of toughness down the stretch,” said Little, “and we kind of challenged them really all the way up to the night before the championship game.

We just saw some things that we really thought we needed to do better in order to win.”

All five starters from this past season’s team were selected as members of the Division 1-1A all-division team, showcasing just how well-rounded this group of girls was on the floor.

Hannah Seago found herself leading the charge more often than not, though, and truly emerged as the team’s fourth quarter backbone during the county tournament, in which they completed the sweep of the varsity championships by beating the Kossuth Lady Aggies in the championship round.

Their defining moment came much further away from home, though. It happened on the same aforementioned road trip to Kentucky, in which the girls matched up with Henderson County,Ky., a perennial power on the Kentucky high school basketball scene.

After losing 64-11, Little and the rest of his staff met with the girls after the game and, essentially, put the season in their hands, and boy, did they run with it.

“They left Princeton, (Kentucky), with a chip on their shoulders,” said Little, “They realized what was going to have to take place.”

The girls returned home to face the Walnut Lady Wildcats, where they found themselves facing a late-game deficit yet again.

PAGE 33

This time, though, the Lady Lions would not be denied. They clawed their way back into the game and managed to pull off a much needed win.

“That is what I would say was our defining moment,” said Little, “and shortly thereafter we played the county tournament.”

After that, the girls went on to play against Booneville (eventual 3A 2022 state champ) and Tishomingo County (eventual 4A 2022 state runnerup). They trailed at one point in both of those games and, yet again, found ways to win. They established their identity. They had to be beaten for four full quarters – any less, and the Lady Lions were going to walk out victorious.

“When they were able to come back against Booneville and Tishomingo County, that gave them the confidence to say ‘yeah, we can do this’,” Little said.

They went on to do it. They hoisted a gold ball of their own at the end of the 2022 season, further solidifying the fact that Biggersville basketball isn’t just about the boys squad – the girls can hoop themselves.

Obviously, there always comes the question of next season: Who’s graduating? Is anyone transferring? Who’s coming back?

Little knows this, and according to him, preparation has already begun in the form of some intrinsic motivation.

Originally, Little wanted to put “Job Finished” on everyone’s rings in order to pay homage to the team’s year-long motto, but athletic director Pete Seago gave him another idea.

“After we had won and we sat down to talk about our rings, I’m geared up about putting ‘job finished’ on there, because I love it so much. I wanted it to be on there, and coach Seago said ‘Hold on now, you get most of these guys back ... Why don’t you tell them if they win it next year, they can put job finished,” Little said.

“We challenged them right then and there,” Little added.

There are several members from both squads that will be making their presence felt on the hardwood next season (202223) for the Lions. They’ve climbed the mountain, some of them more than once already, but that’s not stopping them. It’s hard to win one, it’s even harder to win two, but even more rarely does a program win three straight state titles.

If the Biggersville Lions and Lady Lions can pull it off, not only will they cement themselves in the record books of Alcorn County, but they’ll have no choice but to put the entire state on notice that the Lions are here to stay – they’re the kings and queens of the basketball homecoming court – and they don’t plan on going anyThe Biggersville Lions celebrate their 2022 state basketball championship. where for a long time.

PAGE 34

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2021-22 Sports Rewind Edition

P

The Biggersville Lady Lions celebrate their 2022 state basketball championship.

Photos by Randy J. Williams

Photos by Randy J. Williams

Biggersville basketball players storm the court to celebrate their state championship.

Biggersville basketball players celebrate their state championship.

PAGE 36

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2021-22 Sports Rewind Edition

Biggersville players accept their 2022 1A state championship trophy.

Biggersville players accept their 2022 1A state championship trophy.

2021-22 Sports Rewind Edition

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PAGE 37

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Kossuth High School – 2021 Division 1-3A Champions

Home Lady Aggie Grown: Influx of talent pushes Kossuth softball forward 2021 Lady Aggie team wins the Division 1-3A title in one of the toughest divisions in the state me, I’m getting to see some of these kids have grown just within a year and how hard they’ve worked. It’s big when you can get that many Division 1-3A softball is not for the faint of kids back,” Mills explained. heart.

