WEST POINT — When completing his degree work at Mississippi State University, Stan Hughey thought he was preparing for a long baseball coaching career.
Now two decades and more than 400 coaching victories later, Hughey now understands his true calling is to coach dominant basketball teams.
This season, the veteran Oak Hill Academy completed his 16th winning season as head coach of the Lady Raiders. Oak Hill finished 27-10, while placing third in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools north state tournament. The season ended with a first-round loss to Simpson Academy in the opening-round of the Overall Class AA state tournament.
For this success, Hughey has been chosen as The Dispatch’s All-Area small schools Girls Basketball Coach of the Year.
“All I ever wanted to do was coach baseball,” Hughey said. “I would never have dreamed that this opportunity would have come along. I have been really blessed to have had some great players, great parents and to have been part of such a great program.”
Hughey played football and baseball at Bay Springs High School. The next educational stops took place at Jones Junior College and Mississippi State University. Baseball was always his love and passion. Hughey can vividly recall his trip as a fan to Omaha, Neb., and the College World Series, at the end of his time in college.
“My first job was a couple of years at Mathiston (High School, which is now East Webster High School),” Hughey said. “From there, I went to Grenada Kirk (Academy), where I was hired as a junior high basketball coach. Ronnie Aldy was the coach there at the time. Every chance I would get, I would watch Ronnie’s teams practice.
“I learned so much about how he handled players, how he coached the game. That is when I really fell in love with the sport of basketball. It was something I got passionate about. I studied other coaches and tendencies. I am an intense person. If I coached baseball, I would probably blow a fuse if a pitcher walked back-to-back batters. I knew that basketball was a much better fit for my personality.”
Hughey admits he thought he would be next in line at Kirk Academy. However, a long coaching run at that school was not in the cards. The disappointment was short-lived, as Hughey instead worked the next season as a graduate assistant to Mike Jones at Mississippi College. The following year, Oak Hill called and wanted Hughey to come there and carry on a rich basketball tradition with the Lady Raiders.
“This was already a really good program,” Hughey said. “I think we have done a great job of maintaining that success. We have had one losing season in my 17 years as head coach. That team went 14-16, but played for the north state championship. They were playing their best at the end of the season, when it mattered most.”
Hughey credits Aldy and Jones as being the biggest influences on his coaching career. Aldy helped shape Hughey’s offensive philosophy, while Jones helped him learn player relations, helping make everybody on a roster feel important and feel like they are part of a team.
“Coach Aldy (who later served as a head coach the University of Mississippi and had two different stints as head man at Holmes Community College) told me to go out and find players who could run and catch,” Hughey said. “I thought, that will be easy. But it is really not. When the school year starts, we work on a lot of running drills and we work on ball movement in and out of those drills. It was much more difficult than I ever thought.”
The good news for Hughey is he has found a generation of players, who buy into his philosophy and want to be a part of a championship program.
“At Oak Hill, you have to sacrifice some personal things for the team,” Hughey said. “You really have to spend time with the game to get better at it. We work at it hard. Basically, we preach defense, rebounding and not turning the ball over. Here, players expect to win. That is a very big part of it.
“I have been blessed to have some really smart girls. We do a lot of different things. However, everything is defensive-oriented and team-oriented. That is what we believe in out here. Girls basketball is so different than boys basketball, because the players not as athletic.
“Girls do not watch the NBA. They don’t go out to make all the highlight-type players. There is no one who is going to jump out of a gym. You can mold a girls team much easier than a boys team. I was told a long time ago the key was getting them to get along and play together. The fundamentals can be taught. That is 100 percent true.”
The Lady Raiders play a demanding summer schedule. The playing card includes several different tournaments and camps, as well as several different public school opponents. Off-time during the school year includes running and weight lifting.
“When we first starting playing public schools, we were intimidated,” Hughey said. “What we eventually found out if you may not have the quickness and the speed, but you will always have your fundamentals. Regardless of what you are up against, you can pass, shoot, dribble and defend. We got more and more confidence by playing tougher people.
“We have had five players who have played on the next level (including recent senior Tori Ellis, who will be playing at Mississippi College),” Hughey said. “Others could have, if they wanted to go different places. They build confidence playing against good people.”
Always one to prepare, Hughey is already concerned about the future, as he will again lose another talented group of seniors after the season which lies ahead.
“When you lose a really good group of seniors, it worries you,” Hughey said. “Every time though, you see a younger group that is going to be ready to take over. We have some talented kids out here, who want to be a part of this program. That is what tradition will do for you.
“To the players, this is not a social thing. We take pride in our basketball. We work hard at it. We are successful at it. While it will be hard to lose this group this upcoming year, our junior high team just finished 26-1 as ninth graders. We had four seniors on this past year’s team and every one of them was at the academic banquet. When you spend as much time as we do at basketball and you still accomplish that, that means you are a special person.”
Hughey has been coaching those types of special people for more than two decades now.
“There are so many excellent coaches in the MAIS,” Hughey said. “From (Leake Academy’s) Doyle Wolverton to (Jackson Academy’s) Jan Sojourner to (Starkville Academy’s) Glenn Schmidt to (Kirk Academy’s) Mike Reems, it is like I am the young pup in this club. I have learned so much from each one of them. The basketball played on this level in our state is very good.
“Doyle is the third winningest-coach all-time nationwide. We were able to beat Leake this year on the high school level for the first time in quite a while. That may be the highlight of the season. We were in a position to beat them two others time but couldn’t hold the lead. The best game we played this year was an overtime loss at Starkville Academy. And we know they won each of the (three state) championships.
“Everybody we lost to was ranked or had a winning season. The loss to Simpson (in the overall state tournament) was disappointing, because we didn’t play well. As a coach, you will always look back and try to find out what you could have done differently.”
While Hughey may want to relive a game or two from the past, one certainty is that his career decision was the correct one.
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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