They squeaked by Jackson Co., Mo., 4-3 on Thursday. South Panola downed DeSoto Central 7-3 Friday but lost to Farmington, Mo. 10-8 in the final game.

Against Jackson County, David Renfroe got the win for the Tigers on the mound. He is 4-3 for the season.

The Tigers had five hits and two errors. Jackson County had five hits and three errors.

Against Desoto Central, Ethan Bright (4-0) picked up the win on the mound. The Tigers had five hits and committed no errors. DeSoto Central was held to three hits and also committed no errors.

Renfroe had four hits in the game including a double. Bright hit a triple.

Against Farmington, Colton Ales took the loss for the Tigers.

Renfroe and Heath Bolton both had three hits on the day including a double each. Bolton also had a homerun. Bright had two hits.

The Tigers will play district foe Olive Branch in two games this week in order to vie for a playoff position.

The Tigers have already lost to Olive Branch once this season. Tonight they will host Olive Branch in district action following the junior varsity game which begins at 5 p.m.

Friday, the Tigers will be in Olive Branch to close out the district season at 5 p.m.

Saturday, the Tigers will close out the regular season hosting Water Valley in games at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

"Yes, I’m surprised about this honor," Howard said. "I’m a first. When you think of how long the junior college system has been around and all the sports teams they had, it is amazing."

Howard said people are always calling him and playing pranks on him so he thought the call about the honor was a joke.

"I really thought this was a joke and played along with the person who called me," Howard said. "Finally, I said, ‘Who are you really?’ because his voice sounded kind of familiar."

The Mississippi Community/ Junior College Sports Hall of Fame (SHF) was confirmed and approved by the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) during its annual athletic meeting held recently.

Howard was a 1979 graduate of Holmes Community College.

"Goodman native, Charlie Howard, ’79, immediately comes to mind when any conversation about great Bulldog basketball players comes up," a press release stated. "Natural athletic ability combined with a strong drive to excel were the ingredients that made Howard from high school to college the outstanding player he was."

A three-sport athlete in high school, Howard played basketball, ran track and quarterbacked his Williams-Sullivan High School; but it was in basketball and track that he made All-State his junior and senior years as a prepster.

From Williams-Sullivan he went on to Holmes in 1977. During his two years on the floor of the Frank B. Branch Coliseum, he earned accolades as leading scorer two years; 1978-1979 Mississippi Junior College Player of the Year and All-Region XXIII, his sophomore year.

Howard led the nation in scoring in his sophomore year.

In 1979 Howard transferred to Arkansas College in Batesville, Ark., to get his last two years of post secondary academic training. In 1981, while at the senior institution, he was selected NAIA All American and Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference Player of the Year.

Upon graduation from Arkansas College, Howard entered the ranks of high school coaches in order to remain close to basketball. After a stint as an assistant at Arkansas College in 1984-85, he became the head basketball coach and taught at Beebe High School in Beebe, Ark. From there it was on to head coaching chores at Forrest City High School in the city of the same name.

In 1987, the Holmes alumnus assumed the position of head basketball coach at Mabelvale Junior High School in Little Rock, Ark. In 1992, he assumed the same duties at Pulaski Academy, also in Little Rock. In 1994, he became head basketball coach at South Panola High School in Batesville. He remained there until the 2002 season when he coached at Grenada High School for a few seasons. He returned to South Panola in 2004, where he remains today.

Along with the HCC membership, he was also placed into the Arkansas College Sports Hall of Fame in 1990.

At South Panola, Howard led the 1997 boys basketball team to the north state tournament championship.

He left and went to Pearl High School and then returned to South Panola to coach the girls for three years. The last two years the girls played for north state.

Then in 2006, the boys won the district championship and played in the north state tournament.

Dr. Howell Garner, president of Copiah-Lincoln Community College, vice-chair of the MACJC, and coordinator of the SHF, expressed the importance of establishing the organization.

"The Mississippi Community and Junior College Sports Hall of Fame was conceived in the interest of recognizing coaches and athletes who have coached and/or played in one or more of Mississippi’s public community colleges," said Dr. Garner. "Acknowledging the fact that there have been many outstanding athletes who have contributed greatly to the successful sports programs throughout the two-year college system, the MACJC wishes to begin a program of recognition whereby individuals may be recognized and honored for their contributions to the tremendous success of community college sports in Mississippi.

"What we hope to accomplish is that the many athletes who have been truly outstanding through the years will be recognized beyond their individual institutions," he added. "You would be surprised how many of those who are being recognized remember the players from other schools that are also being recognized. It will be a great reunion of athletes who really know many of the other athletes in the same room, although they will have been played at 15 different colleges!"