An influx of talent has spurred life into the Year in and year out it hosts some of the best KHS softball program, and according to Mills, play across the state, and the Kossuth Aggie it’s all been about how the community as a softball team is an instrumental part of that whole has bought into softball at a young age. heightened level of competition.

More girls are playing travel softball than ever One of the driving forces for this level of before, and that’s given them a chance to not competition in Aggieland was started with the only be more skilled as an individual, but also current assistant coach Carleigh Mills back to be able to work together as a team. when she donned the Maroon and White. Mills “You get to learn who you’re playing with,” went on to have a successful collegiate softball said Mills. “You get to learn kind of how the career and has now happily returned home to person next to you plays or the person behind help her players hopefully do the same. you plays.”

“It’s awesome,” Mills said of coming back Some of the upperclassmen on the team to coach her home team. “It’s always good to have been playing together for years, come back and see your hometown and home long before they put on an Aggie team and just see how much it’s grown just in jersey, and it shows in the on-field the five, six years I’ve been gone.” product.

Mills was part of the coaching staff that led to “You know when somebody the Aggies winning the Division 1-3A champi- is throwing this pitch, and beonship during the 2021 season, and now, knee cause of that you get a sense of deep in division play once again, is excited to where the ball’s going to go so have the exact same roster as last year with a you can set up. You just learn few extra pieces. their abilities and tendencies KHS had no seniors last season, meaning that much sooner,” Mills added. every single member of the division champiThat talent has aided in the onship winning team has come back for more, Aggies’ ability to deal with and Mills and the rest of the team were excited the fierce amount of competito hit the ground running. tion within their division, and “We’re just building off what we had from last with the youth the squad has, year and getting better. I mean, it’s big getting they’re not done yet. to have those kids (back) with Brandon Bobo The 2021 3A state champion (current head coach) in his first year. But with came out of the same division, and

By TANNER MARLAR

For Crossroads Magazine

2021-22 Sports Rewind Edition

CROSSROADS MAGAZINE

it wasn’t the Aggies. It was rival Booneville.

This year, they’re out to take what they believe is theirs.

“They’ve got some payback coming,” Mills said of the rest of division 1-3A. The Aggies softball team is hungry. They want to join that upper echelon of women’s sports in Alcorn County, and they know they have the right mix of youth, experience and talent to get the job done.

Their quest for a state title began last year, and in 2022, if softball fans were to ask them, they’ve got plenty of unfinished business in which to attend.

PAGE 39

Alcorn Central High School Archery Coach Jesse Nelson and the rest of the Golden Bear Archery Team celebrate their 2022 Class II Archery State Championship. In just its fourth year, the ACHS team won the Alcorn County Tournament, North Half Tournament and then the Class II state championship.

Alcorn Central wins state archery championship

By JOEL COUNCE

For Crossroads Magazine

Alcorn Central High School has hit the bullseye.

In the archery program’s fourth year, the Golden Bears claimed the 2022 Class II state championship by shooting an eye-popping, bow-drawing 3,324 in early April.

“This group in particular were underclassmen or middle schoolers when we started the program,” said dedicated Alcorn Central head coach Jesse Nelson, who also coaches ACHS bowling. “I told them the goal here is to win a state championship. This group PAGE 40

probably shot more arrows this year than they ever have.”

“These upperclassmen really bought in and believed it and set a really good example for the underclassmen,” added Nelson.

Gracey Viola led the Golden Bears with a 287, followed by Haley Markle with a 282.

Maura Rorie shot a 279 and Shelby Driscoll shot a 274 to round out the girls. Seth Carman led the boys with a 282, followed by Ryder Harvell and Rylan Pleasant with 275.

Aaron Tapley and Zacahary Freeman each shot a 274.

To give those outstanding scores some perspective, 300 is a perfect score in archery.

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Clay Barnett, Tatum Lancaster and Bryce Streetman shot 273, 271 and 268, respectively.

Harvell, Rorie, Lorien Gray and Ivy Mirabella earned All-State honors.

“It happened to a great bunch of kids,” Nelson said. “I’m extremely proud of them. I’m just a proud coach.”

Each archer shoots five arrows from five meters three different times. Then, they shoot five arrows from 15 meters three different times.

