Oxford January 22, 2017

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Sunday EDITION

oxfordcitizen.com

Volume 3 | Issue 79

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Inside 3 News

Clothing closet revamped at The Pregnancy Test Center Oxford

6 News

COURTESY

The 7th annual Oxford Fiber Arts Festival is January 26-28 at The Powerhouse. Some of the featured activities include a show by fiber artist, Diane Williams, vendors, children's activities, and a yarn/fabric swap.

Fiber Arts

St. John's to expand church

7th annual Fiber Arts Festival returns this week

BY KATHRYN WINTER STAFF WRITER

The Fiber Arts Festival returns to Oxford January 26 through the 28. The 2017 festival will be presented at the Powerhouse Community Arts Center, and will include 17 vendors from nine states selling fiber related items and products. 28 classes are scheduled, including: two receptions, two lectures, demonstrations and children’s activities. Knit 1 Oxford will host classes on Friday, Saturday and Sunday in con-

junction with the festival. Pre-fest activities are scheduled at several other locations in the community.

“Founded through a partnership with Knit 1 Oxford and the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council, the Oxford Fiber Arts Festival celebrates independent fiber artists who keep time honored crafts alive or challenge the ideas behind fiber art with new exciting works,” according to Andi Bedsworth, festival coordinator. “This is Mississippi’s largest and oldest fiber arts festival and it brings together artists, crafts

12 Sports

people and fiber producers to celebrate the broad scope of fiber arts. The annual event mixes traditional artisans with contemporary artists connecting the unique role fiber arts as both a functional and fine art form.”

10 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday are the festival hours, with lectures and demonstrations starting at 9 a.m. On Saturday there will be llamas, sheep and more animals for kids who get in for free TURN TO FIBER ARTS PAGE 2

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OXFORD CITIZEN

PAGE 2

SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2017

Fiber Arts FROM 1

admission. Adult admission is $2 a day, or $5 for all weekend. Light, simple refreshments will be available for purchase outside. The University Museum film screening is free to the public and will be serving Mexican hot chocolate and popcorn, as well as having a fiber art exhibit in the gallery. The art crawl also features a lot of fiber related events, the Edison is having a private show and four stops on the art crawl will be fiber related. “A lot of classes will be beginner level, we will have beginning spinning, beginning lace, little basket weaving, ring hooking, finger knitting, etc. Fiber arts covers so many things it’s contemporary but also feeling of creating and making something,” Bedsworth said.

This will be the 7th year for the festival to take place.

This year the festival takes a new direction as Lynn Wells and Patsy Engelhard of Knit1 Oxford pass the torch to Bedsworth as the new

COURTESY

On Saturday during the 7th annual Oxford Fiber Arts Festival, there will be llamas, sheep, and other animals on hand for the kids to pet. coordinator. Knit1 will remain active as part of the festival. Bedsworth is an instructor at the John C Campbell School, a fiber artist and costume designer. She is active in the Craftsmen’s Guild of Mississippi, the Oxford Artist Guild and her own business, Art To Go. The event features an exhibit of fiber related works, which over the six years of the festival has ranged from historic quilts, handmade crafts works, and contemporary

works. The festival kicks off with an annual welcome reception that allows attendees to meet the artists, teachers and vendors who offer programs throughout the festival.

Wayne Andrews, Director of Yoknapatawpha Arts Council & The Powerhouse Community Arts Center, said they are thankful for the partnership with Andy, and that they had this vision of what they wanted this year’s festival to be. “The demographic of the festival is

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other organizations in town including a film screening at the University Museum, children’s fiber related activities at the Oxford Lafayette Regional Public Library, a reception at Oxford Treehouse Gallery, and a special show by Thacker Mountain Radio at Off Square Books featuring guest artist, Diane Williams who will be exhibiting fiber art during the entire month of January and giving two lectures during the weekend.

“The festival is an inter-

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so diverse, growing up we learned how to do things like sewing just to function.

We’re seeing an interest in people who want to disconnect from their professional lives and who have developed an interest in fiber and how all these things work.

They want to disconnect from technology and make things with their hands and actually feel the fibers and understand the processes,” Andrews said.

