Feb. 25, 2016

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oxfordcitizen.com

Volume 2 | Issue 89

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Inside 6 News

Elisabeth Darce is the Teacher of the Year at Bramlett Elementary.

9 Business

JOHN DAVIS | OXFORD CITIZEN

Melissa Leach, the program assistant with the Early Years Network, has been helping the community with a number of projects over the years.

Teaching to care

Stevens Flagg is now cooking at Goose Creek Club’s The Terrace Grille.

15 Sports

Leach assists in early education of children

BY JOHN DAVIS OXFORD CITIZEN

For Melissa Leach, helping the community, through education and different services that promote family, has been a long standing part of her professional life. She is currently the program assistant

for the Early Years Network, which is a part of Mississippi State University’s Extension Service.

Across the street from Ole Miss, and next to campus mail in the old Oxford mall, Leach serves the community through the Northwest Mississippi Resource and Referral Center.

It’s a lending library for toys and resources for parents, child care providers or for whoever wants to help in the early development of children.

“Everything we offer here is free except for our lamination services which we charge 60 cents a foot for,” Leach said.

“We have teaching centers, children’s books, toys. We also serve the Northwest Mississippi area as far as training and child care providers.”

People know that the center exists, but Leach is hoping to get the word out that they do TURN TO TEACHING PAGE 5

Lafayette is set to open the 2016 baseball season this Friday.

OXFORD CITIZEN

PAGE 2

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Law enforcement has been a great education

BY JOHN DAVIS OXFORD CITIZEN

In the past two years, since Micah East joined the ranks of law enforcement, he’s learned a lot. The 26year old member of the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department started his career working in the detention center before moving out on the road to patrol.

“Being back there really helped me. I’ve always been able to talk with people, but working in the jail really helped me to talk to people in the right way,” East said.

“You have grown men, enclosed together, 24-7. Tempers flare, often. If you can talk with people, instead of going physical right off the bat, a lot of times you can eliminate other troubles.”

A lot of the same people that are in jail are a lot of the same people that East deals with on calls. He said if you treat them right in the jail, it really helps when you see them on the street.

“If you go to a call and it’s involving them, then they know how you were in the

ON THE BEAT

Micah East jail. I try my best to show everybody respect, no matter what,” East said. “If I run into the same people on the street, I think that really helps me out. They know I respect them, but at the same time, they know I’m still going to do my job.”

The deputies that work for the sheriff’s department are on days for three months, and nights for three months.

“I like it, I really do. My wife isn’t too crazy about night shift but she does like the three months when I’m on days,” East said. “My captain is Jody Mayfield. I have another month (of days) and then I will go to nights.

Then my captain there is Chris Smith.”

There are no specific beats for the deputies to pa-

trol like the officers working for the city have. There are between five and six deputies during the two different shifts, East said.

Hours worked for deputies are 6 in the morning until 6 at night. Of course, Smith has to be in the office at least 15 minutes prior to starting his shift.

“Every morning, we meet in the patrol room with the night shift. Anything that needs to be passed on and they weren’t able to accomplish the night before, they pass it on to us and we jump on that first thing that morning,” East said. “The 15 minutes is for us to get together and discuss what needs to be done and what we can do better in some areas.”

There is nothing routine

JOHN DAVIS | OXFORD CITIZEN

Micah East serves the community as a member of the Lafayette County Sheriff's Department. in the life of a law enforcement officer but there are things that East does when he is on patrol that don’t change. After East gets his coffee in the morning, he will help direct traffic in front of Lafayette High School. That’s on a rotation basis and when he’s there, he works from 7 until 8.

“After that is really when my day gets started. Our captain gives us papers to serve as far as summons for people out in the county,” East said. “We will serve warrants, but we always have two deputies no matter what.”

For those wondering about his last name, and if he is related to Sheriff F.D. “Buddy” East, that is not the case. Micah attended Mississippi State and has ties to Starkville, as well as other places around the state.

“My daddy is a Southern Baptist preacher so we kind of moved all over the place,” he said adding that he really considered Kosciusko his hometown. “We moved from Kosciusko to Oxford about 10 years ago. I ended up graduating from North Pontotoc High School. I went to Itawamba Community College and then went on to Mississippi State.”

East didn’t see himself being a police officer when he was growing up, even with him watching John Wayne play the part in movies.

“When I went to Mississippi State, I was actually majoring in coaching and teaching. I have a real passion for children and love

helping them anyway I can,” he said. “When I was at Mississippi State, my brother, Caleb East, was a deputy sheriff here. I remember when I came home on the weekend, I rode around with him and we talked. The first night I rode around with him, I just fell in love with it.”

His major changed from coaching to criminal justice and once he graduated, he was two months away from his wedding.

“I had to find a job. I talked with the sheriff and got the job in the jail. And the sheriff told me as soon as he had a deputy position open up that he would come talk with me. Sure enough, he did,” East said.

“The sheriff has been in office here since 1972. And every call I go on, they ask me if I’m his grandson. I tell them that he’s a great man work for. We have actually found out that we are related way back but I never met him until I moved here.

He’s a great man to work for.

I consider it a privilege to work for him. It’s awesome to learn from him. He’s longest reigning sheriff in the nation, so he’s obviously doing something right.”

Typical calls out in the county involve responding to burglary and panic alarms. Of course deputies do routine checks of buildings and deal with unruly dogs.

“On night shift, we mainly deal with disturbances. On the weekend, that’s when we’re really busy,” he said.

“People are off work and al-

cohol and drugs are often involved. People will get to arguing, so that’s what we deal with a lot in the county.”

There have been calls that East has gone on that have made him laugh. There are others that he’s gone on that have made him so mad, he wanted to cry.

One of the most memorable, in a good way, involved a family that was being held at bay by a large billy goat.

“The family said they couldn’t get out of their trailer because the goat was trying attack them. I drove up and I’m thinking a little billy goat and this thing looked like a mountain ram,” East said. “He ends up jumping on top of my car hood, and he is trying to come through the windshield. I just put my car in drive to get him off. That was one of the funnier ones.

It made me laugh after.”

East was taught to treat people with respect. Yes, sir, and no, sir and yes ma’am and no ma’am is how he starts or ends sentences.

Children and the elderly hold a tender spot in his heart. His grandfather, who fought in World War II and died at 98, instilled in him respect for elders.

“When they get to that age, just like children, they are often helpless. It talks about in Mark that the children are the apple of God’s eye,” East said. “I do not tolerate child abuse. Those domestic calls are the ones that hit hard with me. There are two sides to every story in our line of work. We do have juveniles that are very rebellious to their parents.

That’s one thing. But when a grown man or a grown woman puts their hands on a child to harm them, I don’t like it.

“The other tough calls are suicides. I’ve been to a lot of them. Our chief deputy, Scott Mills, is real good about talking to us after we work one. The first one I worked, he took me to the side and he said it’s not human nature to see another dead person. We can act big and bad, but having somebody to talk to like Scott Mills and my brother is always good. It can ease your mind.” john.davis@journalinc.com Twitter: @oxfordcitizenjd

OXFORD CITIZEN

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016

PAGE 3

Michael Franti & Spearhead to headline Double Decker

BY CHANING GREEN NEWS WRITER

Tuesday morning, Visit Oxford announced the unveiled the selected artwork and chosen musical lineup for the 2016 Double Decker Arts Festival.

Festival Coordinator Lee Ann Stubbs led the press conference that was well attended by members of the community, including Mayor Pat Patterson.

Double Decker will be taking place on Friday, April 22 and on Saturday, April 23.

The festival brings in over 60,000 visitors, both local and out of town, to the Oxford Courthouse Square every year to celebrate food, music, the arts and the city of Oxford.

Receiving more than 25 awards since its founding, the Double Decker Arts Festival has been named Best Festival by Mississippi Magazine and a Top 20 Event by the Southeast Tourism Society.

The festival is now in its 21st year. The red double-

decker bus that was imported from England in 1994 serves as the inspiration and namesake of the festival.

At the press conference, Visit Oxford unveiled the artwork of Eden Flora, whose artwork was selected to serve as the logo of this year’s festival.

Though the Thacker Mountain Radio Hour normally broadcasts on Thursdays, they will be holding a special broadcast live from the Ole Miss Athletics Stage from 7-8 p.m. on Friday to kick off the festival.

Senior Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce Pam Swain spoke at the conference and discussed the Double Decker Spring Run that the Chamber is planning for Saturday morning.