Each shot is worth as much as 10 points, each round is worth 50 and 300 is the perfect score for a meet.

2021-22 Sports Rewind Edition

“The progress these students made in relatively a short period of time is nothing short of amazing.”

BRANDON QUINN

Alcorn School District Superintendent

This is the Golden Bears third archery title the 2022 season after winning the Alcorn County Tournament at Corinth High School in March and then the North Half Tournament.

“The Alcorn School District is proud to have the Alcorn Central High School Archery Team representing out district,” said Alcorn School District Superintendent Brandon Quinn. “The progress these students made in relatively a short period of time is nothing short of amazing.”

Quinn praised Coach Nelson and the ACHS student-athletes.

“I would like to thank Coach Nelson and all of these talented student-athletes for their dedication to their school. State champs!”

2021-22 Sports Rewind Edition

CROSSROADS MAGAZINE

PAGE 41

Continued from page 21 win six straight games until their aforementioned defeat to Simmons. During that time, several of the Lions stepped up into some key leadership roles, a necessity for any good team.

Zyonn Mayes, a senior member of the BHS squad who also played on this year’s state championship basketball team, was that vocal leader for the Lions on and off the field.

Zae Davis was the exact opposite – a “put your head down and work” kind of player – who let his actions on the field show his feelings and emotions instead of his words.

Davis was also MVP of the 2022 state champ basketball team, leaving no doubt of his athletic abilities.

Dylan Rowsey was another one of the Lions that stepped up to the plate in a leadership role.

“Dylan is one of the hardest working guys that I’ve ever had the pleasure to be around,” said Ingram. “Those guys, though, I was really proud of their growth because they sat behind guys who were seniors, so they didn’t really kind of get their shot until their sophomore year and junior year, so it was good to see them really come into their own.”

Ever since the 2016 season, BHS has been making serious strides towards the illustrious state championship in football. They’ve won everywhere from nine to 13 games each season, and are again right on that cusp of the illusive championship the program craves so much.

What is the reason for this recent boom in success, one might ask? Ingram said it’s simply due to the administration and community buying into the program. “(The people before me) really made it a priority to kind of get Biggersville football on par with everything else … you had a really good group of talent for a long time, and everybody, the community invested in it, the people invested in it, the school invested in it.

It has literally been a Biggersville community contribution to the success of the team by far,” said Ingram.

In terms of getting back to the state championship stage, the Lions are taking the challenge head on.

Ingram said he explains to his team in detail that they know the expectation from them.

“The expectation is that we are going to compete for a district championship every year and we are going to make a playoff run,” Ingram said. “That’s it. That is the expectation every year.”

In order to meet those expectations next season, Ingram and the rest of his pride of Lions will yet again face the gauntlet that is the North Half of 1A football, and he and the Lions stand ready and willing to take on the challenge.

PAGE 42

NATIONAL CHAMPIONS CHAMPIONS

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2021-22 Sports Rewind Edition

Continued from page 10 The Lady Bears called their shot, and boy, did they deliver. They couldn’t have done it without their core group of leaders, headed by their stoic star Mia Griffin.

“Mia is one of the best all-round players in north Mississippi,” Lancaster said, “she wasn’t vocal, but she was that quiet leader, and just as the old cliché goes, she made everybody around her better. She led by example. It wasn’t just her, though. It was a whole group of

to Lancaster, the team is returning leaders if that makes sense. We enough talent to make another had a few others that would kind deep run and of grab your ear and say ‘hey, let’s “We’ve finally achieved winning possibly even do this better.’” the state championship and now repeat as state champions.

While the The team Lady Bears were we’ve got to keep a hold of it.” knows there’s more than hap- ERIC LANCASTER a target on the py to rejoice in Alcorn Central High School back, and they’re the winnings of volleyball head coach ready to welthis past season, they’re still looking ahead towards come any and all challenges.

“We’ve got to stay hungry,” the future. Griffin and a handful of others may be gone, but according Lancaster said, “and it’s easier

to get there than to stay there.

They’ve (the girls) got to keep that hunger and keep that mentality like ‘We’ve got something, and we can’t let anybody take it’. We’ve finally achieved winning the state championship and now we’ve got to keep a hold of it.”

