SCOOBA — When Dr. Rick Young took over as president at East Mississippi Community College in 2004, he had a long-range plan for athletics.
It is a safe bet that the school’s success far exceeded his best-laid plans.
“I have never met anyone with a vision like Dr. Young,” EMCC eighth-year football coach Buddy Stephens said. “Dr. Young always had every answer to every question. He had an answer to a problem before you saw it coming. He was not one or two steps ahead, he was on another block.”
EMCC again began this season as the nation’s top-ranked football team in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) rankings. With a 69-20 victory against Southwest Mississippi C.C. on Thursday, EMCC ran its three-season cumulative winning streak to 25 games — one shy of matching the national record set by Blinn College (Texas) from 1995-97.
While EMCC always has enjoyed success under Stephens, the turning point under his watch came in 2011, when EMCC won the first of three NJCAA national championships. The 2011 season will go down in history as the most important in EMCC athletics, thanks in large part to what offensive coordinator Marcus Wood likes to call “the perfect storm.”
“The 2011 season is when it all took place,” Wood, the offensive coordinator at EMCC for eight seasons, said. “There were things that came together that were indescribable. It was a very big year for junior college football in this state. Whoever won the state championship that year was going to receive an enormous reward. It all fell into place for us. We have taken full advantage of it.”
Looking to move up
The EMCC program spent a large stretch of two decades at the bottom of the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) standings prior to Stephens’ arrival. The team had flashes of success under Tom Goode, but the success couldn’t be sustained. Young’s first hire was the feisty Stephens, who had played and coached in the junior college system for two decades.
“There were a lot of things to like about Buddy,” Young said. “He had a plan. He had the determination of being the best. Basically, he said if (the administration) will get on board and help, I can get you there. Athletics are important. It brings name-brand recognition to your school. However, it is not about being the best in athletics. It is about being the best in everything.”
Young’s long-range plan for facility upgrades to the campus was unveiled in 2006. It included building a state-of-the-art 5,000-seat football stadium at a cost of $4.7 million. Despite a new concession stand, gated entrance, and renovated locker rooms, the former facility was arguably the worst in the association.
When the new Sullivan-Windham Field opened in 2011, the Lions went from worst in the state to the best. The new stadium included chairback seating, an artificial turf playing surface, a two-story press box with suites, new locker room areas, a concession stand, and more parking spaces.
The school did not stop there. New baseball and softball fields have recently been completed. Renovations to the basketball arena are set to begin next summer.
“We know we have the best football stadium in the nation,” said former EMCC standout Lacoltan Bester, who went on to play at Oklahoma, in a 2011 interview. “It is our home. It is our turf. You don’t see many stadiums like this playing junior college ball. It is intimidating. Most nights, the other team knows they have no chance when the lights are turned on here.”
The MACJC eliminated recruiting districts as well in 2011. For the previous 20 seasons, each of the MACJC’s 14 institutions could protect 22 student-athletes in their district. EMCC had Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Clay, Noxubee, Kemper, and Lauderdale counties as its “protected” territory. Itawamba C.C. had Monroe County in its protected area, while East Central C.C. (Winston County) and Holmes C.C. (Webster County) had rights to student-athletes in areas surrounding the Golden Triangle.
Protected players were required to attend the school that protected them or to play out of state. Since the states of Louisiana and Alabama do not play junior college football, protected players had little option outside of their local two-year school.
While MACJC schools still are limited to eight out-of-state players, any of the other 47 roster spots now can be held by a player from any school in the state of Mississippi.
“The elimination of the recruiting districts totally changed the entire landscape of football in this state,” said former Jones County Junior College coach Ray Perkins, prior to playing EMCC in the 2013 MACJC state championship game. Perkins capped a four-decade coaching career with a two-year stint at Jones. “They will have to do something to bring them back because right now it is the haves and have nots.”
Getting prep talent
Laurel High School, one of four Jones County high schools less than 10 miles from the JCJC campus, played in the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 4A state championship game in 2011. With Perkins being named JCJC coach late in the recruiting season and Jones County kids no longer required to stay home because of the decision to eliminate the recruiting districts, five members from that South State championship team at Laurel High played for EMCC against JCJC in 2013.
EMCC won, 61-24.
“We promise all of our players four things — you are going to work hard, you are going to go to class, you are going to play for championships, and you are going to have a chance to play on the next level,” Stephens said. “If you have success with a group of kids, you are going to get more kids from that school. We don’t waste our time from a recruiting standpoint. We will write, email, and call. We won’t go into the home until we know we can get that kid.
“However, if we want a kid, they are going to say Yes. We make a promise to the player and to his parents. We deliver on that promise, too. We will travel anywhere in the state to get a player we want.”
Perkins admitted JCJC wouldn’t spend time and resources recruiting north of Interstate-20 while he was head coach. In 2012 and 2013, two Northwest Mississippi C.C. coaches said their resources wouldn’t be used on a regular basis in the southern part of the state.
The ability to sign any player in the state has gone a long way toward building the empire. The ability to play in one of the nation’s best stadiums has helped, too.
EMCC is 24-1 in the five-year history of its new stadium.
Winning games
Still, the 2011 Lions had to prove it on the field.
“I was coaching at Northwest at the time, but 2011 was when the real separation started taking place,” EMCC third-year defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley said. “At the time you think it is just one special team. However, other things were falling into place. Suddenly, you had to make a huge financial commitment to football. You had to recruit differently. You had to build your program differently. You had to decide where you wanted to go. EMCC made the right decision. It always does.”
EMCC captured the school’s first MACJC state championship in football in 2009. In 2011, EMCC survived two shootouts (34-30 against Mississippi Gulf Coast C.C. and 45-42 against Northwest Mississippi) in the first three weeks en route to its first undefeated season. EMCC then beat Mississippi Gulf Coast 42-17 to win the program’s second state championship. A month later, it defeated Arizona Western College 55-47 in Yuma, Arizona, to win the program’s first national championship.
Since 2011, EMCC has won 45 of 47 games. EMCC and Mississippi Gulf Coast are the only MACJC programs with three national championships. A title this year would mean EMCC is the first in the nation to win three straight.
“As a coach you are always worried about the next game,” Stephens said. “Our goal has always been to go 1-0 each week. However, if you look back on it now, 2011 was special. It was the perfect storm. The best thing that could have ever happened was winning that championship that year.
“Can the other 13 schools in the state do this? Yes they can. A lot of schools have changed their commitment level to football. It is not showing on the field right now, but that time is coming. The gap is not as wide as you think it is. That is why we can’t stop. We can’t let up. We have to make sure this thing keeps rolling.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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