The Chamber is partnering with three organizations to make the Spring Run possible. Baptist Memorial Hospital has been working with the Chamber on the event since its inaugural race 21

years ago in 1995. New partners include Start to Finnish, which has partnered with the Chamber

“We’re hoping to have around 1,500 racers participate this year,” she said. “We really feel like that’s a strong number that we expect to be made up of runners from all over the country.”

This year’s Double Decker Spring Run will feature a 5k Run, a 10k Run and a one mile Fun Run aimed towards kids.

Swain said a lot of the children of the racers participate in the Fun Run and that the Chamber of Commerce is excited to see them involved in the event.

Brain McClellan was also at the conference to represent Caterpillar, Incorporated, who is partnering with the festival this year in order to be the official Presenting Sponsor of 2016.

McClellan spoke briefly about Caterpillar’s choice to sponsor the event again.

He said that the comsince 2012, and Run Oxford, who is partnering pany was proud to supwith the event for the first port the festival because of the company’s values time this year.

regarding community and economic development.

Ole Miss Athletics is sponsoring the stage for the event.

Ole Miss Athletic Director Ross Bjork spoke to members of the community in attendance about his love of Oxford and how he was honored to be a part of the event.

“What I tell people, when we go out and travel around the country, is that Oxford has the best of both worlds,” Bjork said.

“On a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, it’s a small town, and we love that part of it.

“But when there’s a big event or stage, if you will, it turns into an unbelievable, amazing place. That can be a little frustrating on parking, infrastructure and traffic but if you think about it, what better place to live in? It’s a small town during the week, but for big event, it turns into a destination.” chaning.green@journalinc.com Twitter: chaningthegreen

OXFORD CITIZEN

PAGE 4

Back home

OBITUARIES HATTIE GERALDINE GREEN

PAULINE LEWIS Pauline Lewis, 97, passed away Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016 at Yalobusha Nursing Home in Water Valle.

A memorial service will be held at a later date.

Coleman Funeral Home was in charge of local arrangements.

Online condolences may be left on the Tribute Wall at www.colemanfuneralhome.com

JINE YANG WANG Jine Yang Wang, 75, passed away Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, at Baptist Memorial Hospital-East in Memphis.

A visitation will take place Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016 at Waller Funeral Home from 3 until 5 p.m.

For additional information or to sign an online guestbook, visit our website at www.wallerfuneralhome.com or call (662) 234-7971.

NANCY RUTH WALLER Nancy Ruth Waller, 78, passed away Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016, at Oxford Health and Rehab.

The funeral service was Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, in the Chapel of Waller Funeral Home with Rev. Robert Allen and Rev. Charles Lipe officiating.

Burial followed in Eastover Memorial Cemetery.

Memorial contributions in Mrs. Waller’s memory may be made to First Baptist Church, 800 Van Buren, Oxford, MS 38655 or Friends of the Smokies, P.O. Box 1660, Kodak, TN 37764-7660 or www.friendsofthesmokies.org.

Keywood finds refuge in Oxford, Delta EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second in a two-part series on artist Chris Keywood, who has ties to the city of Oxford and Ole Miss.

BY JOHN DAVIS OXFORD CITIZEN

A lot of art work in a little amount of time. That’s the best way to describe the style of artist Chris Keywood.

He fully admits to having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. That helps explain his insane amount of energy and how it has led to vast amounts of work in such a short time. His “pop street art” includes him using an Exacto knife to carve the picture out.

The aerosol spray paint dries differently in the winter time, and in the humidity of Mississippi compared to the Pacific Northwest, where he was for a few years.

Several different layers of sticky paper is used in the process. And as long as Keywood has a six-pack of beer, some coffee, and food, he can churn out some work. When he created the wall mural of Clint Eastwood’s Josey Wales, which stands 22 feet high, it took him three days. If he had scaffolding, he could have done it two because he works until he’s done.

“I guess people in Clarksdale had never seen anything like that. Since then, they’ve had a couple of copy cat murals come in,” Keywood said. “They hired a crew to come in and do one by Ground Zero. It’s done in black, white and gray like mine and just about as tall.”

There was a point in 2012 where Clarksdale, the town Keywood has a studio and resides again, was booming from an art or creative works standpoint.

It may return with Keywood back in town.

Oxford is the other town Keywood considers home as he visits a couple of times a week. His goal is to continue to paint “cool, Andy Warhol, pop looking art” for as long as possible.

CHRIS KEYWOOD

Marilyn Monroe are just some of the famous people that artist Chris Keywood has painted during his career.

“

My mother told me I would understand when I came back.

She told me I would be back.

She said the South and the Delta traps you.

“

Hattie Geraldine Green, 78, passed away Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016, at her home. The funeral service will be Thursday, Feb. 25, in the Chapel of Waller Funeral Home at 2 p.m., with Rev. Ray Wilson officiating. Burial will follow in Yellow Leaf Cemetery. Visitation was held Wednesday evening at Waller Funeral Home. For additional information or to sign an online guestbook, visit our website at www.wallerfuneralhome.c om or call 662-234-7971.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Chris Keywood, about his return to the area after living in the Pacific Northwest for a few years His ties to the state, and area, are extensive even if he has lived in a lot of other states out West. His grandmother was the first cheerleader at Ole Miss, while his grandfather played football for the Rebels. His uncle also played football for coach Johnny Vaught and was a contributing member of the 1959 team.

Outside of taking art honors in high school, Keywood had no real connection with painting. His father was a general contractor and never thought he would have to worry

about what he did for a living because his dad was the boss.

“That all ended in 1998 but I didn’t start doing art until way later,” said Keywood, who was set to attend Ole Miss before a fight in Oxford derailed those plans. “I got arrested and locked up and had to do some time. This was when Eli was still in school. That’s when I started my pencil portraits. It took me to get to that low point and then I drew pictures the whole time I was in jail. I’ve been flying with artwork ever

since that point.”

The city of Cleveland actually had Keywood do a design for Octoberfest while he was an inmate.

“It was on 2,000 T-shirts.

They gave me a check and everything,” he said before adding. “I won’t ever forget about any of that stuff. I don’t talk about it unless I’m doing an interview. It has been highly praised because of what I’ve done since then.”

Art has allowed Keywood to rub shoulders with the right people. He can take a portrait and make it so unique. As a result, he has been commissioned by several local residents, including his good friend, former Ole Miss offensive lineman Terrence Metcalf. Jay and Wendy Carmean are also big supporters. “Jay was my lawyer. He probably tells my story to people through all of this and he wanted me back in Mississippi,” Keywood said. “I spent my 20s here. I got into some trouble here,

but I got established here.

Every month that I pay rent, I get more commissions. I have little old ladies in Clarksdale ask me to paint their grandkids everyday. I would be crazy to leave.”

And ultimately, Mississippi, and the South, has a culture that best supports Keywood’s art.

“If you knit a sock here, people want it. If I broke down on the side of the road on this side of Texas, I would be able to go to WalMart, get spray cans paint something and sell it on the side of the road,” he said. “The other side, West Coast, a graphic region where everything is moving real fast, you have to go to certain places in these big cities. You have to be in an art area, in a certain art community. My mother told me I would understand when I came back.

She said the South and the Delta traps you.” john.davis@journalinc.com Twitter: @oxfordcitizenjd

OXFORD CITIZEN

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Teaching FROM PAGE 1

offer such things to help small children. Most of the materials on hand are perfect for children that are 5 or younger, or basically for youngsters just before kindergarten. She said that other parents spread the word about the office. Excel

by Five and the United Way are other ways that the community has found out about the different things offered.

“Since last year, we’ve almost doubled the people that we have served,” Leach said. “The center has been here for a little over three years. I’ve been here for about a year and a half.

Excel by Five has always been a partner with Mississippi State to get this up and running for the children and parents. They help buy a lot of the resources here, too.”

Leach said the main goal is to reach the parents of all children who don’t have the resources readily available to them.

“Parents that might be low income, they can come in and use this stuff without having to go buy it,” she said. “They can check it out for two weeks, just like a library. They can come use our equipment if they want to make letters for their children’s room or the classroom. Some of the child care providers don’t have the resources to buy all the things that they really need to help those kids learn and develop.”

In the past, Leach participated in VISTA or Volunteers In Service To America.

She did a lot of work with Lena Wiley and Doors for Hope. She also helped with food drives for The Pantry.

