Football In MS

certain basketball players score points. like certain football players do. remove a lineman, you or may or may not notice. remove the QB… whole new ballgame. same with basketball. you can still play as a team with lesser results because certain kids are removed & that has nothing to do with coaching. it’s about innate athlete skill level. i’m genuinely sorry your grandbabies aren’t getting whatever opportunity you want for them and it’s making you an angry grandaddy. but please. signing a name doesn’t lend credibility to the truth of a statement or situation. truth is truth no matter who says it

And coaches are not the ones playing the game. They cannot score the points. I’m not the one changing anything. again, have a little grace dude

Geez. Calm down. These are KIDS. Have a little grace man

On a basketball team, being down 1 player changes 20% of your lineup. That’s significant especially if that person is a scorer who is removed with virtually no time for team practices without him. And let’s not forget we’re taking about high school kids. Not college athletes.

My comment was about their boys 2024 basketball season.

Sumrall’s boys basketball team was poised for a run at the state title in 2024 but an unfortunate situation with one of their starters right as playoffs began really screwed them over. So their coaching can’t have been too bad to have had the season they had last year. Sumrall has been a baseball school - primarily - as of late. But they’ve always had enough football talent to have guys playing at the next level here & there. So there are athletes in the system. They just need to be developed and disciplined. If the new coach can come in and build relationships, he’ll do fine. Sumrall is a community that’ll come together and get behind coaches who pour into their athletes.

I didn’t make up the stats or the data. If you’re frustrated, it’s with the facts & the MDE. Not with me. definitely not “obsessed” about HHS. I do however care about truth & student athletes. And I do know a lot about the area. I’ve got family who went there. It was the best school in the region for a long, long time. Up until about 25 years ago. Unfortunately when the population starting moving west and PCS added a high school it affected the HPSD in a negative way. nobody’s fault. that’s just how things go. Not everything makes us feel warm & fuzzy. It happens. Whether or not we like it doesn’t affect the truth of the situation

I’m not going to continue to belabor the point here. Anyone from the area (or with connections to the area) knows the deal. So I’ll just leave this here: kids who can start at other places will go elsewhere. families who can afford other districts will do so. pre-existing connections with coaches and other random factors can play in from time to time but that’s not what we’re talking about here. all things equal, everyone knows what districts are considered “good,” what jobs are “desirable” and where the best schools are located.

Again - the district is an “A”. HHS is a “B.” Idk why you feel the need to restate the obvious, but whatever. HHS is a “B.” Football players with varsity talent & a choice in the matter are not going to choose HHS. Those desiring top notch educational opportunities won’t either. Just a fact. It’s just numbers. Again - not all benefits are listed on a W2. And if you believe that you can “look up” every benefit a coach of a championship level school is given based on a local media report from 6 years ago, then you’ve not been around very long. Club memberships, leased vehicles, etc will never have a stated value you’ll be able to quantify with a “supplemental” number in a written document. In terms of what reported “supplements” are, yeah - you can look them up. But again - as I already stated - that’s not base salary. And that’s not “extras” from boosters. Base is set by the state based on a chart showing educational level & years of experience. Schools are not in charge of that. And schools aren’t in charge of reporting what types of extra benefits coaches get that regular message board people like us won’t ever see. Whether or not HHS is a “good job” is debatable based on what you value. Playing for a state championship 100 years after winning the last one doesn’t justify all the hype here. But again, I hope they get a good coach. All students deserve the best opportunities the school can provide.

