Edwards will embark on his new career as a head coach at Durant High School as he and his family prepares for the move.

Durant is close to Kosciusko in Holmes County.

"We are going to miss Coach E very much," said Chiniqual Mitchell, a student at South Panola. "We are not happy he’s leaving."

"He is real, 100, 100," said Nikita Chapman.

Brittany Wiley describes Edwards as a "real nice, gentle person."

"He’s a nice person to be around," said Nicholas Parker.

While at South Panola, Edwards was the wide receiver, defensive back coach. He said Durant had been contacting him to come there for the last few years.

"I kept turning them down," Edwards said. "Coach (Ricky) Woods did a good job of keeping us happy. It’s a great opportunity."

Edwards is replacing Johnny Daves who stepped down after a 7-4 season and not making the playoffs.

After realignment this year, Durant is in Region 3-1A with 10 other teams. All the games last season were district except one in Region 2-1A.

"All of that is irrelevant to us now," Edwards said. "We are just worried about the next one."

The first problem facing Edwards in his new position is discipline, he said.

"We have our work cut out for us," Edwards said. He also has to hire two coaches. One coach is already there, but Edwards said he does not know what that coach’s intentions are at this time.

Edwards said he is walking into a "tense" situation, relative to the one at South Panola in 2002 when the new coaching regime came to town.

"People there love football like the people here in Batesville," Edwards said. "They are kind of disappointed. It will be a challenge to get the things done that I want to get done."

Edwards, 37, graduated from Mississippi State in 1991 and served as a graduate assistant. Then he went on to coach at Cherokee High School in Cherokee, Ala., Sanford University, Wayne County High School for four years, Philadelphia High School and then Louisville High School for one year each before coming to South Panola to be on Woods’ coaching staff in 2002.

"I just want everyone to know that I will miss the people here," Edwards said. He and his wife Eunice and children are still looking for a place to live in Durant.

"We have to find something because we’re moving this weekend," Edwards said laughing.

The South Panola Lady Tigers’ fastpitch softball team remains No. 5 in the state for the second straight week, according to the Thursday poll in The Clarion Ledger.

In regular season play Tuesday, the Lady Tigers (21-3 overall, 3-1 district) defeated Grenada 15-3. The only regular season and district loss was on March 22 to Horn Lake (16-3 overall, 2-0 district), ranked No. 7 in the state.

The Lady Tigers will finish up a three-week road schedule in the Southaven Tournament this weekend. When they return home Thursday to host Southaven, this will be one of the biggest games of the season.

Southaven and South Panola will be playing for a playoff spot. South Panola defeated Southaven earlier, 2-0, in regular season play.

If South Panola defeats Southaven, the Lady Tigers would be in second place and have a chance to take first place from Horn Lake April 10. Horn Lake has defeated Southaven 5-0 and South Panola 1-0.

"Our confidence should be there for sure," said Lady Tiger head coach Ashleigh Hicks. "When they (Southaven) beat us in the Meridian tournament, Whitney (Kiihnl) had a hurt wrist."

In the meantime, the Lady Tigers will participate in the second annual Morris Hunter Invitational Softball Tournament. Hunter was the Southaven softball coach at his death in October of 2005.

Twenty-six teams from across Mississippi will be participating in five pools.

South Panola is in Pool E which will play on fields 2, 5 and 7 at the Greenbook Softball Complex in Southaven. All South Panola games will be on field 2.

At 4 p.m. Friday, South Panola will play Covington, Tenn. At 7 p.m. South Panola will play Mooreville. Saturday morning at 11:30 the Lady Tigers will face Marion, Ark. and at 4 p.m. SBEC.

vs. Grenada
The Lady Tigers scored seven runs in each of the first and seventh innings to defeat Grenada 15-3 for the second time this season Tuesday, March 27.

Grenada scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning, but the Lady Tigers held them off.

Kiihnl pitched a six-inning no-hitter for her 21st win, striking out 16, allowing two runs and two walks.

Kenzi Reed came in for relief in the seventh inning and walked two and allowed one run.

Getting hits were Kasey Kelsay, Casi Brooks and Leann Parrish with three hits each.

Kelsay had two RBIs (run battled in) and Brooks hit one double and had four RBIs. Parrish had two triples and three RBIs.

Kiihnl, Haylei Plummer and Lindsey Thaggard had two hits each. Plummer had two RBIs, while Kiihnl and Thaggard had one each.

Other hitters include Bethany Moore, Hillari Plummer and Victoria Alford with one hit each. Moore and Alford each had a RBI.

South Panola had 17 hits in the game and committed six errors. Grenada committed one error.

The teams played in Southaven Wednesday night because Tuesday’s game was rained out. Southhaven won 10-0.