“I also did health fairs and things like that. I did a lot of work with Excel by Five support committee and community involvement committee and the steering committee,” Leach said adding that all of it wasn’t everyday.

There have been different events in which Leach has brought together the Oxford and Lafayette school districts and some of the pastors from the community with the goal of reading to children. All of it was done to set good examples for youth moving forward.

“Honestly, anything community that will help advance people that needed assistance, affordable housing, things like that, I have always tried to be involved with,” said Leach, who is the mother of two boys. “They are now 12 and 14 and I would always take them with me to the volunteering events because I wanted them to learn about community and volunteering. Now that they’ve seen what I do and see the people in the community that need help, they have a more compassionate spirit about their community and people needing assistance. I’ve been where some of these people are. I still am somewhat but trying to move ahead. It’s important to offer assistance to those in need and to get involved in things that help promote that assistance.”

For children to have the resources that Leach is now helping with is very satisfying to her. She wants them to have a chance as she puts it.

“I want them to start off in the world with something, with skills that will help them prosper and not

struggle in school later,” Leach said. “Kids from zero to 5 is when they are learning the most. All the toys are not just to play with.

Every toy we have in here is for some kind of development for a child. They may think they are just playing, but they’re developing skills. It’s important and it’s important for parents to know.”

And maybe the most surprising thing in this whole setup is the fact that Leach is actually an employee of Mississippi State.

“People are shocked by that when the find out, but the University of Mississippi has played a big part in helping with this center.

They provide us with this building. The United Way helps pay some of the costs,” Leach said. “They collaborate, they work together. People see the rivalry all the time, but they also work together to help build a community of children that are learning and getting what they need.”

The seven counties that the center deals with includes Panola, Quitman, Tunica, Tate, DeSoto, Coahoma and Lafayette.

“Any of those counties can come here and use our materials,” she said. “We also provide them child care services. We also have trainers that goes out to those areas that actually teach teachers to help children develop. The center is just one big part of the network. And these centers are all over Mississippi.”

For more information on the Early Years Network can be found through www.childcaremississippi.org or by calling 1866-706-8827. john.davis@journalinc.com Twitter: @oxfordcitizenjd

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016

CHANING GREEN | OXFORD CITIZEN

Elisabeth Darce with her kindergarten students in their classroom. Back row, Left to right: Kayden Hilliard, Alex Vasilyev, Jeremiah Boles, Linda Zhang, Gray Flowers, TerRiyah Hutchinson, Nariyah Booker. Middle row: Malachi Burt, Patrick Lofton, Elisabeth Darce,Anne Margaret Wilkinson,Jack Adams, Jesse Adams, Lucy Freeman. Front row: Carson Ellis,Worth Haymans,Aaliyah Little, Grayson Swingle, Naomi Thompson, Witt Bolton, Annabelle McElroy, Lily Grem.

Elisabeth Darce named Bramlett’s Teacher of the Year

BY CHANING GREEN NEWS WRITER

Elisabeth Darce has been chosen as the Bramlett Elementary School Teacher of the Year.

Darce is currently in her fourth year as a teacher with the Oxford School District. Her classroom is located down a long hallway lined with children’s artwork. The room is longer than it is wide and is filled with bright colors and a variety of different learning materials, including a large rug that teaches about the ABCs. Darce is from Lexington, Kentucky but graduated from the University of Mississippi’s School of Education with both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in early childhood education. She focused on literacy

during her graduate studies.

During her senior year at Ole Miss, Darce was a student teacher at Bramlett. Upon completing her master’s, she returned to Bramlett and applied for a job. She was hired and has been with the school since.

She came to Ole Miss for a change. She grew up close to the University of Kentucky and, though she is a self-pronounced Wildcats fan forever, she wanted something different.

“I came to Oxford with my dad and visited the school,” Darce said. “My mom told him he had seven hours to talk me out of it, but he couldn’t do it. I moved here and just stayed here ever since.”

Darce said that she has always wanted to be a teacher. Her entire school career, she said she

had such incredibly compassionate and influential teachers that she never wanted to do anything else. She always wanted to be the person who made a difference in the lives of others the way her teachers did for her.

“My mom always tells people about how I always had my dolls lined up everywhere and that I wanted to tell people what to do, so I told my dolls what to do and would come home everyday and teach them what I’d learned at school,” she said. “I had really great educators when I was a child and they always inspired me to be just like them.”

She said that her first grade teacher, for example, was really wonderful. When Darce was in her class, the teacher gave her a copy of a Dr. Seuss book that

Darce still has today. It sits on a crowded bookshelf in the back of her classroom. The teacher wrote a little note in the book. Darce said it was small gestures like that that really inspired her to go into education. She said that she hopes she has given that feeling to at least some of her students.

Today, the bookshelf in Darce’s classroom has several copies of Dr. Seuss books.

A unique feature of Darce’s classroom is that it only has two chairs that you would recognize as chairs: a rocking chair and a small wooden chair. The students sit on these inflatable exercise balls that have four stabilizing pegs on the bottom.

Darce even has her own adultsized version of the nontraditional seat.

She bought the chairs with a

funding she received from the crowdfunding site for teachers, donorschoose.org.

The way it works is that public school teachers from all over the country can go on the website, describe what they need funding for and, if people like the project and want to help, they donate. Darce posted that she wanted to buy the special chairs and within 24 hours she had all the funding she needed to buy them. She wanted to have these chairs in her classroom because they help by allowing the fidgety five-year-olds to move freely while staying seated, as well as promoting better posture and building abdominal muscles. chaning.green@journalinc.com Twitter: chaningthegreen

OXFORD CITIZEN

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016

PAGE 7

Oxford Film Festival names winners of The Spirit of Hoka Award

BY CHANING GREEN NEWS WRITER

The Oxford Film Festival held its closing night ceremony at The Lyric Saturday night where all of The Spirit of the Hoka Award Winners were recognized and received their awards.

Each year the Oxford Film Festival gives out the Hoka Award to winners in the narrative feature and short, animation, experimental, Mississippi narrative, Mississippi documentary and music video categories. The Hoka is named for the Hoka Theater that was founded in the 1970s by Ron Shapiro. The coffeehouse/film venue has since closed down, but was well known in the area for bringing independent film to Oxford. The theater took its name from Princess Hoka, the Chickasaw woman who was supposedly responsible for deeding much of Mississippi, including what is now Oxford, to settlers with the Treaty of Pontotoc in 1832.

The Hoka Award for Best Narrative Feature Film went to “Embers.” The film was directed by Claire Carré and tells a postapocalyptic story about a world that suddenly does not remember its past.

Carré recived a second Hoka that night as she was the first ever recipient of the Alice Guy-Blaché Filmmaker Award, which was created to honor the top female filmmaker in the Oxford Film Festival.

The award is named after a legendary female filmmaker that was revolutionary for her ideology and philosophy of film.

She had interracial casts in her films and was one of the first filmmakers to use special effects. She was active from 1894-1922, and is considered to be the first female director and writer of narrative fiction films.

The Hoka Award for Best Documentary Feature Film went to Nick Brandestini’s “Children of the Arctic.” This documentary follows Native Alaskan teenagers and paints a portrait of youth at the northernmost edge of America as they try to balance cultural traditions

MIKE STANTON, COURTESY OF THE OXFORD FILM FESTIVAL.

Director of the Best Narrative Feature Film winner “Embers” Claire Carré and her co-writer and co-producer Charles Spano accept their Spirit of Hoka Award Presented to them by the Oxford Film Festival Saturday night at The Lyric. among the ancient whaling culture, while also trying to be normal American teenagers.

Young actor Brady Permenter accepted the Hoka Award in the Mississippi Films category on behalf od director Gabriel Robertson for the narrative short “The Gift.” The short film is set in 1946 and follows the true story of a young boy (Permenter) who, on his 11th birthday, goes to a store in Tupelo with his mother to pick out his birthday present. The gift he chooses changes the world.

The Hoka Award for Best Documentary Film in the Mississippi category went to Larissa Lam’s film “Finding Cleveland.” The documentary short follows the story of Lam’s husband, Baldwin Chiu as he searches to find the history of his family by locating where his grandfather lived and died. Instead of finding a small village in

China as expected, Chiu ended up in Cleveland, Mississippi learning about Chinese-American communities in the South.