This year’s schedule includes partnerships with

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esting and intimate experience introducing the novice to a variety of processes that transform plant and animal materials into fibers while providing the hobbyist and fiber fanatics the chance to talk directly with our curated exhibitors, observe demonstrations and take classes learning new skills,” Bedsworth said. In their mission to celebrate traditional and contemporary fiber arts, the Oxford Fiber Arts Festival seeks to expose participants to all kinds of disciplines, including felting, knitting, crochet, tatting, needlework, quilting, fabric dyeing, spinning, weaving and sewing. The Powerhouse festivities culminate in a family day with live animals and activities geared to children and adults on Saturday. A special exclusive class offered at Knit 1 Oxford on Sunday

by Sky Loom Weavers closes out the festival.

For more information about the festival including the event schedule, class registration and more visit www.oxfordarts.com/event s/fiberfest. The festival is also on Instagram @oxfordfiberfest.

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SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2017

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Clothing closet revamped at The Pregnancy Test Center Oxford

BY KATHRYN WINTER STAFF WRITER

The Pregnancy Test Center Oxford has updated and reorganized their Children’s Clothing Closet project.

The Clothing Closet has gently used baby items in sizes newborn through 5T and is free to anyone who needs them. Anyone who is in need is welcome to the items, and you do not have to be an established client of the center. The Clothing Closets are divided into separate girls and boys rooms and include bedding, hats, kids shoes, swimsuits and other accessories.

The Clothing Closet has been at the Pregnancy Test Center for three years, and Rebecca Bishop, the center director decided it was time to organize and revamp it.

Located in the basement downstairs of the center, donations are organized by size, gender and season. “It’s like going into a boutique now, before it was just plastic tubs stacked in a closet and there wasn’t enough space. Tons of volunteers have helped us with this project. We installed rods to hang clothes and shelves, a bathroom and added a play place for older kids to wait while the mom shops. You can find anything you need for kids here,” Bishop said.

The center has a washer and dryer on site, so as soon as donations come in they are freshly laundered. Bishop said they recycle items until they can’t be used anymore. Anyone who wants to donate children’s clothes can bring them to the center in Oxford and can be left on porch if the center is closed.

The center offers a tax write off form for donations. “We’re really grateful for all of our volunteers who come and work, it’s a huge task to stay on top of because the donations can really pile up and get out of control,” Bishop said.

The center is closed on Thursdays and week-

COURTESY

The Pregnancy Test Center houses the Children's Clothes Closet, a service that provides girls and boys clothes sizes newborn to 5T. ends, but is open Monday, Tues, Wed, and Fri from 9a.m. until 5 p.m.

“Anyone interested in donating or volunteering can visit our new website, savalifeoxford.com.

We always need extra help- men can get involved too. Lawn work, yard work is always needed. People go above and beyond and we’re really thankful for that.

Church youth groups volunteer here on project days, and we had people donate new plants for our landscaping out front.” Bishop said the center is a non-profit and that they are very blessed to have such great support from over 50 community churches.

Founded in 1997, the center is locally funded and provides a variety of free services and programs to meet the needs of clients in Oxford.

Other services offered besides the Clothes Closet are: 24-hour helpline, free pregnancy tests, free ultrasounds and parenting classes among many more. Services are confidential and Bishop and the staff

work to meet the needs and help clients in the community however they can. “We offer free prenatal vitamins, a 6 month supply, pregnant or not it’s a service that we offer. We try to do whatever we can for a girl in a crisis or who may feel like she’s at the end of the rope. Adoption and abortion plans are discussed. We try to focus on the good in the community, give them info and facts and then let them make a decision,” Bishop said. “We want them to know when they come here they’re safe, in good hands and we give top notch care.”

The center also offers a six-week class that takes them through all trimesters of pregnancy.

Participants in the class can earn points to spend in the center’s baby boutique, which is the center’s brand new stuff donated from local churches. Participants can earn new stuff like car seats. “We’re here, we offer suggestions, advice, will talk and give tours.

We try to fulfill emotional and spiritual needs.”

OXFORD CITIZEN

PAGE 4

OBITUARIES

SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2017

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. NATIONAL DAY OF SERVICE

TERRY GLEN KLEPZIG Terry Glen Klepzig, 56, died January 18, 2017, at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis, TN. The funeral service will be held Monday, January 23, 2017, at 11:00 a.m. at First Baptist Church of Abbeville, MS with Rev. Robert Allen and Rev. Randy Bain officiating. Burial will follow in Abbeville Cemetery.

Visitation will be held today from 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. in West Hall at Waller Funeral Home and prior to the service beginning at 10:00 a.m. at the church.