Without a doubt, the Lady Bears will be looking to re-lock and reload in the fall of 2022 as they look to win the second state championship in program history and repeat their historic run.

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PAGE 43

Kossuth High School – 2022 3A Boys Powerlifting State Champions

‘Aggie Strong’: KHS sweeps 2022 state powerlifting titles

By TANNER MARLAR

For Crossroads Magazine

Powerlifting is a sport unlike any other.

While it does require the raw strength that it takes to be able to perform successful lifts, it also requires plenty of math, very much like the student athletes of Kossuth High School’s boys and girls state powerlifting teams have to perform in the classroom.

The difference, though? In the classroom, these boys and girls are doing math for test grades. In powerlifting, however, they’re doing it for rings.

The Aggies did plenty of math this season to accompany their immense total lifts, and it earned both squads a spot atop the 3A powerlifting pyramid for 2022.

Head coach Brian Kelly has brought the boy’s squad into prosperity over the last few years, and if it hadn’t been for COVID-19 resulting in cancellations of previous years’ state tournaments, he would more than likely have enough powerlifting state titles to fill up a whole hand.

“If the COVID year wouldn’t have hit, that would have been one of our strongest years.

2020 was a really good team … the COVID year killed us, we should be three in a row right now,” said Kelly.

The Aggies bounced back in 2021, once PAGE 44

again bringing the state 3A powerlifting title back home to Aggieland for the third time.

They didn’t stop there, though. They were young, and with plenty of strength returning on the roster, they knew a repeat was in with a shot this year.

“These kids bought into the weight room a long time ago,” Kelly explained, “and that shows with the success on the football field. 90 percent of our guys do play football.”

Kelly then went on to explain the opportunity that powerlifting can provide to a student athlete who might be too undersized for football, but strong enough to compete in classes like the 123 lb. class, where sophomore Aggie lifter Candler Robinson set a state squat record with 400 lbs. just this past season.

Kelly knew that they had a shot at the state title this season, but so did the other side of the squad, the freshly formed Lady Aggie powerlifting team.

The Lady Aggie squad was formed in 2019 and is head coached by Julie Mitchell.

Mitchell, fresh on the coaching scene, began building toward the team’s ultimate goal of a state title at the very start.

Mitchell said that with the 3A division finally standing on its own, she knew the girls’ squad had a chance to join the rest of the elite women’s sports at Kossuth in the championship CROSSROADS MAGAZINE

circle and bring home some hardware of their own to fill the trophy case.

“I knew that if ever there was a chance that our girls would be able to win a state championship, this year (2020) certainly was the year,” Mitchell said, “because it was the first year that they separated the 3A and the 4A…I knew that our team had already been established well enough so that we had a good shot at first or second place.”

Typically, in powerlifting, teams must bring in athletes from other sports to fill out the roster. Those athletes are also typically stronger

2021-22 Sports Rewind Edition

Kossuth High School – 2022 3A Girls Powerlifting State Champions

due to the simple fact that they’ve had a ball in their hands since they were in diapers. Not this team, though. According to Mitchell, her favorite part about this team is that it is, for the most part, all home-grown powerlifters.

“That’s one of the things I absolutely love about this group of girls,” Mitchell added.

“That it’s very unique to those girls who want to be involved in something, but maybe didn’t get into playing softball when they were three years old, or they didn’t start playing travel basketball, or they didn’t enjoy that kind of thing. This is very individualized, but there is still that team aspect to it.”

That team aspect, according to Mitchell, had its foundation laid by those that competed on the first ever Lady Aggie powerlifting team like current Mississippi State cheerleader Annalee Turner and Gracie Glidewell.

That tradition was continued by 2021 senior Jayme Hajek, who also won Kossuth’s most beautiful.

Mitchell said that Hajek’s status as a pageant queen

and a powerlifter really jumpstarted her program, because it opened doors to those that might have thought powerlifting wasn’t for them – that their place might have only been on stage.

Thankfully for the KHS powerlifting

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program, that isn’t true, and they’re looking forward to what the future holds as far as championships go. For now, however, they’re going to sit back and enjoy the ride above the rest of the competition – until next year rolls around, that is.

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