Fred Castadot’s Belgian drama “Blazing Sun” took home the Hoka Award for Best Narrative Short. The 24 minute film follows the story of a frazzled businessman named Eric who, in his rush to get to work and give a major presentation, does the unimaginable: he leaves his infant son in the car on a day where temperatures are 110 degrees.

The Hoka Award for the Best Documentary Short went to Nicholas Cole’s “The House is Innocent.”

The film tells the lighthearted story of a middleaged couple that are the proud, new owners of a house that was previously inhabited by a serial killer.

In the animation category, James Dastoli took home the Hoka for his short animation “The Sea-

farer and The Moonlight.”

The film is under three minutes and tells the story of a Viking who battles a sea monster.

Best Experimental Film went to “cyberGenesis,” directed by André Silva.

This film combines animation with live action in segments that were crowd-sourced to reimagine a future creation myth as told b a cyber consciousness.

The Hoka for Best Music Video was presented to Clay Hardwick for “Falling Star.” The music video is the compilation of three original songs by the band AJC & The Envelope Pushers into a cinematic narrative.

Oxford Film Festival’s Lisa Blount Memorial Acting Award went to independent film star Robert Longstreet. Longstreet has appeared in over 40 films,

many of which have been featured by the Oxford Film Festival.

The first annual Audience Awards Hoka, determined by online voting, went to Louis Bourgeois’s “West of Elvis.” The short documentary tells the story of the late Paul MacLeod, owner of Graceland Too. chaning.green@journalinc.com Twitter: chaningthegreen

OXFORD CITIZEN

PAGE 8

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016

New Oxford School Board president named at Monday’s meeting

BY CHANING GREEN NEWS WRITER

Monday night the Oxford School Board named Marian Barksdale as its new president-elect. She will begin serving as president next month.

The meeting opened with Superintendent Brian Harvey recognizing the service of members of the Oxford School Board. Harvey read a letter of proclamation from Governor Phil Bryant that proclaimed the week of Feb. 14-20 as School Board Recognition Week for the entire state of Mississippi. Each school board member was then recognized with a certificate.

Sitting President Whitney Byars received a plaque acknowledging her service to the school board followed by Harvey announcing that it would be her last meeting as President of the Oxford School Board.

Byars has served as president for a total of eight years. Her children grew up attending schools in the Oxford School District.

The board then recognized the achievements of the Oxford School District’s athletic coaches, including first-year coach Hunter Crane who led the Oxford High School Lady Charges to victory in the MHSAA Class 5A girls soccer state title match.

Mike Fortenberry, Technology Coordinator for the OSD, presented an update regarding the ransomware attack that held the school district captive earlier this month. The crisis has not been completely resolved. The attackers held all of the school district’s Windows-based files and servers captive, demanding a ransom of approximately $8,000. The school district refused to pay the ransom for fear of never having their files unlocked, even if they complied.

They are currently working on rebuilding the systems and trying to reassemble what was lost. A lot of progress has been made in this direction and the district’s websites are back online.

Eventually, the board put forth nomination for the new School Board President. Board members unanimously nominated and elected Marian Barksdale for the position. Barksdale has previously served as President of the Oxford School Board for two years during 2012-2014 and has served on the board since July of 2005. Be sure to check out Sunday’s edition of the Oxford Citizen to find out more about Barksdale and her commitment to the Oxford School District.

CHANING GREEN

chaning.green@journalinc.com Twitter: chaningthegreen

Superintendent Brian Harvey and President of the Oxford School Board Whitney Byars during Monday night’s school board meeting. The meeting was Byars’s last as School Board President.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016

PAGE 9

Goose Creek takes another step with hiring of Stevens Flagg

BY JOHN DAVIS OXFORD CITIZEN

For Stevens Flagg, eating good food doesn’t just involve a person’s mouth. A dish needs to be presented in a first-class manner and it needs to be appealing to all the senses. For the new executive chef of the Terrace Bar & Grill at Goose Creek Club, dining should be an experience.

Flagg started at the bottom in the restaurant business, working up from making salads to desserts and moving on to the frying food. Paying attention to the details came at the legendary Crystal Grill in Greenwood. On a busy night, Flagg was taught a lesson about presentation that involved him moving towards the chef that he has become.

“People want the food to be pretty and to taste good,” Flagg said. “To me, you with two things before you even eat with your mouth. You eat with your eyes and your nose first. You smell your food coming and then you actually see the food, you have your visual aid to match the smell and now your smell and the vision is supposed to go into your mouth. It’s supposed to go together and if it doesn’t, it might be the cook’s fault.”

Flagg is in charge of a new-look menu that is now on display to members, and the guests of members, at Goose Creek. His first experience of pleasing people came with his Valentine’s gourmet dinner. The bill of fare included a butternut squash bisque, blue crab benigts, a spinach salad with a citrus vinaigrette dressing. He also served surf and turf, which included a 16 ounce ribeye that was pan seared with roasted red potatoes. Blackened shrimp and Godiva cheesecake came along with everything to round out the meal.

WILL HUNT

Stevens Flagg is the new executive chef at Goose Creek Club’s Terrace Bar & Grille. He comes to Oxford after working at the Alluvian Hotel’s Giardina restaurant.

Barney Chadwick, the managing partner of Goose Creek, and his brother, Billy Chadwick, were instrumental in recruiting Flagg to Oxford and away from the prestigious Giardina restaurant which is located in the Alluvian Hotel in Greenwood. Flagg was named Sous Chef there in 2010, and his reputation for fantastic meals made him a draw.

“We reached out to a number of different folks who are in the food industry. And Stevens name came up to the top,” Chadwick said. “It wasn’t so

much that he was interested in leaving but how talented he was.

Our call was not one of answering an ad. Stevens has a real passion for cooking and he had already made a name for himself.”

Working in Oxford had always appealed to Flagg. When he was in culinary school, he participated in the Southern Foodways Alliance on a minority grant. As he put it, “my mind was blown because there was a lot of different chefs from all over.”

“There were chefs from New

70,000 662-801-9607.

York and Los Angeles and I got to cook with David Chang. I met John Currence and he is still a chef I look up to. He’s an inspiration. It caught my attention so much,” Flagg said. “When I graduated, John T. Edge asked for my contact information and we kept up over the years.”

That connection ultimately led Flagg to Goose Creek and a chance to make things his own.

Flagg loves to cook game, and he loves to cook quail, pheasant and squab for example.

“The way I like to cook squab

is to braise it and get it good and tender and cook it slow,” he added.

Barney Chadwick said that there will be different nights when Flagg cooks his wild game offerings in the Terrace.

When Flagg first arrived in Oxford, Barney Chadwick said he analyzed what was being offered to patrons on the menu.

The products and the vendors used in the past were also part of the process.

“What he has implemented is a lot more use of local and fresh ingredients,” Barney Chadwick said. “He took some of our favorites, some of our favorite sandwiches that were on the menu, and he made it look different. He did an update along with putting in some of the things he is famous for.”

The menu update is just the latest addition to a club that includes some of the best tennis accommodations in North Mississippi. Goose Creek is home to clay courts, which is a rarity to play on.

“Oxford has turned into such a prime destination for retirees.

It was shocking to me that as great of a tennis community as Oxford was, there were no clay courts, which are perfect for seniors,” Barney Chadwick said.

“Clay is also good for the youngsters because you have to learn an overall game. You also have to learn how work the point. You learn how to set the point up, so it’s a great tool there. We also have a great state of the art gym that is currently the best offering in Oxford. Our pool is the same thing and we have incorporated a swim team. And what we wanted to do with Stevens was raise the bar another step.” john.davis@journalinc.com Twitter: @oxfordcitizenjd

OXFORD CITIZEN

PAGE 10

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Mystery Train

N

ews broke last fall that Amtrak was adding a stop at Marks, Miss., on its famous City of New Orleans line. A stop has long existed in Greenwood but the Marks stop opens up North Mississippi to the miracle of train travel right at our back door. The Marks stop is set to begin this year as a covered depot rushes to completion.

Marks, population 1,551, is the county seat of Quitman County. It is 45 miles west of Oxford, about 70 miles from Memphis, and 60 miles from Greenwood.

The notion of riding a train – especially one to New Orleans allows us rain-bound shut-ins of North Mississippi to transcend the gloomy gauze of February and dream of blue skies viewed from the club car. In our modern, attention span-less world, traveling by train is a throwback to a slower epoch. Trains harken to an era when this country was young, wild and wooly. Rumor has it, we all were once, too.