Memorial contributions in Terry’s memory may be made to First Baptist Church, 800 Van Buren, Oxford, MS 38655.

COACH BOBBY LEE SANDERS Coach Bobby Lee Sanders, 85, died January 18, 2017, in Oxford, MS. The funeral service was held Saturday, January 21, 2017, at 2:00 p.m. in the Chapel of Waller Funeral Home with Rev. Bill Barksdale officiating. Burial followed in Oxford Memorial Cemetery.

Memorial contributions in Coach Sanders’ memory may be made to St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church Building Fund, P.O. Box 6, Oxford, MS 38655.

PHOTO BY CHANING GREEN

Keynote speaker and UM Professor of Sociology Brian Foster engages an audience Monday morning at the Burns-Belfrey Museum and Multicultural Center. Held on MLK Day and the National Day of Service, Foster’s speech focused on the legacy of Dr. King and asked what the civil rights leader’s work meant to those in the audience.

Winter Institute launches toolkit on Day of Racial Healing

BY CHANING GREEN NEWS WRITER

The William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation collaborated with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and more than 130 organizations around the country to participate in Tuesday’s National Day of Racial Healing.

The Kellogg Foundation announced the event at a special summit that was held in Carlsbad, California in early December. Director of Community Building for the Winter Institute Portia Ballard Espy attended the conference, which was called the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Summit.

“They, the Kellogg Foundation, are bringing together religious, community and philanthropic organizations as well as individuals to collaborate and help facilitate racial healing,” Espy said. “They saw that the cli-

mate in the country is not faring well for race relations.

The past couple of months, we see things may have even taken a couple steps backwards. So this is their effort to bring us all together.”

For their part of the event, the Winter Institute created and launched what they are referring to as a community dialog toolkit. The toolkit is meant to emulate activities like the Welcome Table and different story circles the institute holds in order to engage community members in a dialogue about themselves, the community and the race relations.

The packet is divided into six different parts and guidelines are listed that are meant to help the dialogue continue to flow in a nonhostile, judgment-free manner. The hope is that the dialogue will be constrictive and introspective rather than accusatory. One of the rules is no fixing and states that, “Each of us is here to

discover our own truths, to listen to our inner teacher, to take our own inner journey.

We are not here to help right another’s wrongs, to ‘fix’ or ‘correct’ what we perceive as broken or incorrect in another member of the group.”

Rule No. 4 in the guidelines advises that members seek understanding by suspending judgment and assumptions while listening to another member of the group speak about their perceptions and experiences.

“Set aside your judgments,” the guideline says.

“By creating a space between judgments and reactions, we can listen to the other, and to ourselves, more fully, and thus our perspectives, decisions and actions are more informed.

Our assumptions are usually invisible to us, yet they under-gird our worldview and thus our decisions and our actions. By identifying our assumptions, we can then set them aside and open our viewpoints to greater possibilities.”

After the summit in Carlsbad, Espy said she was ex-

cited to come back to the Winter Institute and get to work creating the toolkit in the hops of it facilitating these dialogs all over the state and beyond.

“Those of us that do this work on a regular basis are very interested in this work and interested to see what we can do to create a more positive climate and provide healing in the area of racial reconciliation,” she said.

“The Kellogg Foundation asked that when we left that conference to go back home and see what work we could do there on this particular day to bring attention to this and give people tools. We want people to start talking and bring people together for a positive outcome in the area of race relations.”

The toolkit is accessible anywhere in the world and can be downloaded for free as a .pdf from www.winterinstitute.org/nationalday-healing-toolkit/.

“If someone is not com-

fortable, or simply has just never lead one of these conversations, we have everything in this kit that you would need to have people come together and have this kind of discussion,” Espy said. “I do believe that there is still a huge racial divide in our country. Having conversations like this is important because people we are not comfortable being around or people that are ‘so very different’ from us.This is because we don’t know these other people’s stories. We have not reached out to get to know them and know the similarities we have, rather than only focusing on the differences.”

For more information and the Winter Institute and their work in communities across the state, check out their website www.winterinstitute.org and click on their “About Us” tab. chaning.green@journalinc.com Twitter: chaningthegreen

OXFORD CITIZEN

SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2017

PAGE 5

Lafayette elementary schools host math and literacy night for parents

BY CHANING GREEN NEWS WRITER

Lafayette County Upper and Lower Elementaries came together Thursday night to host an event showing parents and students exactly how skills learned in one grade are used to transition into the next.