Bottom line is this: -HHS is a “B” rated school. That’s straight from the MDE. -The primary job of a school is based in academic education. -Coaching salaries are no better at HHS than at their counterparts. They’re all public schools, the pay scale is set by the state. Extra “perks” or “bonuses” that may come from a booster club or team sponsor vary across the state and usually cannot be verified/confirmed on a W2. -Families in the area who can afford for their kids to go elsewhere… do. Families coming to the area do not ‘choose’ this school district. Ask any realtor in the area. -The academic performance at HHS is lower than every other area school comparable by size based on MDE data. -Discipline issues at HHS are worse than at other area schools comparable by size. Here are the stats straight from the MDE to back that up. These screenshots are Petal, HHS, and OG. You can guess which is which. So honestly there are no conspiracy theories here. There is no opinion. This is hard fact. Some may not like it - but that doesn’t alter the reality. And any coach who has been around for longer than 5 mins knows that discipline is everything - both inside and outside the classroom. Furthermore, a coach is going to have a hard time garnering respect if he coaches at HHS but wants to live and send his kids elsewhere. So at that point you’re narrowing your pool of applicants in a huge way to those already coaching at HHS, and those without school age kids. Coaches/teachers are not (by & large) looking to send their kids to HPSD schools unless they cannot afford an alternative. Especially high school age kids. Not being mean. Just being 100% real. I hope HHS does get a good coach. Good coaching across the state benefits all students & that’s a good thing.

Where do you get the idea that Sumrall coaches don’t live in Sumrall? This is not even close to true. Please don’t make things up.

Idk. MDE report doesn’t say

Exactly. Both great private schools with outstanding academic reputations. And out the other way is Columbia Academy. Lots of private options in that area.

Name call if you want. That says more about you than me. Football kids only transfer out of championship programs when they’re not getting to play. This is a football thread so talking basketball isn’t even relevant to the conversation. If it was as simple as you claim to “buy out” a coach from a school you’re putting down (with ugly nicknames) then HHS would have done it by now. Money talks. So does reputation. Petal is such a respected job that they got a retired coach to come back this year. People want to be in that district. As far as academics go, the Mississippi Dept of Education is not “the media.” The MDE website states facts about academics at all schools. So I don’t need to even get into that. It’s easy to look up yourself. Just over 50% of Hattiesburg Public seniors are college bound. Compare that to high 90s at Petal and OG. Petal and OG are (and have been) “A” rated schools for decades. Meanwhile HHS is rejoicing at finally being a “B.” That’s just facts. And with regard to kids going out of district, follow some schools buses sometime. It’s eye opening. Watch entire bus loads of kids empty out at the district line and get into cars that drive home over the bridge and past the line. See it for yourself.

Historically speaking, it’s the worst district in the area academically. Even now when it’s better than it’s been in decades, test scores are still really low comparatively. https://msrc.mdek12.org/entity?EntityID=1820-000&SchoolYear=2023 While it has improved since being a “D” rated district in 2016, the fact remains that newcomers to the area will do whatever it takes to not send kids there. Not throwing shade. Just being real. Realtors will tell you.

agree. the hattiesburg public school system is one of the worst in the state. it's better now than it was a few years back - but the state almost took over several years ago and they went through a steady stream of superintendents trying to clean up that mess. you can be as fast as you want on the field. but if your district can't get it done in the classroom, coaches aren't going to want the job. especially in a location where you've got other really competitive schools at your back door. the number of kids whose parents live in the city of hattiesburg but sign affidavits claiming "homelessness" so their kids can go to petal or oak grove is astounding. if districts had the manpower to hunt down and kick out all the kids knowingly going out of district, many places would look really different. but it's super hard to prove once a parent claims they don't have a home address and signs an affidavit. and schools with those kids are getting extra title 1 money. so they're in no rush to kick those kids out - especially if they're good athletes. it's a vicious cycle.

Absolutely not. Hattiesburg is NOT a better job than Starkville. Starkville School District is FAR ahead of Hattiesburg SD. Not even a question.

Huh?? Barr single-handedly turned OG around. They were never even a football school before him. He definitely did not coast to retirement.

I'd have Madison Central, Oxford and Starkville all in over Petal. Petal is on the way back up. No doubt. But Top 5 in the entire 7A is a bit much for 2025. And I'd have OS at #5 with OG and one of the 3 I just named above them.

More large schools need to do the stand alone AD. Too many are also the head coach of a major sport- and that creates issues all the way around.

They won’t be a force in MHSAA football. They may have better luck in baseball.

Does the 6A Mr Football selection still seem like a good choice after seeing how he matched with Grenada?

3 Picayune TDs called back for “penalties” last weekend

Had a laparoscopic appendectomy 2 weeks ago and somehow got cleared to play. Idk how. But he’s in there

Oh. Sorry. yeah - you right about Taylor