Trains are speedy but still slow enough. They allow for reading and reflection, or just staring out the window and taking in neighborhoods that roll by, or rivers, small communities, or the vast vistas of cotton, soybeans, rice or

Jim Dees Tales of the Town simply woods. Train travel has it over airplanes. On an airplane you are sealed up in climate-controlled, cyclical (death) chamber, streaking thousands of miles in the air. If you were to jump out, you’re a splat waiting to happen.

A stain in the making. If you were to jump out of a moving train, depending on its speed, you could very likely survive. On a train you’re still of this earth. You’re still grounded.

The City of New Orleans is a particularly American line (despite it now being owned by a Canadian company) immortalized in Steve Goodman’s evocative song of the same name, it runs through the heart of the Mississippi Delta, cradle of America’s music. The new stop at Marks will afford the opportunity for blues tourists (yep, that’s a thing) to come to Mississippi, get off at Marks and visit various blues sites within driving distance. Then, catch the train for the trip home.

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considered the Father of Country Music, but he was also known as the “Singing Brakeman.” He was often photographed in his railroad duds. He is the perfect embodiment of the romantic pull that trains have on the American heart. Thinking of him reminds me to give out a good yodel when I catch my first ride at Marks.

Here in Lafayette County, decades ago, trains were so much a part of daily life, the farm kids down at Taylor knew the engineer and the engine just by the sound of the train’s whistle. Some would

Jim Dees has lived in Oxford for over 30 years and lived to tell the tale.

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even hitch a ride to town on the caboose when the train slowed to climb the hill at Thacker’s Mountain. The old-timers down there have told me you could hear the whistle from miles away. They said you had time to put on your going-to-town clothes and wolf down a sandwich before the train arrived.

As I sit here on a rainy February afternoon, the sky a funeral gray and weeping, the thought of tracks clacking by on a train seems like a happy delivery from the funk of winter. To hear a faraway whistle that sends you scurrying into the night is a call of the wild that most of us are missing in our lives.

I visualize myself in the observation car of the City of New Orleans. My buddies and I are toasting the last of the woody, north Mississippi hills as the rolling terrain gives way to gonzo Delta flatness. Mose Allison is joyously rocking on the speakers, then Fred McDowell, then Muddy Waters, then John Lee Hooker, then Mississippi John Hurt.

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OXFORD CITIZEN

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OXFORD CITIZEN

PAGE 12

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Caroline Felker

Blake Thompson

Cell: 662.801.0878 Office: 662.234.5344 Email: caroline@tmhomes.com www.youroxfordhome.com

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OXFORD CITIZEN

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OXFORD CITIZEN

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016

PAGE 15

John Davis Sports Editor

This weekend is a great time to meet the OM Rifle team

T

here have been times, more often than not, when Valerie Boothe and the members of the Ole Miss women’s rifle team walk through an airport and get asked what sport they compete in. There are 11 on the team, while it’s typical that six or seven travel to away competitions.

When Boothe tells people that she is the rifle coach at Ole Miss going through the airport the question back is: “With guns?” Boothe said adding “Yes, with guns. And then they’re like ‘Shooting?’ Yes, shooting. This is anywhere. No one every guesses rifle. We’ve gotten cheerleading, debate, golf, softball, basketball. Even with us having a couple of tall kids, what I don’t understand is basketball travels with numbers.

There is just not enough to even field a basketball team. But we’ve gotten that before.”

Just for the record, all the air rifles and the .22 caliber rifles that the team uses for competition are checked and stored in the belly of the plane. If Booth has on her Ole Miss Rifle jacket, there is a chance somebody knows the sport right off. Still, it seems like the Rebels are always having to identify themselves.

“Even when we do get on the plane, and they see the rifle team stitched on her chest, they say ‘You didn’t bring guns onboard did you?’ Well, they’re underneath but yes, we did,” Boothe said. “We get that all the time.”

What people don’t know about rifle competition, and the sport in general, is likely extensive, but that doesn’t mean that the Rebels are any less talented than the basketball or softball teams. Far from it. What they have to do in order to score, and help the team win, is amazingly tough. It may be one thing for someone to shoot, but it’s a completely different thing to hit the middle of a target the size of a period to consistently score the points needed to win.

Ole Miss is ranked No. 15 in the nation, and Booth thought they would be up to No. 14 following the win over Navy. This year has been a bit of a struggle due to injuries, and that the team is lower in the rankings than they should be.

“We have a really young team and we have had a lot of injuries. We have the talent to do it, it’s just whether or not they’re going to put the pieces together on the same day,” Boothe said. “We’ve had really great individual efforts through the season. There have been matches where it’s kind of clicked for them. What we need is for it to click for four or five people all at the same time. That’s what we’ve struggled with finding all year.”

TURN TO RIFLE PAGE 18

JOEY BRENT

Lafayette is set to start its 2016 baseball season this weekend, and coach Greg Lewis likes the depth, and talent, he has on the roster.

Deep ’Dores Lewis has talent, speed, arms to work with

BY JOHN DAVIS SPORTS EDITOR

Depth is something Greg Lewis has on his side as he returns to the diamond to lead the Lafayette Commodores. The 2016 team has players at every position.

There have been years in the past where Lewis had seven or even eight of the spots filled, but always was in search of the final starter.

While he was unsure of the product his players will put out on the field, Lewis said he had two, and sometimes, three guys at each position.

“All of my other teams, we had six or seven guys and then you were trying to plug in a couple of guys. This team, I feel, has four or five that are the mainstays but there are guys behind them,” Lewis said. “I feel like there are about six infielders that can swap places. I never had that. One day they may be starting at short or second or third. And the outfield is probably deeper than anywhere else.”

Ross Ingram is the starter behind the plate at catcher. That’s the one spot that has been solidified, Lewis said. And that’s good news considering last year’s catcher, Jake McPhail, is now playing for the Northwest Mississippi Community College Rangers.

“Jake started for four years straight so he was a very seasoned guy as far as

talking with the pitcher. Ross saw some time at Water Valley but this will be his first real experience as the main guy where he is out there running the show,” Lewis said adding that there is talent on the roster as well. “There may be a few that have to switch to where it’s just a defensive role sometimes. I’m interested to see how they handle sitting on the bench or how they can come off the bench.”

The middle of the lineup, Lewis felt, was strong from a potential standpoint.

Luke Gossett, Will Ard and Will Christian are the projected hitters in those positions.

“Luke and Will are both big, physical guys. Will has a good bat and he does a good job in the field and I think he’s going to pitch well for us as well,” Lewis said.

Ace on mound (subhead) The other bit of good news for the Commodores and Lewis is that Mack Bishop returns on the mound. Lewis said he looked sharp in recent work coming right out basketball. Lewis didn’t think that Bishop would get more than about 50 pitches the first few starts of the season as he built his stamina back up.

“He has great stuff. He has three pitches and he commands both sides of the plate,” Lewis said. “I met with him the other day and the main thing is the guys think they’re going to win every

time he steps out there on the bump. I think that’s the way it will be this year, unless somebody takes his spot. He was the surprise guy last year. Nobody really knew he was going to be that guy.”

Reed Robinson is another name to keep an eye on from a pitching standpoint, Lewis said. He and Gossett were pushing hard to join Bishop in the starting rotation.

“We’re deeper on the mound and deeper in a lot of spots. And then you throw in Bryce Hertl who is just starting to come into his own and he is a lefty,” Lewis said. “I feel real good about those guys. JP Markuson is another one who impressed me during the summer. He throws a heavy ball against left handers and he gets a lot of ground balls. I look for him to come in and do a decent job.”

Offense has always defined the Commodores under Lewis’ direction, and he feels like this year’s roster has some speed.

“I think we will be a team that can move around the bases,” Lewis said.

“There are at least four, five guys that can steal bases. And that’s what I like to do. I think those guys will be able to do that no matter what outfield we put out there. I’m excited.”

There have been some days that if the defense kicks one ball, they kick six, TURN TO LAFAYETTE PAGE 18

OXFORD CITIZEN

PAGE 16

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Bounce back Blackman gets 2016 season off to a great start

BY JOHN DAVIS SPORTS EDITOR

It was a great first weekend for Ole Miss sophomore infielder Tate Blackman. It was the kind of weekend that players dream about. Six hits, one home run, two doubles, six RBIs. What’s not to like?

The stats were really significant since 1) the Rebels earned a sweep of Florida International and 2) Blackman struggled to make much of a contribution last year.