Parents, students, teachers and administrators gathered at the schools from about 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. to learn more about grade promotion as well as certain skills students are learning.

Janine Lee is the K-5 Lead Teacher at Lafayette and was instrumental in planning Thursday night.

She said the event was meant to demonstrate in an easily comprehendible way exactly how individual parts of the Mississippi College and Career Readiness Standards are used to build on certain skills that will propel a child from one grade level to the next with the smoothest transition possible. At the event, teachers focused on one standard and showed how it was built upon as the child progressed through the school system.

“In the classrooms, the teachers were presenting and focusing on a math standard as well as a language arts standard,” said Lafayette County Upper Elementary School Principal Thomas Tillman. “The focus was to allow parents to observe how one skill from the previous grade is built upon the by the skills learned in the incoming grade. We were able to ac-

COURTESY OF THE LAFAYETTE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT

Students at Lafayette engage at an activity during the math and literacy night that was held at the school Thursday night.

The event was held to engage students and parents in looking at the Mississippi College and Career Readiness Standards and how they transition from grade to grade. tually, by pairing the grades together, let parents see exactly how it would look like in one grade and then in another.”

For example, second and third grade teachers worked together to each teach a lesson demonstrating the same skill. The demonstration would feature actual work that a second grader would normally be doing at school, and then the third grade teacher would come in and relate that skill to the work his or her students do. This would continue down the line and the fourth grade teacher would do a lesson showing the usage of the same skill and so on.

“We did have some of the teachers who actually got into sharing the specific expectations as to what to look for and except with their child coming into a new grade,” Tillman said “They talked

about certain building procedures and I think that was very important for our parents who have a second grader coming up to the third grade because they are located in different buildings.”

This is the first year the two elementary schools have done something like this together. Last year, Principal Paula Gibbs of the lower elementary school hosted a similar event that engaged parents of students who attend her school. The idea is meant to provide a level of transparency and preparedness to the parents of students.

The practice follows the same principles as vertical alignment, which is a practice done by faculty across grade levels to make sure they are lining up lessons in such away that will provide the maximum benefit to a student as he or she progresses through different grades.

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Organizers from Thursday night will be surveying parents who attended the event. They want to make what happened an annual event and expand it in such a way to include and accommodate as many students and parents as they can. They are hoping

that parents will be able to provide feedback that would allow for the most productive night possible.

“We need our parents to help us to help our children be successful,” Tillman said when asked why he though involving parents in the education

process is important. “It definitely takes a community. It’s about what we’re doing here in the building, but it’s also about what we need parents to help and assist us with at home.” chaning.green@journalinc.com Twitter: chaningthegreen

OXFORD CITIZEN

PAGE 6

SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2017

PHOTO BY CHANING GREEN

The north side of St. John the Evangelical Catholic Church will be removed and extended 26 feet in a new renovation the Church is planning in order to accommodate more parishioners in the sanctuary and add two meeting rooms downstairs.

St. John's to expand church

BY CHANING GREEN NEWS WRITER

St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church is getting ready to undergo a major renovation.

The building that serves as the Church now was dedicated in 2008. The building that stood in its place previously was torn down in 2005 and had been the Church since the early 1940s. Father Joe Tonos is the priest at St. John’s.

“The legend is that it was built in 50 days,” Tonos said, speaking of the original building that stood on the grounds. “It wasn’t really supposed to last as long as it did, but it did. They Frankensteined some pieces and parts together and let it stand as long as it could.”

Currently, the sanctuary

of the Church can comfortably sit about 375 people.

This number is achieved by pulling out additional temporary seating that supplements the pews that are affixed in rows in the church. Tonos said that they were getting to where they had to pull out the additional seating for nearly every service held at the church.

There are about 450 registered members of the congregation. There are also 13,000 students who come to the university and identify as Catholic.Visitors who are in town for football weekends, special events or other reasons must also be taken into consideration.

The pews fill up fast.

For the three masses they hold every Sunday in the summer months or during winter breaks, the church

PHOTO BY CHANING GREEN

Early drafts detailing the planned renovations are available for viewing at the church. fills anywhere from 250 to 300 seats every single service. But when the students return and visitors are in town, there simply is not enough room all the time.

More than 1,000 people can come through the church during a busy Sunday.