The junior varsity Tigers battled Southaven to a 7-7 tie. The Tigers led going into the 4th and final inning but Southaven scored several times in the final frame ending the game in a tie.

Tomorrow, the Tigers will travel to Senatobia for games at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

In a venue change, South Panola will host Hernando at 5 p.m. in a varsity game only.

Next week the varsity Tigers will travel to Desoto County to participate in the Desoto County Tournament. Thursday the Tigers will play Jackson County, Mo. at 5:30 p.m. at Horn Lake. On Friday the Tigers will play Desoto Central at 11 a.m. at Desoto Central. Following the 11 a.m. contest the Tigers will play Farmington, Mo. at 1:30 p.m.

Grant Goforth remains undefeated on the season in No. 1 boys singles with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Matthew Briscoe. The No. 1 girls doubles team of Ashley Roberson and Marlee Goforth also remains undefeated with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Megan McClusky and Mallory Davis.

The No. 1 girls singles match between South Panola’s Regina Rehorovska and Virginia Diaz ended in a tie due to rain. Rehorovska won the first game 6-1, but was down 5-6 when the game was called.

Matthew Dooley and Roy Ruiz lost 0-6, 0-6 in boys doubles to Hunter Maples and Cody Pruitt. Blake Goodwin and Alyssa Boren lost in mixed doubles 6-4, 1-6, 3-6 to Brad Davis and Lenka Lasakora.

In junior varsity play, J.P. Wallace and Jonathon Ware lost 5-8 to Barron Pruitt and Kyle Sherman.

Nikki Reinemann and Jordan Williams lost in girls doubles to Hannah Barkley and Mallory Daniels.

The Tiger tennis team played at Southaven yesterday but the scores were not available at press time.

Monday, the Tigers will be in Olive Branch for a district match at 4 p.m. Thursday, they will be home to host Horn Lake in district action at 4 p.m.

The Green Wave (5-4 overall 4-1 district) came from behind to win 11-4 in seven innings.

Tunica led 3-1 going into the third inning.

Dakota Mabry hit a three-run homerun in the bottom of the fifth inning to give the Green Waves a 10-3 lead.

Hitting back-to-back double RBIs (run batted in) were Jim Tom Copeland and Jon Michael Ware. Copeland drove home Geri Lamm and Ware drove home Copeland.

On the mound for the Green Waves was Evan West who pitched the complete game.

In earlier action, North Delta defeated district foe Marvell Thursday, March 22, 12-6. On Friday, March 23, the Green Waves lost to non-conference foe Marshall 11-5.

North Delta is home tonight to host Lee Academy of Clarksdale in non-district action at 4 and 6 p.m. Saturday, the junior varsity team will play non-district games against Magnolia Heights in Senatobia at 3 and 5 p.m.

The Green Waves will take a week off and be back in action Tuesday, April 10 in Desoto, Ark. for a district game.

I think we have had this conversation before but because of my brother, Master, and co-worker Rick, I need to revisit the topic.

Since this is in the newspaper, that means it is set in stone.

The topic is regarding where loyalties lie in postseason playoff action.

Granted, throughout the regular season of any sport you are allowed to cheer and root for whomever you so please, as long as it is any Panola county team and Mississippi State. No, just kidding about the Mississippi State thing.

After the regular season concludes and your favorite team is not in the playoffs, you go to the next Mississippi team, like in the NIT. You could cheer for both Ole Miss and Miss. State because they were playing in different divisions, so you would have been safe. In the NCAA you had to cheer for Jackson State over Florida, but we will soon get to cheering for Florida.

Southern Mississippi, Miss. Valley, Alcorn and the rest of the state teams are included who you cheer for first.

Next, you go to the SEC or CUSA conference when the Mississippi teams are out of the picture. That includes Memphis which is closer than anyone, but Ole Miss to Batesville.

It does not matter if the Memphis basketball teams has not played all the tough, high-ranking teams. You just cheer for Memphis. Now, it is written in stone to forever have a place in the history books.

When Memphis, Vanderbilt and Tennessee got put out of the NCAA, now we turn our heads to Florida. You did it for football when they did not have a "chance" against Ohio State for the national championship. You know you did not want the northerners to win.

Well, Florida is our last hope this weekend as they take on UCLA and the winner makes it to the final round. Could there be another Ohio State/Florida matchup in the making?

We’ll see. But otherwise, until they are out, cheer for the home team. That means SEC.

Entry fee is $15 per person which includes hors d’oeuvres. Attire is casual for the evening.

A post meeting party will be held at Tavern on the Square, Downtown Batesville.

For more information, call Tom Womble at
563-8736, womble@panola.com or Gina Kilgore at 563-2210, gpkilgore@yahoo.com.

He made the hole-in-one on hole 12 using a 6-iron for 163 yards.