West Lowndes High School football coach Anthony King is going to miss the phone calls this fall.
King is coaching at his alma mater, almost 30 years after playing for legendary West Lownes coach Felix Wicks.
Wicks passed away last Sunday. His funeral was held Saturday.
“He was our biggest supporter,” King said. “He was in the fan club. He never missed a game. He would always call me after the game and tell me what I did right and what I did wrong. I was always learning from him even after playing for him so long ago. I am going to miss those calls.”
Even though times have changed, King still sees a lot of his former coach in what he does today.
Wicks was the head football coach at West Lowndes (and former Motley High School) from 1979 to 1999.
“There is a lot of what we do today from him,” King said. “The main thing was hard work and discipline. He wasn’t going to let you play around. There wasn’t a minute not spent in trying to get better.
Bobby Berry remembers coaching against Wicks when was Berry coached at B.L. Moor High School. Moor later became East Oktibbeha County High School before being closed two years ago for consolidation.
In the fall of 1987, Berry began coaching defense under Wicks. The two already had a friendship. It intensified when they started working together.
“We were like brothers,” Berry said. “The funniest thing is I played offense in college (at Jackson State University) and wound up coaching defense. He played defense in college (at Mississippi Valley State University) and wound up coaching offense. I think that is why we worked so well together. We had an understanding of each other’s position, even thought we didn’t coach it.”
When hired in 1979, Wicks was pretty much a one-man coaching staff. Berry was part of the growth to a bigger staff. Essentially, West Lowndes was ready take football seriously.
“When I got there, West Lowdnes was a basketball and baseball school,” Berry said. “There was no interest in football. It was something you did to fill the time. For the first time, we really worked players year-round. (At a Class 1A school), you really need to play everything. We wanted our players to play everything, but we also wanted them to know football matters.”
King was a senior in the fall of 1987 — the first season the Berry-Wicks combination worked its magic.
“We went 9-1, it was the first winning season West Lowndes had had in football,” King said. “Got beat by Mound Bayou in the second round of the playoffs after an undefeated regular season. We didn’t give up many points at all. It was an incredible defense.”
Berry said the defensive unit gave up either 12 or 13 points this season. Several players off that team got together this week to remember their former coach and many stories were relived from that particular team.
“At a small school, you are going to have things come and go in cycles,” Berry said. “However, that was the start of several good years. We had some great years and some .500 years. I don’t know if many — if any — times West Lowndes was below .500 the rest of the way before Coach Wicks retired (in 1999).”
Berry said King’s senior class were special. The next resurgence in West Lowndes football fortunes took place with Keffer McGee in the mid 1990s. McGee died in a drowning accident in 1997 while playing at Mississippi State.
“What made it work was that Coach Wicks would listen to everybody’s ideas,” Berry said. “We could get together and swap ideas. There was no bad idea. The chemistry we had between the offense and the defense was really good. That is what made the 1987 team so special. At a small school, you have to have chemistry.”
King also adds that talent never hurts.
“Coach Wicks always said when he had talent, he won a bunch of games,” King said. “Then he would say, if he didn’t have talent, he wouldn’t win any games. It’s funny how that goes. Talent equates to success on the field.”
Berry said it took a while to convince the West Lowndes community that football didn’t necessarily have to be king but that it could at least be relevant.
“For 20-something years, it was a basketball and baseball community,” Berry said. “Our job was to change the mid-set around. What I found is that kids always enjoy winning, it doesn’t matter the history. Work hard and have a little success and you can grow any program into what you want it to be.”
Frederick McGee played with King on the 1987 team and now works under him as an assistant coach. Quarterback Eugene Brown, McGee and King helped build the foundation.
“Hard work and discipline,” King said. “Coach Wicks was like a father figure to me. He was very hard on you as a player. He would wear you out during a practice and then that night tell you how much he loved you. The one thing I know is you always executed the play the way it was drawn up or you were going to hear about it.”
These days, King is drawing up the plays and a new group of Panthers execute them each season. Wicks, a Columbus native, MVSU Hall of Fame member and Cleveland Browns signee in the American Football League, was always there in the shadows.
“I am going to miss getting the game review from him,” King said. “Sometimes, I would think we did everything right until he called.”
Scott Walters is a sports reporter for the Commercial Dispatch. He may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @dispatchscott.
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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