Bell eager to be one of Rebels’ 105

OXFORD — A dream has helped keep Brandon Bell’s football career alive.

There have been times in the past few years that Bell has wondered if he was going to realize a dream to play football at Ole Miss. Through all of the ups and downs, though, the former Caledonia High School and Heritage Academy standout persevered. He spent two years at East Mississippi Community College in Scooba, where he became a proficient receiver and helped the Lions win the 2013 national title.

Mott doesn’t want Ole Miss to be ‘one-hit wonder’

OXFORD — The next step of the journey starts today for Matthew Mott.

The fifth-year Ole Miss women’s soccer coach can look forward to the 2014 season confident that his master plan is paying dividends. The Rebels are coming off a single-season record for victories and their first opportunity to play host to a NCAA tournament game, which they won 9-0 against Jackson State.

Columbus gearing up for third-annual sprint triathlon

Brad Atkins is gearing up for another transition.

With less than two weeks to go before the third-annual Possum Town Triathlon, Atkins is putting the finishing touches on an event that is coming off drawing nearly 150 competitors last year. Atkins hopes to hit that target in the final home stretch — or the final transition — in the sprint to the finish line.

CLRA’s Short to retire on Dec. 31

“We” is the ideal pronoun for Roger Short.

Instead of doing his job as executive director of the Columbus-Lowndes Recreation Authority as a solitary figure, Short relished the opportunity to identify areas he could help improve the quality of life in the city of Columbus and in Lowndes County.

Ole Miss looks to make strides in Insell’s second season

OXFORD — There is no offseason when you’re building a champion.

Central Academy softball continues to battle with the state’s elite

MACON — Don’t let the fact that the Central Academy fast-pitch softball team draws from one of the smallest enrollments in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools fool you.

Time for MSU, Ole Miss to cash in on expectations

Expectations has been a buzzword in the state of Mississippi for the past month.

Whether the topic has been Mississippi State, Ole Miss, or MSU vs. Ole Miss, message boards, Twitter, and radio and television broadcasters have been in overdrive to keep up with the anticipation for what could be the state’s best college football season in a long time.

MSU women gearing up for overseas trip

STARKVILLE — “The summer is over.”

Those words came from Mississippi State women’s basketball coach Vic Schaefer shortly after he and associate head coach Johnnie Harris received a round of hugs from their players upon their return to Starkville on Tuesday night from a recruiting trip.

Columbus High’s Davis has strong showing at AAU event

Jason Davis had high hopes for Team Elite Mississippi prior to its trip to Louisville, Kentucky, for the Amateur Athletic Union Division I 11th-grade Nationals.

Walters will try to build girls basketball program at Columbus Christian Academy

Billy Thomas didn’t know Terry Walters had retired from coaching when he called him earlier this summer.

Thomas, the school board president at Columbus Christian School in Steens, called Walters to see if he would be interested in bringing his Hatley High School girls basketball team to a basketball camp in Steens. When Thomas discovered Walters no longer was coaching at Hatley High, the wheels started turning.

New Hope’s Davis excited about opportunity at South Alabama

Wells Davis admits he didn’t know anything about the South Alabama baseball program in June.

Walters, Oswalt back together to play catch

WEST POINT — Macy Walters didn’t look like someone who was playing catcher for the first time Monday.

Maybe it was muscle memory that helped the Heritage Academy junior recall when she and Kaitlyn Oswalt were in elementary school and they would play catch. Back then, Oswalt didn’t throw nearly as hard as she does now as a junior on the Heritage Academy fast-pitch softball team. But the speed or the movement of Oswalt’s arsenal didn’t appear to faze Walters, as she framed and blocked pitches and moved like a veteran behind the plate in Heritage Academy’s 8-5 victory against Oak Hill Academy in its season opener.

Pigg, McKell will lead Starkville Academy girls soccer

STARKVILLE — Anna McKell and Janiece Pigg are ready for new perspectives.

A year ago, a shoulder injury forced Pigg, a longtime goalkeeper, to the sidelines and pushed McKell, a forward, into an emergency replacement.

This season, it’s easy to read the smile on McKell’s face as a sign Pigg is healthy and ready to play goalkeeper again for the Starkville Academy girls soccer team.

Tapley excited about new season for Hebron Christian

It’s easy to recognize the excitement in Cass Tapley’s voice.

The start of a new season typically rekindles the enthusiasm and anticipation in every coach and player, but it is different for Tapley. In his second season back as coach of the Hebron Christian fast-pitch softball team, Tapley sees signs of potential in this year’s team that resemble some of the school’s best squads in recent memory.

Former Heritage Academy standout to hold 5-Tool Camp in Columbus

Dee Haynes can’t remember all of the coaches who helped him realize a career as a professional baseball player.

Gordon targets ‘launching point’ for MSU soccer

STARKVILLE — Don’t expect Aaron Gordon to use youth as an excuse this season.

Looking at a Mississippi State women’s soccer team roster that features 19 freshmen among its 20 newcomers, it would be easy for Gordon to give his players a crutch that would allow them to navigate the pitfalls of their first year of Division I soccer and their initial run through the Southeastern Conference.

Boyd will lead West Lowndes girls basketball team

Educators surrounded Jasmine Boyd when she was growing up, so it’s easy to see why she decided to become a teacher.

But after developing a love for teaching from her father, John, and an uncle and an aunt who also were in the same profession, Boyd discovered another love. She hopes to put her love for teaching and her second love for the game of basketball to good use in Lowndes County.

Starkville High’s Carr chosen for MAC Volleyball All-Star match

Khris Carr’s dream is close to becoming a reality.

Team Elite Mississippi will play against best in Kentucky

ABERDEEN — Erise Wilson Jr. feels Team Elite Mississippi can compete with the best squads in the nation.

Later this month, Wilson’s Amateur Athletic Union travel boys basketball team will get a chance to show a group of players from the Greater Golden Triangle area can hold its own against the best there is when it plays in the AAU Division I 11th-grade Nationals in Louisville, Ky. The team, which is made up of players from Aberdeen, Columbus, Noxubee County, and West Point high schools, will leave from the area July 21 in time to arrive for registration and the first coaches meetings July 22. The team will then play one game each of the next three days to determine where it will be seeded for the double-elimination event, which will feature teams from across the country.

Weight work paying off for MSU women

STARKVILLE — Three years ago, weightlifting was a foreign concept to Martha Alwal.

At 6-foot-4, Alwal relied on her height and her length to affect shots in the post and didn’t have the strength to use her body to carve out space in the paint because she hadn’t trained in the weight room.