STARKVILLE — East Mississippi Community College’s men’s basketball team has a need on the offensive end of the floor.
It found help at Starkville Academy.
Codie Futral, the Volunteers’ leading scorer, signed Thursday with the Lions, joining fellow Starkville native Keith Harris, who played his freshman season for EMCC last year. Futral also will be joined by Starkville High School’s Darrious Agnew and Markedric Bell.
“Codie’s had a great career here,” Starkville Academy coach Bruce Allsup said. “He’s a two-time district player of the year, and that’s when you know you have a good one, when other coaches think a lot of him to select him as a two-time MVP. He’s been an integral part of our program and he’s represented our program the right way, he has a great attitude and comes from a great family.
“He’s going to be very missed next year, because when you have that kind of player he always leaves a very big hole to fill.”
From Allsup’s experience, it takes raw athleticism to score the way EMCC hopes Futral will and Allsup has the utmost confidence he can deliver it, having scored 19 points per game as a senior for Starkville Academy.
“That is his game, getting to the rim,” Allsup said. “You have to have that kind of athleticism to do that, and that’s a league full of athletes. I think he’ll fit in pretty good.”
Futral plans to keep his rim-attacking expertise alive and well while playing for the Lions, but added he’s been told by EMCC’s coaching staff that they want improvement in his jump shot, too, to address another team need: the Lions were among the bottom 30 in the nation in shooting percentage.
The only thing left is balancing the two and his role on the new team.
“I think I’m ready to do it all,” Futral said. “Just know when to, don’t try to do too much, and when you see an opportunity, go for it.”
Futral wasn’t the only Volunteer who signed with EMCC on Thursday. Torin Hamilton signed with EMCC to play defensive line for the football team. Hamilton and Futral plan on watching each other play often.
“That’s my best friend. I’ll be over there a lot,” Hamilton said. “He’s a great athlete. He could be signing with me for football.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