“It’s a long journey from last year until now. It’s a whole new approach, a whole new mindset at the plate,” said Blackman, who did appear in 39 games in 2015 but only hit .197. “Really, I’ve just worked on squaring balls up and having a good, quality at bat. It was a great start. It helps me get rolling this year and hopefully it will keep rolling from here on out.”

The native of Altamonte Springs, Florida came to Oxford with high expectations. He was an elite-level recruit and drafted in the 20th round of the 2014 Major League Draft by the Milwaukee Brewers. Blackman was considered to be the top freshman, or one of them in 2015, and that just didn’t happen.

“There is no sugarcoating it that it was a bad year last year. I had all these expectations and living up to them as a freshman was definitely hard and something I guess I had to learn from,” he said. “Just handling failure last year, I think that got me to where I’m at now. I really understand that college baseball isn’t a sprint like high school baseball. You don’t play 25 games, you play 58 plus. It’s definitely a marathon. If you go 0-for20, the next 20 at bats you can go 10-for-20 and it be a different season.”

Blackman added that he “100 percent” pressed last season to make plays, which is never a good thing in the game of baseball.

“I was doing things that I wasn’t capable of doing like going up to the plate. Hitting a home run every at

VS.

Friday: 4 p.m.

Saturday: 1:30 p.m.

Sunday: 1:30 p.m.

Radio: 105.1 FM bat, I can’t do that. Hitting a double every at bat, I can’t do that,” he said.

“Getting a base hit every at bat, I can’t do that. What I can control is the pitches I swing at. If I’m getting too big with hitting balls out or doubles, then the strikeouts are going to come and it’s a snowball affect on your performance.”

Ole Miss coaches have stressed quality at bats to the Rebels this offseason, and Blackman said that a player can strikeout, as long as they really work the pitcher, making him throw a lot of pitches.

“If you work 10 pitches, that’s still a quality at bat because you made that pitcher work. So working the count and having hitter’s counts and hitting the ball hard, you’re going to get quality at bats,” Blackman said. “Our goal is to not be an easy out. If we’re going to get out, we’re going to make them rush to first or make the pitcher throw more than three pitches.

We want to make it a grinding at bat when we’re at the plate, that’s for sure.”

This past summer, Blackman played in the prestigious, and competitive, Cape Cod League.

Playing against the best, even after the season he had, gave Blackman new life on the diamond.

“The coaches up there new the type of player that I was and the type of performance that I had last year. They just said ‘Hey, have fun here and get back to the game you used to play you used to play when you were 4,’” Blackman said. “This is a loving game and one that I had been playing since I was 4 and

JOSH MCCOY/OLE MISS ATHLETICS

Ole Miss sophomore Tate Blackman got the 2016 season off to a great start with six RBIs, two doubles and a home run at the plate in the series opener against Florida International. they wanted me to get back to the Tate that loved hitting off the tee for coach pitch. They wanted me to have fun again.”

And Blackman had a lot of fun circling the bases as the Rebels won games.

There were smiles all around, he said, especially for the sweep.

“We didn’t have a sweep at all until Mississippi State and now we open up the season with a sweep,” he said. “We got good pitching and we got ready to swing.

We had good defense, it was just an all-around good weekend.”

Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco knows how good it

felt for Blackman to have the success he had coming off the year he did. He knew that the expectations for him to do that from the beginning was on him before he even took a swing in Oxford.

“He’s a really good player but this is a very humbling league. This is a humbling game. It’s tough. The one thing I keep saying about Tate is it’s never changed his work ethic,” Bianco said. “It never changed his positive energy. He’s always had a smile on his face.

Last year had to be tough to go through that. He hasn’t shied away from it. Last year it looked like he was

going to be starting second baseman from day one. He was just terrific this past weekend.”

Bianco added that Blackman had a really good fall and an even better first three weeks of the spring practice season.

“I’m proud of him and something I’m happy for him,” Bianco said.

Ole Miss, which moved up to No. 21 in the Baseball America Top 25 poll, is back in action this weekend against Louisville, which is ranked No. 2 in the D-1 Baseball Top 25 poll. Blackman said he was looking to the series, but that it all revolved around

‘pitch by pitch” and “game by game” in regards to playing the Cardinals.

“We want to minimize the mistakes and not give them too many outs,” he said. “We worry about Friday and then each pitch.

Coach B always preaches that the game is won and lost on five pitches. We don’t know which ones that’s going to be. We try play every pitch hard and not give up pitches or at bats. If we just stick with our game plan and really focus pitch by pitch, it will be a fun series.” john.davis@journalinc.com Twitter: @oxfordcitizenjd

OXFORD CITIZEN

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PAGE 17

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Rifle

Lamar National Guard Readiness Center. It’s the Rebels’ biggest weekend of the year. It’s like the football team hosting Alabama or even better put, it’s like the basketball teams playing in the SEC Tournament.

West Virginia, Memphis, Kentucky and Nebraska are all in the GARC and they are some of the top teams in the nation.

“Out of our nine programs, seven of them are going to represented in some way in the NCAA Championships, so this match is set up to be the prep for that,” Boothe said.

“It’s going to run like a mini NCAA Championship. In fact, we will have more people than what the NCAA will invite. They only invite eight teams and 48 total competitors and we’ll run 80 to 100 kids shooting this weekend with nine of the top teams.”

And rifle is a spectator sport just for the record.

Sure, the stands may not be as big as Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, but people can watch the shooting from behind glass, and then also watch on TV monitors.

“You will be able to see the shooting that goes on we absolutely want them to

FROM PAGE 15

Boothe is always looking at her shooters, at their stances, to make sure they are in a position to score well.

“We know a certain way to stand is going to work better in some ways than others,” Boothe said. “You also have to take into account each persons individual body type because their hips are going to sit a little different or their head and neck are a little longer, you have to think about structurally how it’s going to fit on the gun. There are a lot of pieces you have to put together.”

With the season at the end, Boothe said the bulk of everything revolves around mentality and things that can’t be seen.

“You really have to just talk to the athletes and get inside what they’re thinking to try and get them in a more positive frame of mind,” Boothe said.

This weekend, Ole Miss will host the Great America Rifle Conference Championships better known as the GARC at the Patricia C.

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It’s the size of a period at the end of a sentence. come,” Boothe said. “The best time to come is during the day if you have never seen shooting before. There are a lot of people in the stands that can explain what is going on. We have a lot of parents and the coaches actually sit in the stands. Fellow competitors will sit in the stands be-

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“It can be good and bad.

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I would say the most consistent thing has been the pitching. And then the hitting and then outfield. The infield is where we’re going to have to get a little bit better. I feel like we have a faster outfield than last year’s group.”

Ripley is the favorite to win the division this season based on the returners and talent. Of course New Albany will be competitive under coach John Walker.

“In our district, Ripley has a chance to go all the way,” Lewis said. “They have two big lefties and a great catcher who is really good.”

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Of course competitors can’t be just satisfied with hitting the target. You have to get it in the middle of the middle every time in order to get the perfect 10. And that’s what makes rifle a sport, the drive, the competitive drive, to be the best along with the fact that it really does take a lot of skill to accomplish.

“It is largely a mental sport. When they come in, they have to be engaged for two hours at a time, per discipline,” Boothe said.

“When they come in and start with small bore, the block of time is two hours from when they start their siding shots to when they get prepared to go and the match starts. They have to be mentally engaged that entire time. The intensity and focus they have to exhibit is exhausting. Then they get about a 30 minute break and then do it all over again for air rifle for 60 shots which gives them another hour and 15 minutes.”

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PAGE 19

Hobson, Lady Chargers prepared for anything this year

BY JOHN DAVIS SPORTS EDITOR

There are a lot of things that will decide a playoff contest. Being better prepared than the opponent is a major factor in the final decision. Oxford coach Cliff Ormon started the process of preparing his Lady Chargers for Friday’s MHSAA Class 5A matchup with Vicksburg Monday.

Before the Lady Chargers took a bite of lunch, Ormon had already gone through the finer points of what it will take to stay alive in the playoffs, and advance to Jackson to play in the state tournament.

“We wanted to focus on us and then really on Wednesday and Thursday, we’ll start to get into our opponent,” Ormon said. “If you’re not prepared this time of year, you’re going to be way behind. Matchups can come into play. We know that. Sometimes when you’re the hot team you don’t want this break. Some teams want to keep playing

on that Monday or Tuesday.”

