Dora (Strickland) Vaughan has been blessed to have influences on her life that have kept her on the right track.
Whether it was Nancy or Cecil Vaughan or Wayne Byrd at New Hope High School or her sister, Donna West, Strickland Vaughan has plenty of mentors, coaches, family members, and friends who helped instill a work ethic in her that paved the way for her to continue her basketball career at East Mississippi Junior College, and then at South Alabama.
If it wasn’t for all of those people, Strickland Vaughan isn’t sure she would have wound up spending more than 30 years as an educator and being the same kind of influence on the lives of countless students as a second-grade teacher in Lowndes County.
“I just work hard and do what I am supposed to do,” Strickland Vaughan said. “That is what I tell my three children, just do what you’re supposed to do.”
Strickland Vaughan established that credo as a basketball standout at EMJC, where she ranked as the team’s scoring leader and team captain both seasons before taking her talents to Mobile, Ala., to play at South Alabama. She led USA in scoring both years as was a two-time team captain before moving on to become a second-grade teacher at New Hope School. Strickland Vaughan spent 35 years there before she retired and then moved to Immanuel Christian School to continue her teaching career.
This weekend, Strickland Vaughan’s accomplishments at EMJC will be recognized when she and seven others will be inducted into East Mississippi Community College’s Sports Hall of Fame.
Tonight, the inductees will be honored with a reception and banquet at the F.R. Young Student Union. On Saturday afternoon, the men and women will be honored at halftime of the EMCC football team’s Homecoming game against Coahoma C.C. at Sullivan-Windham Field. This year’s class also includes: Nolan Atkins (Sweet Water, Ala.), Allen Bruton (Tupelo), the late Steve Hull (Collinsville), Dick McSpadden (Royston, Ga.), Jim Murray (Montpelier), Fred Stoops (Hendersonville, Tenn.), and Robert Temkovits (Brooksville).
“I am so grateful and so honored,” Strickland Vaughan said. “Going to Scooba was a wonderful experience to me. I had never been away from home, so it helped me get my degree. I would not have gotten my degree (without going to EMJC) because I did not have the money. It was a stepping stone to go to the University of South Alabama.”
Strickland Vaughan said she was a “scrappy” player when she played for New Hope High and EMJC. She credits a long list of people, including Ronnie Smith, her eighth-grade basketball coach at New Hope, and Byrd, the varsity girl basketball coach, for helping her to polish her skills. She also thanked EMJC coach Clois Cheatham for keeping her on the right path to play basketball at a four-year school.
But Vaughan Strickland has just as much praise for her mother in law, Nancy Vaughan, and her father in law, Cecil Vaughan, who was principal at New Hope High when she was a student there. She said Nancy Vaughan was an educator who was a big influence on a lot she has done in her life. She also credits her parents, Elsie B. Strickland, and her father, Amos Strickland, for teaching her the meaning of hard work and he importance of setting her goals high.
Hard work pays off,” Strickland Vaughan said. “I set my goals high and I strived to reach them. I do that today. I do that every day.”
Strickland Vaughan never imagined she would be recognized for her athletic achievements. She said she always considered herself a “team player” who never knew how many points she scored. She said it was easy to stay focused on winning because she always tried to do what she was supposed to do.
Strickland Vaughan also thanked her sister, Donna West, who also played basketball in high school, for practicing the sport with her in the pasture where they grew up. She is still applying those lessons today in her second stint as a teacher and at the YMCA after-school children’s program for kindergartners through fifth-graders at the New Hope School.
“If it hadn’t been for my coaches and these mentors I might not have finished school,” Strickland Vaughan said. “Life was hard for me. There were five of us kids, but because of these coaches and mentors I had a reason. I tell coaches all of the time don’t run them off because they just need some extra attention, and I got that. Because of that, I taught for 37 years and probably have touched many, many lives.”
EMCC also will honor its Alumnus of the Year recipient, James “Cubby” Harris, of Starkville, and Distinguished Service Award winner, Chip Wells, originally of Columbus, this weekend in Scooba. Harris and Wells will be honored at 11:15 a.m. in an alumni/friends luncheon at the F.R. Young Student Union on the Scooba campus. They also will be recognized at halftime of the football game.
For additional information about EMCC’s 2013 Homecoming Weekend festivities on the Scooba campus, visit either the school’s main website at www.eastms.edu or athletics website at www.EMCCAthletics.com.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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