“It’s exciting,” Tonos said of the expansion. “It’s one more testimony to the growth in this town. It’s good to see so many young families and young people moving to Oxford, and that is really what is growing and renewing this congrega-

tion. We’re getting a lot of young professionals moving here, young people moving here for the university, the new chancellor and his family are Catholic—we have all this coming here and I think that just really speaks to the growth of the area. I’m pretty psyched about it.”

The project will require the entire north side of the church to be knocked out and then extended approximately 26 feet, toward the Church’s annex that houses offices and educational spaces. The two buildings will not connect after the addition and will be separated by a walkway.

On the upper level of the church where the sanctuary is located, this will allow for 10 new rows of pews that will increase the number of permanent seating

available to 616. The architects made a special note on the early plans for the project to pay special attention to the acoustics in the room. There will also be several new rooms of different sizes added to the space beyond the sanctuary church.

On the lower level of the church, two large meeting rooms will be added. One room will be 682 sq. ft. while the largest of the two will have 990 sq. ft. with the capacity to seat 81 people as well as have a handicap accessible restroom. Both rooms will be plumbed and have sinks installed.

A total of 5,702 sq. ft. of new space will be added to the building and 2,270 sq. ft. of existing space will be renovated for the project.

TURN TO ST. JOHN’S PAGE 7

OXFORD CITIZEN

SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2017

PAGE 7

Oxford Tourism Board discusses recent press, lodging numbers

BY CHANING GREEN NEWS WRITER

The Oxford Tourism Council held their monthly meeting Wednesday to discuss Oxford’s status as a vacation destination.

The board went over the outside press the city has received from travel magazines. Most recently, Oxford was featured in AAA Texas Journey. A four-page spread by June Naylor called Oxford “A Novel Town” and focused on the town’s literary history as well as dining options, the University of Mississippi and other attractions the town has to offer. The magazine Naylor’s article was featured in has a circulation of over a million subscribers.

Country Road Magazine is an online publication that also ran an article by Beth D’Addono about Oxford in December. D’Addono visited Oxford in

November to learn more about the town. Her article, titled “Don’t Miss Oxford,” focused on the university, Faulkner and food options around town. The article specifically listed nine places to visit and things to do in Oxford. The list included restaurants like Canoodle and City Grocery as well as places like the university and the Graduate Hotel.

The Flying Tuk service was also listed. Country Road Magazine’s is projected to reach approximately 30,000 readers.

Visit Oxford reported that a total of 177 visitors came to their offices in November and December.

Those visiting from outside the United States were coming from Canada, France, Portugal, the UK, South Africa and Ukraine.

Using analytical data provided by Zignal Labs, the board was able to learn that Oxford was the

most mentioned city in the state of Mississippi on the internet, with a total of 97,504 mentions. The town averaged 611 mentions a day and 25 per hour. The second most mentioned city was Hattiesburg and the third was Tunica.

The report shown at the meeting also had numbers for the Chamber of Commerce’s Night of Lights feature. The original map was shared from Visit Oxford’s Facebook shares a total of 82 times, but the map itself had an impressive 9,383 views.

Lodging in the city slightly dipped in 2016 as monthly occupancy declined in Oxford hotels.

The month of November, as an example saw a 9.9 percent decrease in the number of occupants in city lodgings comparative to 2015 numbers. chaning.green@journalinc.com Twitter: chaningthegreen

PHOTO BY CHANING GREEN

As it stands, the sanctuary can only seat about 375 people, this is including temporary seating that is pulled out when needed, which is often.The expansion is hoping to add 10 new rows of pews that would allow the sanctuary to seat a total of 616 people.

St. John’s FROM 6

Tonos hopes the project will take only about 18 months, but it is far too early to estimate. Because of how modern the building is, there are a number of factors that must be taken into account for the

project. It isn’t as simple as knocking down a wall and adding another. There are electrical issues and the steel framework to consider among other things.

During the construction, the Church should still be able to hold mass in the building. The side that is undergoing construction will be blocked

off and should not interfere with regular services.

If for any reason they need to move the congregation, there is a downstairs area in the annex of the building that safely and comfortably holds about 200 people. chaning.green@journalinc.com Twitter: chaningthegreen

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OXFORD CITIZEN

SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2017

OXFORD CITIZEN

SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2017

PAGE 9

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OXFORD CITIZEN

PAGE 10

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PAGE 11

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PAGE 12

SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2017

Ben Garrett Special to Oxford Citizen

Sowell looking for next NFL stop

F

ormer Ole Miss offensive lineman Bradley Sowell recently wrapped his fifth NFL season, and his first with the Seattle Seahawks.

