Jackson Prep poses tough first test for new-look Heritage Academy football

The Patriots lost 13 seniors from last year’s undefeated title team, but they’re not deterred. “I think we have the chance to have a really talented team,” coach Sean Harrison said.

Starkville Academy football lost 17 seniors, but Vols still feel confident in return trip to title game

STARKVILLE — Chase Nicholson didn’t even have to ask.

Despite improvement, Heritage Academy softball run-ruled by Leake Academy

The Patriots scored just two runs against a tough Leake team. “We just couldn’t connect,” Heritage Academy coach Heidi Matthews said.

Heritage Academy senior Madison Tipton never expected to get COVID-19. Here’s what she wants you to know about it.

The disease “felt like any other flu,” but it wasn’t easy on Tipton. Neither was missing several weeks of her final high school softball season.

‘By the grace of God,’ New Hope’s Jeremiah Jethroe back on the field after neck injury

At New Hope’s July 16 practice, Michelle Jethroe looks on from her green folding chair in the fifth row behind home plate as her son Jeremiah leaps to snag a high throw from across the diamond, reaching down with his glove to slap a hard tag on the batter’s helmet as the two players converge awkwardly at first base.

Gov. Reeves issues executive order to limit attendance at sporting events

Attendance will be limited to two people per participating student, with the exception of coaches, directors, teachers, officials, media and medical and other game staff.

For New Hope’s Jeremiah Jethroe and his family, recovery was a pain in the neck — and then some

A few weeks after Jeremiah Jethroe’s February neck injury at a New Hope baseball practice, his mother, Michelle Jethroe, woke up in the middle of the night, rising from the couch when she heard a ripping sound coming from the hospital bed that dominated her living room.

To repeat last year’s success, Columbus Christian Academy football must depend on everyone it’s got

With five seniors graduated and again just 16 players on the roster, coach Jason Williams knows the importance of every single Ram this fall.

A journey back to the baseball field: For New Hope’s Jeremiah Jethroe, scary neck injury changed life in an instant

Tall and broad, Jeremiah Jethroe slings the baseball with ease as the evening shadows start their slow descent onto the field.

On July 16, he stands along the left-field line and plays catch with teammate Tucker Boyett to kick off the New Hope High School baseball team’s second-to-last practice of the summer.

After pandemic lull, staffing firms pick up

Since she was 17, Megan Carmean has always had a job, so when she moved to Starkville from the Jackson area in February and found herself unemployed, it was hard to get used to.

Pretty soon, Carmean said, she began to go a little “stir crazy” at home.

Football has been EMCC’s ‘livelihood,’ but Lions must adjust to a new way of life for now

Each fall, when East Mississippi Community College plays its first football game of the season, women’s basketball coach and athletic director Sharon Thompson witnesses the school’s campus in Scooba come alive.

Starkville Academy softball makes quick work of Kirk Academy, wins fourth straight

STARKVILLE — Fallon Parker calmly snared the line drive for the second out of the top of the third inning, noticed Kirk Academy’s Sophie Brister straying far off first base and fired across the diamond to Austin Tucker in plenty of time.

EMCC opts out of fall football season because of virus

The Mississippi Association of Community Colleges is currently set to begin play Oct. 1 for a six-game regular season, and the Lions are the first team to opt out of fall competition.

LCSD files $2 million suit over leaky roof at New Hope High

Lowndes County School District is suing the contractor, material supplier and installer of the leaky roof at the 2-year-old New Hope High School building for $2 million.

Starkville Academy softball rockets past Hebron Christian for third straight win

PHEBA — After the Starkville Academy softball team stranded two runners in the top of the third inning of Monday’s game at Hebron Christian School, the Volunteers’ Browning Hughes gathered her teammates in the visiting dugout.

Brett White continues Sportsman domination at The Mag

Before the feature races during Fan Appreciation Night on Saturday at Magnolia Motor Speedway, children raced bicycles on the straightaway in front of the bleachers to win prizes.

Starkville Academy softball pulls away from Oak Hill Academy with emphatic offensive barrage

The Volunteers put up 34 runs, including a 13-run sixth inning, to win Thursday’s game in West Point.

Prep soccer roundup: Heritage Academy shuts out Laurel HomeSchool

Sarah Curtis and Chloe Boyd each scored for the Patriots, and Haven Tuggle kept a clean sheet against the Hawks.

Oak Hill Academy football still has ‘a long way to go,’ but Raiders feel upbeat ahead of season

The Raiders went 2-9 last year and more than half their players graduated, but new head coach Bill Rosenthal said he’s been “pleasantly surprised” thus far.

Starkville Academy girls soccer blown out by powerhouse Hartfield Academy, but Vols happy with performance

STARKVILLE — Back when Starkville Academy soccer coach John Morgan was in Scotland for a UEFA coaching course, he saw something he’d never seen before: players so good they could line up balls from the air and knock them down in stride.