Tuesday afternoon on January 5th marked my first
tour stop of the year and the third overall stop during the 5th
annual MaxPreps Tour of Champions presented by the National Guard. I made my way down to South Panola High
School in Northern Mississippi. Upon arrival, I was immediately introduced to
the schools principal Dr. Dillon and Head Football Coach, Lance Pogue who
walked me down to where the Pep Rally was going to be held in the Gymnasium.
Looking up on the walls in the hallway you could see this was definitely not
the first state championship South Panola has
won, but one of many.
After a lot of hard work and preparation during the
offseason by both coaches and players, South Panola (14-1) ended up whipping
Oak Grove of Hattiesburg, 56-14, on Dec. 4, 2009 to claim the Mississippi Class
6A state championship. It marked the second time in three seasons that the
Tigers won the title and it’s the school’s eighth football championship
overall. The Tigers are a cumulative 43-2 the past three seasons. However, we
were here to celebrate South Panola’s high national ranking position. The team
was ranked #18 in the MaxPreps’ Freeman poll. The #18 national ranking is
amongst 16,000 other high schools nationwide.
As we reached the gymnasium, we were greeted by Sergeant
Daniel L Palmer of the Mississippi National Guard as well as Daryl Green from
MaxPreps. At around 8:30am, the students came piling into the enormous gym and
filled up every seat on both sides of the bleachers. As Principal Dr. Dillon
took the microphone he addressed the audience with praises for the boys and
their hard work both on the field and in the classroom. Dr. Dillon then
introduced Daryl Green from MaxPreps. Darrell spoke of the team’s success on
the field, their incredible statistics as well as their #18 national ranking.
He then went on to introduce Sergeant Daniel L. Palmer who coincidently once
played for South Panola football. Sergeant Palmer was extremely enthusiastic
about the young men’s efforts on the gridiron this year. Sergeant Palmer also
explained the talents off the field like, dedication, hard work, and loyalty to
their teammates, coaches, and school. He then went on to award Coach Pogue with
National Guard National Ranking Trophy. Coach Pogue called down the players who
were all wearing their Tour of Champions customized t-shirts. The student’s
faculty, media and local supporters in the crowd gave the boys a round of
applause.
The band began to play and the boys all gathered together
and Sergeant Palmer rose up their pointer fingers, and took the final photo
with the trophy they worked so hard to achieve.