A week between games is the longest break for the Lady Chargers since Christmas. Every week since the start of January, Ormon has coached his team on Tuesday and Friday. And then on Senior Week, it was Tuesday and Thursday.

“It is a little different, but I like this group. I think they understand what our goals are every practice and going into each game. I’m hoping we can continue that,” Ormon said.

A win Friday night will advance the Lady Chargers to the state tournament. They felt short of that goal last season. Ormon knew he would have a very competitive team when he took the job because of the way they practiced and the character he saw.

“I knew that we would go into every game with a chance to win a lot of them,” Ormon said. “We’ve stayed away from injuries and that is something you can’t foresee as a coach and what it can do to your team. We’ve

JOHN DAVIS

Oxford’s Maggee Hobson has played well down the stretch of the season, leading the Lady Chargers in scoring over the last handful of games. been fortunate with that. A lot of players have also stepped up. We don’t have what you would call a go-to player. We’ve had a different leading scorer most of our games. We don’t have that one player who gets 25 a game. We have four that are right around double figures.

That makes it fun. If one isn’t playing well that night, another one is going to step up in their place.”

Maggee Hobson is a player that has performed at a very high level for Ormon the last few weeks from a scoring standpoint. Hobson grabbed nine rebounds in the win over West Point, and Ormon said he liked that she found a way to make a difference in the game in other ways like rebounding.

“I think she is a very good 3-point shooter, but she’s been able to use her ability

to drive to her advantage,” Ormon said. “She’s been able to drive and that’s a credit to her. She had a really good summer and she has been really hot this year. The thing about her is she is a good athlete. She is good at volleyball, good at basketball. She makes some catches that other players can’t and I think it relates back to volleyball, how she knows to high point a ball.

She is catching some on the breaks that the others can’t.”

The play that fans have seen from Hobson the past few weeks is how she is supposed to be playing, she said.

“I have really high expectations for myself and I feel like to keep doing what I’ve done, I have to stay humble,” she said. “The past couple of games, I haven’t thought about it and just played like I know how to play basketball.”

Being back in the same position as last season, with one game left before making it to Jackson, with the difference being experience is a

comfort for Hobson.

“I think we have a big chance to win. I think the mindset is we look at the Lanier game, but we don’t dwell on it,” Hobson said.

“It’s a new season starting this week. We’re 0-0. It’s playoffs. You have to play your best. I feel like we can’t get too tense. I think it was a huge pressure thing last year. We have to be prepared for anything. Last year, we didn’t even look at Lanier. I think preparing is a big thing. Last year we were just going to go play our game.

You can play your game, but you have expect the unexpected.”

And the big key for this year’s contest?

“We have to block out. Big time,” Hobson said. “We can’t let them get offensive rebounds. Don’t let them get offensive rebounds and when you get them, push the ball, push the ball. Make them play your speed, play your game.” john.davis@journalinc.com Twitter: @oxfordcitizenjd

Finding a way Lafayette one win from Jackson with win over Shannon

BY JOHN DAVIS SPORTS EDITOR

Leake Central will have to play for 32 straight minutes if they have a chance of defeating the Lafayette Lady Commodores in the MHSAA Class 4A playoffs.

Shannon found that out Monday night, just as Ripley and Byhalia did last week.

The Lady Commodores continued to find ways to win games on the basketball court, defeating the Lady Red Raiders 43-41 in the LHS gym. The victory that propelled LHS into the next round was sealed by a charge. Shayne Linzy told his players that the game could be won or lost on such a play, and when Orianna Shaw stepped up to stop Shannon’s Asiainna Anderson on a drive, his point was proven correct.

“The way Shannon plays, they create a lot of problems because they’re going to be all over the court,” Linzy said. “They’re going to be trapping and just by watching film, you could see they were fast and athletic. I felt

like we were the better team. We were at home and playing well and I felt like we were going to be OK.” Monday’s victory started out just like Linzy envisioned, with his team being the aggressor.

Things changed as the game advanced and Shannon became the team that was looking to drive. In the second half, Shannon began to apply pressure much better and Lafayette struggled with some passes and finishing around the rim. Shaniyah Buford was cut off from her recent scoring success and that gave the other Lafayette players a chance to step up.

“I was proud of the girls. They never put their heads down. We had a lead and then we lose a lead and we were able to get it back and win it,” Linzy said. “These last three ballgames, we’ve proven that we can be down and come back. We did it with Ripley and Byhalia and then we showed against Shannon that we can have a lead and then lose it and then find a way to win. That’s obviously not the way you want to

JOHN DAVIS | OXFORD CITIZEN

Lafayette's Shelbi Buford led the Lady Commodores with 16 points in Monday's 43-41 win over Shannon. do it, but we’ve proven that we’re going to play for 32 minutes.”

In a timeout during the fourth quarter, Linzy told his players that taking a charge would be the turnaround of the game.

“We had to stop (Anderson) from penetrating and if we don’t, somebody was going to have to

take a charge on her,” he said. “At the end of the ballgame, we got the charge and we were able to knock down two free throws after going on the offensive end. It’s a different ballgame if they get it.

Our offensive game plan going back the other way and the way they had been defending us, it

would have been extremely tough to get a 3.”

Shelbi Buford hit both free throws with nine seconds left to break the 41-41 tie. She led Lafayette with 16 points.

Shaniyah Buford chipped in 14 points.

Linzy didn’t know anything about Leake Central coming out of the win, but he was glad to be hosting on Friday night at 7.

Lafayette is one win from going to Jackson to play in the MHSAA state tournament.

“We have to take care of Friday night and the best team on our schedule is the next team,” Linzy said. “We’re going to have to buckle down and shore up some deficiencies and continue to get better. I like where we are. We’re still in a good rhythm. We had a speed bump and that came in the form of Shannon who really played well and who I thought was a really good team. We got over that speed bump and now it’s on the next game.” john.davis@journalinc.com Twitter: @oxfordcitizenjd

OXFORD CITIZEN

PAGE 20

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Swindoll upbeat about mix of talent for Lafayette

BY JOHN DAVIS SPORTS EDITOR

Lafayette has made the MHSAA Class 4A tennis playoffs the last five seasons under the direction of Debbie Swindoll. Even with the graduation of three senior boys, Swindoll feels good about making the playoffs for the sixth straight season.

All of her female tennis players are returning to the lineup, and she has added a talented junior player in Ashleigh Bowen.

“I think we are going to be considerably deeper in the girls. In the boys, I’m still young. Worse case scenario is we make the playoffs and don’t advance beyond first round but best case scenario, for me, is to make it to the north half championships against New Albany,” Swindoll said. “I think we’re deeper this

year. Now we’re either young or old. My girls are older and my guys are young. I will probably start two ninth grade boys and at least one sophomore. Most of my girls are going to be juniors and maybe the one eighth grader who is pretty good.”

Seniors Lee McLarty and Noah Addy are the leaders on that side of the court for Swindoll. She has four junior girls and they have all played varsity for the past few seasons. Sadie Wilson, Abby Arrington, Rachel Reed and Cara Anne Sallis are the ones that have the very most experience on the team.

“I think we are further along this year than we were last year,” Swindoll said. “I’m sure everyone is working just as hard as we are.

My kids have put some extra work in. Nowadays with any sport you have to put a lot of time

in, and not just during the season. We’re going to be good. Last year we were 13-5 and we have been that for about four years. To be able to win it, we have to be that much better. That’s what I’m looking for.”

A lot of Lafayette’s matches are at home. Swindoll also scheduled 11 junior varsity matches to get her players seasoned.

“People want to come here,” Swindoll said in response to the home matches and the Commodores playing at the FNC Tennis Center. “The places we do go, they only have two or four courts and it takes all day to play a match. They can come here and be done in an hour and a half. If they want to come here, it’s fine with us.”

JOHN DAVIS

john.davis@journalinc.com Twitter: @oxfordcitizenjd

Lafayette tennis coach Debbie Swindoll will be relying on the talent and experience of Sadie Wilson this spring.

Shinall, Swindoll sign to play tennis with Meridian

BY JOHN DAVIS SPORTS EDITOR

Callan Shinall wanted to continue to play tennis beyond his career with the Oxford Chargers.

His teammate, Will Swindoll, wanted to do the same thing.

Both signed on to play with Meridian Community College and coach Wanda McPhail Wednesday.

The doubles partners will be Eagles in the future, trading blue and gold for some green and white.

