Late Hits – Week 5

Notes, numbers and sidelights from Friday night.
• There were five touchdowns of 40 yards or more, including four from at least 56 yards away, in a 44-42 Aberdeen win against Nettleton. For Aberdeen, Jamerson Love had a 43-yard run, Tevin Blanchard caught a 69-yard pass from Marcus Hinton, and Erik Buchanan caught a 56-yarder. For [...]

Northeast Mississippi Rewind

A little technical difficulty this week…no music.

Quickie Blog

Some random, unfiltered thoughts about Friday night’s football action before I go to bed:
• I didn’t have the guts to even say to myself that Aberdeen would beat Nettleton. Had I made a public prediction, it would’ve been something like Tigers 31, Bulldogs 27. Alas, Aberdeen won 44-42 (excellent story written by Brandon Speck, by [...]

Softball: Clash of the 3A Titans

Yes, I’m blogging on something other than football on a Friday. Get over it.
But the slow-pitch softball playoffs are around the corner – they start Tuesday, Oct. 9 – and the most fascinating battle for the state championship can be found in Class 3A. In the North, you’ve got Booneville, Mooreville and Nettleton all with [...]

Blog Bonus – East Webster at Calhoun City

Friday: East Webster (4-0, 4-0 Region 1-1A) at Calhoun City (3-1, 3-1), 7 p.m.
See more on this game and many others in Friday’s Daily Journal.

Before the season began, Calhoun City coach Mike Ray said this defensive unit was one of the best he’s had. He’s about to find out for sure.
East Webster brings one of [...]

Predictions!

Yay, a new weekly feature! Gimme your predictions on the following 10 games (no easy ones). Whoever has the best record will be paid a high compliment from yours truly (example: “Your complexion is fabulous!”).
Don’t forget to catch the high schools page in Friday’s Daily Journal, where Gene Phelps and I make a few predictions; [...]

Northeast Mississippi Scouting Report

Duncan an All-around Coach

See Brad Locke’s column on Chris Duncan in Thursday’s Daily Journal.
A big reason Aberdeen’s football team is off to such a strong start – 2-2 with a pair of one-point losses – is that new head coach Chris Duncan has them believing they can win. Why, he said the JV team, which is 2-0, is [...]

Wilbanks Still Having Fun, Winning

Read more about Ingomar softball in Wednesday’s Daily Journal. 
Andy Wilbanks just wanted to coach baseball, but when you come to a small school like Ingomar, you have to be versatile. So part of Wilbanks’ package when he was hired prior to last school year was to be the slow-pitch softball coach. He was replacing Chris [...]

Late Hits

Every Friday night, so much happens on the football fields that doesn’t make it into the paper. There’s only so much room, of course, to tell the main story. There are plenty of good notes, sidelights, stats and trends that need a place, which is just one more reason I love blogging.
So, from various sources [...]