Now comes the next step.

Sowell is entering free agency for the second time in as many offseasons, and the Hernando, Miss., product isn’t sure what his future holds. Sowell appeared in 10 games, with six starts, for the Seahawks in 2016-17.

Seattle was eliminated from the playoffs following a 36-20 loss to the Atlanta Falcons in the divisional round last week.

“The standard is so high in Seattle,” Sowell said. “Getting to the second round of the playoffs, it really felt like a failed season with all the talent we had here. They make you think your’e about to win the Super Bowl here. I had already made my Super Bowl plans. I thought for sure we had a chance to win. That’s how confident they are here.

“When the season ends, it immediately just ends in the NFL. The next day you go to your exit meetings and, boom, it’s over. You go from having a schedule that every hour you have something to do, to having a bunch of free time until April. I find myself playing Barbies with my kids and taking them to school. It’s a totally different lifestyle. It’s a little hard to get over, a little hard to adjust.”

Sowell played his first NFL season with the Indianapolis Colts in 2012. A three-year stint with the Arizona Cardinals followed, and this time last year, prior to his first foray into free agency, he fully expected to re-sign with the team. However, the Seahawks offered more money and a better opportunity. Sowell started 12 of 16 games for the Cardinals in 2013. He appeared in a combined 32 games the next two seasons as a reserve.

Free agency is all about opportunity, and it only takes one team to make a commitment for a player such as Sowell to, say, uproot his family from the sunny, hot deserts of Arizona and head north to the rainy, cooler surroundings of the Pacific Northwest.

The 2017 league year and free agency period begin at 3 p.m. CT March 9.

“It’s a unique period of your life,” Sowell said of free agency. “You don’t know how long your career will be, and it’s a short period. You get to experience new places.

Hopefully your team keeps you, but at the TURN TO SOWELL PAGE 13

PETRE THOMAS

Former Oxford High football coach Johnny Hill was elected into the Mississippi Association of Coaches Hall of Fame on Wednesday less than a full year after he left the coaching ranks.

Special Honor Oxford's Hill voted into MAC Hall of Fame

BY JOHN DAVIS SPORTS WRITER

Johnny Hill's impact on the sport of football, and sports programs at the high school level overall, earned him respect from his peers for decades.

The respect he garnered over his career was clear this past Wednesday when the past presidents of the Mississippi Association of Coaches voted him into the organization's hall of fame.

Hill was one of five chosen for the award and the 2017 class will be honored this June at a banquet. The vote was held at the MAC's offices in Clinton and Hill, who was nominated six months ago, was picked in his first year of eligibility, which is also noteworthy.

“It's just an unbelievable honor to even be considered for that and then get inducted into it,” Hill said. “It's very humbling. The credit goes to a lot of coaches and a lot of players and the communities that first of all gave me a job and believed in me. We all know that good players make good coaches, so I will accept the award, but it's really a credit to the places I've coached.”

Johnny Mims is the MAC Executive

PETRE THOMAS | BUY AT PHOTO.DJOURNAL.COM

Oxford head coach Johnny Hill talks with the kickoff return team before the start of Thursday’s game.

Director and long-time friend to Hill, who he said was a great coach but also a great mentor to a lot of young kids.

“He was also a great athletic director and he really took care of other sports in other schools. He was always trying to promote his other sports and looking to hire the best person he could get to coach the other sports,” Mims said. “That says a lot in today's world because a lot of these schools fight with kids and fight with coaches trying to keep kids from playing other sports. This is my 16th year doing this and Johnny is well respected coach, not only for his knowledge of the game, but just how would approach other coaches. They respected him

and who he was and you can see what his peers thought of him to put him in the hall of fame.”

Hill's biggest impact as a head coach was at Oxford High where he won 180 games, but he also coached at Tupelo and Warren Central and Holly Springs over his career. Hill ended up with 215 wins as a head coach and he finished up by leading the Chargers to three straight MHSAA Class 5A state title games.

And he said all of those places, the players and the assistants that he worked with, were key in him earning a spot in the hall of fame. Hill said he was in a state of shock when he was told the news and the reason was so many have waited a long time on the list before getting in.