“If you’re going to play tennis in Mississippi in junior college, it’s the place to go,” Swindoll said, who has known McPhail for several years. “I’ve known her since I was in the seventh or eighth grade and I just feel comfortable around her.”

Swindoll decided to pursue a scholarship playing tennis after deciding that he was done playing football.

“I still wanted to play tennis. I pretty much decided that I wanted to give tennis a shot,” he said adding that playing with Shinall was great. “It will be a good time. I grew up playing Callan.

We’ve played with each other since we were 8, 9 years old. Just to keep playing with him, it’s great to have someone down there that you’re really good friends with.”

Shinall said everything he wanted to do was at Meridian. It has been a goal of his to play tennis in college almost as long as he can remember.

“She’s great, she’s a nice lady,” said Shinall, who thought

JOHN DAVIS

Oxford’s Will Swindoll (above) and Callan Shinall (right) signed to play with Meridian Community College Wednesday.

McPhail would push him in a good way. “I’ll play wherever she wants me to. It will be good to play with Will. We have good chemistry on the court.”

Oxford coach Louis Nash said it was hard to say how much better Shinall had gotten since he’s been battling an injury and out for a month. Nash said that his son, Bo, brought out a competitive player during the fall.

“Callan got tired of Bo beating him and he finally started to beat him the last couple of times they played,” Nash said. “So it’s been good for him to have to work at

that. Callan is a lot like he has been. He has always had a great repertoire of shots. He has all the shots you need in order to be a high level player. It’s just a matter of when he needs to play them and how to deal with it when things don’t go real well. And he’s gotten a whole lot better with that in the past couple of years. I think he’s going to be a very good player for them.”

And Nash felt like Swindoll playing tennis full time would be a big advantage for him moving forward.

“He has never just concen-

trated just on tennis and he can play,” Nash added. “It will be interesting to see how good of a singles player he can be. He’s already a high level doubles player. He and Callan will do a good job of pushing each other.”

Debbie Swindoll, who started her son Will out in tennis, was excited for both Chargers to remain together.

“It was a good surprise. I’m a

tennis person so I think for him, it’s a good move. It will be interesting to see because I think Will has the talent to play further if he games develop and he gets his body in the shape it takes to compete. I’m thrilled as a tennis professional because you always want to see your child play.” john.davis@journalinc.com Twitter: @oxfordcitizenjd

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016

OXFORD CITIZEN

PAGE 21

Second-half run fuels Rebels

OLE MISS LACROSSE

BY BEN GARRETT SPECIAL TO THE OXFORD CITIZEN

JOHN DAIVIS | OXFORD CITIZEN

Courtney Cleveland and the rest of Ole Miss lacrosse team held the fourth annual Wheat Memorial Tournament this past Saturday at the intramural fields. The Rebels defeated Southern Miss and Auburn.

OXFORD – The Ole Miss Rebels have their work cut out for them to get into the NCAA Tournament discussion.

But they took another positive step Tuesday night.

Senior guard Stefan Moody scored 20 points, his 21st game of 20-plus points this season, and forward Sebastian Saiz added 15 points and 14 rebounds to lead Ole Miss past Missouri 85-76.

The Rebels (18-10, 8-7 SEC) outscored the Tigers 40-25 in the second half.

“We feel right now this is the time for us to make a run,” Ole Miss assistant coach Todd Abernethy said.

“Going into Auburn we had five games left. Our goal and expectation is to get to 5-0. We hope to be playing our best basketball going into the SEC tournament.”

Ole Miss would be the No. 7 seed if the SEC tournament –March 9-12 in Nashville – started today, and six SEC teams are within three games of first place in the conference with three games remaining in the regular season.

Ole Miss will attempt to strengthen its postseason resume and build its case for the NCAA

Tournament in the next few weeks, and the Rebels are less concerned with quantity of wins than quality at this point.

The NCAA Tournament selection committee relies heavily on Rating Percentage Index, a measure of strength of schedule and how a team performs against its schedule.

Though the Rebels have just one sub-100 RPI loss, according to KenPom.com, their meager two top100 wins likely wouldn’t be enough when weighed against other postseason resumes.

The Rebels entered Tuesday night with an RPI rank of 86 and a strength of schedule of 116. Their lone top-100 RPI opportunity remaining is Georgia, and the Bulldogs boast an RPI rank of 79. No other remaining opponent has an RPI better than 120. Ole Miss is 1-6 vs. the RPI top-50.

“Quality wins are huge for making the NCAA Tournament,” Abernethy said. “We’ve had a lot of opportunities. But the great thing is we don’t think our goals are out of reach.”

The Rebels return to action Saturday at Georgia. Tipoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. on the SEC Network.

Citizen

PAGE 22

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Email Applications to Oxford@4Seasonseqco.com Fax: 662-380-5116 Or Call to Ccehdule an Interview 662-380-5073 or 662-844-0308

Recreational Vehicles

RECREATION Boats ALUMINUM BOAT & TRAILER 16-17 foot, 4 stroke, 40 HP Yamaha engine, less thank 6 hours running time, $5,500 cash.

(662)438-6731

AUTO

Recreational Vehicles JUST IN TIME FOR CAMPING, TRAVEL AND SPRING VACATIONS.

WINNEBAGO JOURNEY CLASS A RV 2000 MODEL

34.9 FT LONG, 50 AMP HOOKUP, CUMMINS DIESEL FRIGHTLINER CHASSIS, LARGE SLIDE OUT, ONAN QUIET GENERATOR, VERY WELL KEPT PLENTY OF STORAGE, TWO TV'S. $39,500.00

662-728-2628

Cars 2002 FORD Mustang GT, Gray, 115,000 miles, $4,300.

Excellent Condition (662)538-3851

BUICK LaCrosse 2007 4 doors, White, Fully loaded.

(662)213-3840

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Citizen OXFORD

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OXFORD CITIZEN

PAGE 24

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016

BELK FORD HWY 6 WEST • OXFORD • 662.234.4661 • BELKFORD.COM 2014 GMC SIERRA SLT 4X4

2007 TOYOTA 4-RUNNER SPORT

Stock #020749

Stock #020240

Crew Cab, Loaded!

2009 CHRYSLER SEBRING TOURING

2008 NISSAN ALTIMA

Stock #020272

Stock #020269

2003 LEXUS 300GS 2.5S, Automatic

2013 TOYOTA TUNDRA

2013 AUDI A-5

Stock #020292

Stock #020297

2009 HYUNDAI TUSCON GLS

2011 FORD F-150 LARIAT

2013 TOYOTA VENZA LE

Stock #020790

Stock #014550

2.0T, Premium

OR

2013 FORD F-250 SUPER DUTY Stock #020648

2013 FORD F-150 PLATINUM

2011 HYUNDAI SONATA SE

Stock #020646

Stock #020653

$650/mo.

OR

2010 MERCEDES BENZ GLK CLASS Stock #020306

V6

$11,480

$35,980

$257/mo.

OR

OR

2009 FORD ESCAPE XLT

2012 TOYOTA RAV4

Stock #020659

Stock #020475

OR

2013 CHEVY SILVERADO CREW CAB LTZ Stock #020660

Low Miles

$16,980

$8,980

$453/mo.

OR

OR

2013 CHEVROLET TAHOE LT

2013 CHEVROLET TRAVERSE LTZ

Stock #020761

Stock #020795

4x4

$31,900

$227/mo.

$105/mo.

All Wheel Drive

$18,980

$143/mo.

$515/mo.

Super Crew, 4x4, Lariat

$44,980

OR

OR

OR

$102/mo.

$257/mo.

$392/mo.

2x4

$8,780

$18,980

$27,900

$423/mo.

Stock #020791

OR

OR

$29,900

OR

$377/mo.

$362/mo.

4x2, Leather

$121/mo.

$26,900

$25,900

Loaded!

$9,980

OR

OR

V-6, Automatic

Stock #020286

$105/mo.

$89/mo.

Supercrew, 4x2

OR

$8,980

$7,980

4x4, Supercrew

$333/mo.

OR

OR

4x4, Crew Cab, Loaded!

$23,980

$196/mo.

$424/mo.

4x2, Double Cab

4x2

$14,980

$29,980

Sunroof

2011 CHEVROLET LTZ Stock #020180

OR

2011 FORD TAURUS LIMITED Stock #020763

Loaded!

$26,980

$378/mo.

OR

$11,980

$151/mo.

OR