We love our Tigers. For seven years now those Tigers have given us win after win after win, losing only two games of one hundred and five.

Those two losses went to two of the highest caliber football teams and programs this great Mecca of a football state has to offer. I cannot explain in words what that really means.To be understood it must be experienced and I am proud to have been there as a student when it began and as an alumnus the night it ended. After 89 straight victories and nearly six full seasons without a stumble there is nothing to say but congratulations to South Panola.

A heartbreaking loss taken in overtime of their seventh consecutive state championship appearance brought tears to the players’ eyes and I, too, felt an ounce of their pain. It is all right to be saddened by the loss and to feel that emptiness and it is all right to give in to that for a short while.

But those boys deserve to walk proud. And they deserve for the city, county, and state to continue to be just as proud. This state has never seen a program like South Panola. That is the bottom line. Regardless of the two losses the team has done more than any other in Mississippi football history. We all owe our respect to Meridian for earning a win against SP, but tomorrow those players will not tell of how they won the state championship. No, instead they will tell of how they beat South Panola and that is a great honor for our Tigers. Each area of the community owes its respect to the team that fought to the end and finally came out just short of the mark set.

Friday night the nation’s longest winning streak came to a grinding halt. I say grinding because it truly was. It took all Meridian could offer to stop the train that had been moving for so long and there is no shame in taking a loss the way those players took theirs.

There were great plays on both sides of the ball. There were questionable calls and there were costly mistakes. But that is the truest form of football and they played every bit of it. Those Tigers poured it all out on that field and in the end there was nothing left for them to give. Nothing more should be asked of them.

I am as proud of those young men now on the losing end as I was for the 89 straight previous wins. Yes, this loss will remain a loss, but the South Panola Tigers are still the South Panola Tigers. And they are still a force to be reckoned with.

/s/Tyler Pittman