“It was the first time my name was in that hat. I don't even know who even nominated me for it and I know I didn't vote for myself because I didn't think that was appropriate,” Hill said. “Again, it's a credit to the people that I've worked for more so than for me. It's a huge honor. There are a lot of great people who have already made it in and there are a lot of good people that didn't make it in. There TURN TO HILL PAGE 14

OXFORD CITIZEN

SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2017

PAGE 13

Team-First Player Pruitt proud of what LHS has accomplished this year

BY JOHN DAVIS SPORTS WRITER

Well before the 2016-2017 soccer season even started, Kirkland Pruitt knew she had to be an even better leader for the Lafayette Lady Commodores. She was that for the volleyball team this past fall and as soon as that season concluded, she was back on the soccer field, ready to mold her teammates together.

Pruitt was looking forward to the soccer season back in November because it was a chance for everyone to rely on each other instead of just one standout.

“I think we know how to win. The team we have now, we've been playing together for so long and we all mesh well together,” Pruitt said then. “The ones on the varsity team pretty much play club and we get extra practice. I think we'll do well.”

Lafayette definitely proved they knew how to win, and compete. After feeling things out to start the year, the Lady Commodores got on roll at just the right time. Coach Melinda Scruggs expected Pruitt to put the team first before the year began.

Sowell FROM 12

same time, whenever you get to renegotiate, it’s kind of fun. The last couple of years for me have been kind of fun; getting other offers and getting a chance to control your own situation. That’s ultimately what you want to be able to do in the NFL, is control your situation. “(The Seahawks) have expressed interest in keeping me, but at the same time, I started quite a bit of games this year that I got on film. You never know what teams are looking at you, what teams like you or what they’re going to offer you. You never know what Seattle can afford at the moment, so you have to wait until March and see how it all shakes out. Last year at this time I had no clue that I even had any in-

“Now that she is a senior for me, the thing that is standing out is how she leads by example in fitness and how she trains and how she presents things to the team,” Scruggs said. “It's always about the team, never about herself. She is crucial to what we do. When she's not on the field, you're going to see a big difference.

Her presence on the field is something we need to have in order for us to be successful. She is the one that's going to be grounded in the back for us at center back and she is going to be leader back there and run whatever system we're playing.”

Pruitt, who has signed to play soccer at Southwest Mississippi Community College, said after some time to figure out the new strengths and weaknesses, everything moved in the right direction for the Lady Commodores.

“It just took us a little bit of time to become what we are now,” she said. “And that's a pretty solid team right now. At first I was a little disappointed, but I knew we could come together and be a stronger team towards the end of the year. It just took us a little time and terest from the Seahawks. I was planning on going back to Arizona, and the Seahawks called me and flew me up there. They gave me a good offer and a chance to start games. It was fun.”

Where Sowell ultimately ends up is anyone’s guess right now. What’s certain is the 6-foot-7, 309-pound tackles wants to keep playing. But a day in the not-sodistant future will arrive when his football career is over. And when it does, Sowell will head home.

Because, in the end, he’s still all Ole Miss.

“There wasn’t a guy on the team while I was on the team that loved Ole Miss more than me,” Sowell said.

“I mean, I would kick my locker when we’d lose, which was a lot, and cry like a big (butt) baby. But I just loved Ole Miss, and that’s how I grew up. It means a lot to you, and it meant a lot

JOEY BRENT

Lafayette senior Kirkland Pruitt has been a guiding force for the younger Lady Commodores both on and off the field this season.

I'm really excited about the is the thing that the Lady team we're becoming.”

Commodores have done Maintaining possession the best, or the most consis-

tently, over the course of the season.

“No matter what kind of situation or opponent we have, I think we do really well at keeping possession of the ball and working it up and down the field as much as possible,” said Pruitt, who is one of three captains on the team. “I think being a captain gives you a new responsibility on the team.

All the girls look up to you as a real leader and not just on the field, but off the field, too. Girls come up to me and Halle (Moore) and Madison (Lee) and ask us for help at school or relationships or soccer or whatever. It's just a whole different thing than just being another girl on the team. They really do look up to you as a leader.”

Pruitt felt like she has progressed a lot as a player this season, and helping the team as much as she can in order for the program to succeed.

“I really tried to do as much as I could for them and to make the coaches proud,” she added. “I think that I've progressed so much since the first year that I've played in seventh grade. I'm a completely dif-

ferent player. I'm smarter on the field and know the mistakes I don't need to make anymore and how not to make them. I think being a senior, knowing this is the last year to play, it really changes your mindset. Juniors and sophomores don't get that mindset until you're a senior.”