Eligibility will be based on the following criteria:

1. In order to be inducted into the organization, an athlete must have played two seasons in one or more sports, and must have been selected as a member of that institution’s Sports Hall of Fame prior to nomination to be inducted into the SHF.
    
2. For a coach to be inducted, he or she has to have coached one or more sports at one or more of the community/junior colleges for a minimum of 10 years in Mississippi, and must have been selected as a member of the Sports Hall of Fame at a Mississippi community/junior college prior to nomination to be inducted into the SHF.

According to Dr. Garner, the number of inductees will vary.

"The first class of inductees will be composed of no more than three athletes and/or coaches from each institution for a total of no more than forty-five (45) inductees," says Dr. Garner. "The second class will be composed of no more than two athletes and/or coaches from each institution for a total of no more than thirty inductees (30). And ten (10) individuals will be recognized each year thereafter.

In addition, the institutions will have the option to name one athlete posthumously in each of the first two years. The nominees from each institution for these two years will be automatically approved as members of the organization, and the first class shall be known as ‘charter members’. Thereafter, each institution may have one nominee each year."

There were approximately 250 competitors competing in kata, sparring and weapons events.

Trophy winners from Batesville are Robert Raymond, third-sparring; J.D. Mills, first-sparring; Kevin Nendza, third-forms and sparring; Braliegh Sanders, third-forms and sparring.

Trophy winners from Quitman County include Michael Cook, first-forms, second-weapons and third-sparring; Lacambrise Webb, first-forms, second-sparring; Johnny Webb, third-forms and sparring; Gabriel Lloyd, second-sparring; Calvin Flowers Jr., first-forms, third-sparring; Velma Webb, first-forms and sparring; Antonio Hoskins, first-forms and sparring; Jawon Allen, second-sparring; and Russell Furr, first-forms and sparring.

Michael Cook of Marks is the State Grand Champion in the Junior Men’s Red Belt Category for the Fall Series of the SMAC Championships.

The Batesville Karate Club is sponsored by the City of Batesville Parks and Recreation Commission and is instructed by Grantham’s Martial Arts, Inc. Quitman County Martial Arts Inc.’s Chief instructor is Dawayne Lloyd.

For more information contact W.A. Grantham at 563-7273 or Dawayne Lloyd Lloyd at 654-0814.

Sabrina Townsend clung hard to the fly ball to right field she caught for the third out to end the game with Southaven Thursday night 2-0.

The South Panola Lady Tigers (23-4 overall, 4-1 district) played a hard seven innings to beat and oust the Southaven Lady Chargers from playoff contention. Playing before a crowd of approximately 230 fans, the Lady Tigers played with intensity and focus.

In the top of the seventh inning, Southaven had loaded the bases with no outs. The first batter was tagged out on a throw from second baseman Kasey Kelsay to catcher Casi Brooks. Pitcher Whitney Kiihnl had struck out a batter for the first out and the runner tried to steal home.

With two outs and the bases loaded, the last batter hit a high ball to right where right fielder Townsend snagged it to end the game.

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fifth inning when designated hitter Bethany Moore singled to left on a 0-1 pitch. Latara Farrell entered as pinch-runner and got to second on a passed ball. She made it to third on another passed ball by Southaven.

Shortstop Hillari Plummer bunted to get on base, stole second and got to third on a passed ball.

Before Plummer got to third, Farrell turned up the speed and got home to score on a passed ball, breaking the stalemate.

Center fielder Leann Parrish walked to base and got to second and third on passed balls.

Plummer was put out trying to steal home.

Kiihnl singled and drove home Parrish for the second run.

In the second inning, first baseman Lindsey Thaggard singled. Kelsay got on base on a fielder’s choice in the third inning.

Kiihnl struck out 18 batters, allowed four hits and walked two.

The celebration of this win will be shortlived as the Lady Tigers, ranked No. 6 in the state polls behind Horn Lake this week, will have to take on the Horn Lake Lady Eagles when school resumes today.

The Lady Tigers will host Horn Lake for the No. 1 spot in the district, following the junior varsity game at 5 p.m.

Thursday another big non-district game is on the horizon with Hernando. This is the final regular season home game which begins at 5 p.m. with the junior varsity game.

Playoffs
First round of playoffs will be played Friday, April 14 and Tuesday, April 17. If South Panola defeats Horn Lake, the Lady Tigers will host the first round against Brandon or Clinton. If the Lady Tigers place second in the district, they will be on the road to play one of those two teams in the first round.

In the playoff rounds, the teams have to win the best two of three games to continue.

JV
The Jr. Varsity Lady Tigers shutout Southaven 4-0 behind the pitching of Kenzi Reed. Townsend hit a three-run homer in the second inning to score Megan Holland and Cheslea Austin.

