STARKVILLE — Mimi Milling wasn”t looking to leave her building project as Starkville High School”s fast-pitch softball coach, but family comes first.
The third-year coach recently accepted a job to teach math at Northeast Lauderdale High, a move that will see her teach in the same district as her husband, Dane, who will teach at West Lauderdale High.
Milling also will be an assistant softball coach to Northeast Lauderdale coach Steve Nelson.
“I love my place in Starkville, and I love being a head coach, but we had to make this move,” Milling said. “I had other offers to teach at Meridian and at Northeast Middle School, too. But when we started this, we wanted to be at the same school, at best, the same school district. It just worked out that way.”
Milling, a 2002 Starkville High graduate and former player at Itawamba Community College, took over the SHS fast-pitch program in 2009. She guided the team to six wins in 2010 and a 5-17 record last season.
Though the win totals were modest, the Lady Yellow Jackets” success under Milling was their most since she was a player.
Two of Milling”s former players, Tamara Bell and Shareeda Brown, received college scholarships to East Mississippi C.C. and Meridian C.C., respectively.
She experienced drastic roster turnover each year, both from graduation and player transfers.
Milling feels she has steered the program in the right direction but admits returning Starkville High softball to the playoffs will take more time.
“It”s a totally different program from when I played,” Milling said. “When I played, we lived it and breathed it. We played in the summer and competed beyond the high school season. Half these kids when they leave don”t play until slow pitch in the fall. It was just different. I”m not saying they don”t want it as bad, but they”re not as involved as we were.
“The thing I feel bad about is they never got to experience the level of success they deserved for working as hard as they did. I think it would have helped them want it more.”
Realistically, the program should post a .500 record or better against competition from Classes 1A through 3A, Milling said. The majority of the team”s wins during her tenure have come against teams from the 1A and 2A ranks.
Milling believes the program”s struggles begin at the youth level, and she”d like to see Starkville Parks and Recreation continue to build its system into a top-notch “feeder program.”
“Me and (SHS Athletics Director) Dr. (Stan) Miller talked right before I left Thursday and I”m confident he”ll continue to get our feeder program going strong,” Milling said. “It”s a tough job when girls are starting from scratch each year. It was mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausting at times. For me to put everything I had into it, it wasn”t enough because they didn”t go as far as they should. It”s nothing I could have conquered within another year. It”s going to take more time.”
Miller could not be reached Tuesday night, and it isn”t known who will replace Milling or if he has a timetable for naming a replacement.
Milling said Chelsea Raines, her summer ball assistant and a former player at Mississippi State, would have been a great candidate for the job because of how the players respond to her teaching. However, she is still working on her degree.
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