Inaugural inductees will be honored at banquet March 28

Staff Report

Ten athletes and coaches will be inducted into the South Panola High School Sports Hall of Fame inaugural class and honored with a banquet Saturday, March 28, at South Panola High School’s Mall at 6 p.m.

Tickets, $30, will be available through March 1 from Susan Jeffcoat at First Security Bank’s main office on Eureka Street, Mettesave Drugs on Hwy. 6 (278) East, both in Batesville, or mail to George Carlson, P.O. Box 749, Batesville, MS 38606. Tables are also being pre-sold.

Four former coaches are being inducted, with two being former S.P. student athletes, along with several other former S.P. athletes to be honored.

Honorees include coaches Darrell Arnold and Pete Robertson and the late coaches Bennie Abson and Robert Lightsey.

Other inductees and their sport include Whitney Kiihnl, softball; Chris McMinn, baseball; Detris Whitten, track and field; Deshea Townsend, football; Brenda Miles Gray, basketball and Jason Chrestman, football.

A Community Service Award will also be awarded to longtime Batesville physician Dr. Deck Stone for his decades of service to South Panola athletics.

Inductees were chosen from nominations opened to the public during 2019. Retired Supreme Court Justice and voice of the SP Football Tigers George Carlson, who serves as chairman of the Hall of Fame Committee, said there were many, many other nominees deserving of the honor and agreed with other board members that those nominees will be strongly considered for nomination again with following years’ inductees.

Committee members are currently selling advertising space for the banquet program as well as tables and individual tickets at the above locations.

Inductees’ individual biographies will be featured in following issues of this publication leading up to the March 28 banquet.