2016 Sports Year in Review

By Ike House
2016 was an interesting year especially in sports. With Peyton Manning retiring with his second Superbowl ring or even Villanova winning the NCAA men’s basketball tournament on the final shot of the game.
The year started off with a big topic in the NFL ranks with Deshea Townsend being hired by the Tennessee Titans as the defensive back coach after a successful run a Mississippi State. There were also a lot of signees in the county that went all year.
Football had 20 signees in Feburary which was the most that ever signed with one class. The biggest signees of the class were Justin Connor going to Ole Miss, Demetrius Market signing with Southern Miss. and B.J. Maxon signing to Jackson State. There were also 17 junior college signees from all three schools.
Even after the season some of the junior college players came back and signed to continue their careers. Dqmarcus Shaw signed to play at East Carolina, Desmond Shegog signed to West Alabama, Demetrius Gleaton signed to Nicholls State and Matt Davis signed with Alcorn.
Baseball, softball and basketball also had their share of signees. Mason Wilkerson, Myles Durham, Amber Helms, Rebekah Garner, Zach hopper, Chase Durham, Kyle Weaver and Adam Cook rounded out the players continuing their careers on the diamond. On the court Shaquanta Pettis, Jasmine Wright, R.J. Scott, Andre Gleaton and Howard Smothers signed to keep playing the next level.
Another big spotlight this year was North Delta Jr. High winning district after being led by Ally Alford. Sticking with North Delta the Lady Green Wave claimed the District 1-AAA runner trophy back in Feburary. After after that game Ally Alford Ginger Stephens and Sarah Honson was named to the All-Tournament team.
South Panola cheerleaders were crowned national champs after their showing in Orlando this year.  They then turned around and were named the MHSAA 6A large state cheer champions. Also on the national level South Panola baseball had some bright spots this year knocking off nationally ranked Lake Cormorant by a final of 5-3.
One of the most talked about topics in the county and maybe the northern section of the state was the coaching carousel going on in the county. Back in February North Panola fired Derek King the winningest coach in North Panola football in recent history besides Clifton Davis Jr.
A few months later they hired Carl Diffee, King’s offensive coordinator and assistant coach. He later led the Cougars on a seven game win streak and a 10 win season with an exit in the second round.
But that may not be the biggest football story with South Panola head coach Lance Pogue announcing his retirement.  After he took the Tigers to five state championships and a national championship.
Even though the Tigers did not finish how they wanted to with a first round exit Christmas was brought in early to Tiger fans when

Ricky Woods announced that he was returning to coach the Tigers once again after being named to the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.
The last school in the county North Delta had an up and down season under head coach Brandon Ciaramitaro and after a first round loss, Ciaramitaro announced that he was resigning. The Green Wave have yet name a replacement.
Outside of football, South Panola fastpitch and North Delta fastpitch took a trip to state but both fell short after a big season for both teams. Also North Delta two tracksters to state this year along with four combined from North Panola and South Panola.
North Delta also had their golf team win North State. On the college level Chris Townsend was selected as Central Arkansas’s Student-Athlete of the Month and he was named to the  All-Southland Conference baseball team.
In the professional level Nick Brassell was named the Indoor Football Special Teams Player of the Week. Ricky Hunt also went professional as he signed with the Central Florida Jags.
Over the summer the in the JP Hudson baseball league, JV Systems won the 10U softball dogtag division. Batesville Dental won the 6U softball championship. Whitten won the 12U softball championship, Redmed won the 8U softball championship and Dominos won the 7-8 baseball age group champions.
Ball Junkies won the 6U softball championship, Batesville Believas took first in 12U and Batesville Crush won 8U championship in the Dizzy Dean tournament. In the American Legion tournament the Royals won the title after having rough regular season.
2016 was filled with a lot of sports and exciting moments. Sport fans in Panola county are hoping for another big year with every sport.