Townsend scored the only run in the first inning.

The Batesville Panthers and the Batesville Steelers of the Boys and Girls Club 7- and 8-year-old teams will practice tonight .

Wednesday, the 9- and 10-year-old teams will practice. Thursday, the 11-and 12-year-old teams will practice.

Those who did not sign up March 24 are welcomed to sign up at one of these practice times, according to coach and coordinator Fred Hentz. So far approximately 90 players have signed up.

There is a $50 sign-up and registration fee. Players need to bring or wear shorts, t-shirts and cleats.

Head coach for the 7-8 year olds is Tavares "Little Joe" Lee. For more information call him at 934-4013.

Head coach for the 9-10 year olds is Roosevelt Jones. Call him at 609-6754.

Head coach for the 11-12 year olds is Hentz and he may be reached at 578-2012 or call Eric Bibbs at 578-3114.

Interested players may also call Dennis Hoskins at the Boys and Girls Club at 578-7309.

I have often said that the gun in hand is usually an excuse to go to the woods and spend time observing other things than the game for which the season is open.

Once during a dry spring, I was blinded in at the base of a huge pecan tree that grew on a ridge of mainly sycamores. Walking in dry sycamore leaves is like stomping through ankle-deep Corn Flakes!

I had been sitting there calling since before the dew dried off, and had seen nothing, but now I heard leaves rustle behind me. There was a slight pause, then whatever it was started coming closer in a hurry! If this was a gobbler, he was excited about the hen behind the pecan tree.

I gripped SouthPow, my left-handed Remington 870 shotgun, and prepared to swing quickly to my right, for the hurried leaf-rustling was rapidly veering to that side. When I judged it to be almost touching distance, I made my move, and swung the barrel sideways to shoot the love-mad turkey gobbler.

It wasn’t a turkey gobbler. One of the largest copperheads I have ever seen came zipping by my blind, traveling as fast as I’ve ever seen a snake move! He slithered ? no, nothing can slither that fast! He sprinted ? no, sprinters have legs. He sped ? sounds right ? by me without slowing down, and I started to shoot, since I’ve been struck by a copperhead and crave revenge eternally.

But then I wondered, "What the heck could be chasing a copperhead that big?!" I jumped to my feet, prepared to fire at whatever had panicked the serpent, but there was nothing behind him. I left that spot and moved a quarter-mile down the ridge, just to be safe.

During a high-water spring when much of the island was flooded, I was sitting close to a canebrake and caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. Three white gobbler heads were moving quickly in single file, perfect formation, toward the Rim, not paying a speck of attention to my calls.

A few moments later, a big bobcat came bounding behind them, and seconds afterward, I heard the gobblers flush from the high bank and fly out over the water. The bobcat came moseying back by the blind with an almost-human disgusted expression on its face.

I was sitting in knee-high bull nettle on a hogback at sunup and was just fixing to make my first call, when I heard scratching. I glanced that direction to see a mother squirrel coming down a hackberry trunk with a tiny kit in her mouth.

She loped by in front of me and scampered up a sweetgum about fifty yards away, where she deposited her baby in a snagged-off crotch, then turned around and ran back to the hackberry. She transferred four little ones during the next hour, and I never even made a call for my supposed quarry, a turkey gobbler.

Big Robert didn’t show up at the Ghost (our Jeep) one morning when we were turkey hunting back behind the old Still Tank, so I eased down into the woods to see was he okay. He was sitting on a log, and beckoned me to join him quietly.

I tiptoed to the log, and he indicated a box elder limb twenty yards away. Two raccoons were engaged in a long slow noon-hour love-making session, and though we watched in awe, we both confessed later to feeling like peeping toms!
Betsy was in my deer stand which sat at the juncture of two old logging roads. Early that morning, a female bobcat came strolling along, stopped at the intersection, spent a half hour licking and cleaning herself just like a housecat, then curled up and went to sleep, not ten yards from Betsy. When I asked her if she’d seen any deer than morning, she curtly replied, "I wasn’t looking for any deer!"

I first knew my son Adam had matured as an outdoorsman when he came in one morning obviously bursting with excitement, but hadn’t seen a turkey.

Instead, as soon as he was close enough to hear, he exclaimed, "Daddy, I saw a flying squirrel!"

He had spent the whole morning watching the antics of a pair of flying squirrels putting on a show, and had never even made a turkey call.

How many people go to the woods, but never open their eyes to truly see what’s there for them, and are disappointed if they don’t get a shot?

That ain’t what hunting is all about. For most of us, the gun in hand is merely an excuse to be in the woods!