When Lafayette won the 2015 state title, Pruitt said it was a real tough year from an emotional standpoint.

She was most proud for that moment because of what the Lady Commodores overcame.

“We did not all get along so it made me really happy to see the team get over their differences and come out with a win when things really mattered,” she said.

“And I'm most proud of this team we have this year. This is the first time I've been on a team where we are all really bonded and all working together. There is no drama on the team or differences.

We're all really close and I'm proud of that. We all depend on each other a lot.

It's not just one person or two. We all need each other an equal amount or do it without the person in front of us or behind us.”

of baseball games as well.

Can’t wait.”

But before his descent into around-the-clock Ole Miss fandom, he has a job to do, wherever that job may be. He’s open to any and all suitors.

“First off, I’m looking for who’s going to pay me the most because that’s what you have to do in the NFL,” he said. “In all seriousness, though, I always look at the team’s defense. Because as an offensive tackle, if you get a team that can’t stop anybody and all of the sudden you get down a ton of points in a game, you can find yourself in some bad Like twosituations. minute-drill and it’s pass, pass, pass. Obviously it’s USA TODAY going to be a lot harder to Bradley Sowell, former Ole Miss offensive lineman, is entering free agency and waiting to see block a guy. I’ve always what the future holds. been on a team that’s had a good defense in the NFL. have a job that lets me off every year. I’ll definitely al- You don’t want to be on a to me while I was there.

“I won’t miss a game. If on the weekends, I’ll proba- ways support Ole Miss, and team that can’t stop anyI’m fortunate enough to bly travel to every game I’ll definitely make it to a lot body.”

OXFORD CITIZEN

PAGE 14

SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2017

Lady Chargers 'Freeze' the Lady Tigers Tigers take division lead with win over Chargers overall, 0-3 in Division 2-5A).

"Jordan Freeze just filled the stat-line up," Ormon said of his guard. " I thought she did a great job of squeezing the middle (of the press). She kinda baited (the Saltillo guards) into throwing the same pass numerous times. Obviously she had 10 steals. She did a great job of reading that. She is a very smart player and was able to bait the girls to make those passes. She's a very good player. A lot of people think she's just a shooter, but she has a great mind for the game and knows how to play."

Oxford was tied at eight with Saltillo after the first quarter, but the Lady Chargers outscored Saltillo 17-6 in

the second quarter, capped with a 30-foot three-pointer

by Freeze at the halftime buzzer to push the lead out to double digits at 25-14.

"I thought after the first quarter, we settled into the game we hoped to start with," Ormon said about Oxford's play in the first half.

"We were a little sloppy and didn't get our press set. If you want to be a pressing team, you have to be able to score first. After we finally got a couple buckets without turning the ball over, I thought the press really turned the game for us. I thought our team played extremely hard tonight."

Christina Owens added 10 points for Oxford (7-13, 21). Caliya Toles chipped in

eight points with 11 rebounds and three blocks for the Lady Chargers. Nevaeh Bledsoe led the Lady Tigers with 12 points. Oxford outrebounded Saltillo 39-29 in the contest.

-Chargers FallThe Saltillo Tigers took over first place in Division 25A with a 74-71 victory over the Oxford Chargers in the nightcap.

Saltillo (15-7, 3-0) was led with big nights by Jayven Humphrey with 23 points and 14 rebounds and Isaiah Hardy with 16 points, but Saltillo coach Craig Lauderdale thought the play of his point guard Julian Warren was what truly made the difference against Oxford.

"Since Christmas, our

point guard Julian Warren was out for the first part of the season," Lauderdale said. "We get him back and he's just stabilized the ship.

He makes everybody else on the team better. The other guys don't have to handle the basketball. They get to set and hit shots."

Oxford coach Drew Tyler thought the overall defensive effort on their guards Humphrey and Warren was lackluster and let the Tigers do too much around the rim.

"Humphrey, number 24 for them, he's a good player," Tyler said of the Saltillo shooting guard.

"He's one of the better juniors in the state. We knew what he was going to do, but

we allowed their guards to get to the goal too much, secure the ball without ball pressure. As a committee, we allowed their guards to do what they want. When you have two senior guards that are some of the best in the state with Jarkel Joiner and Terry Williams, we've got to buckle down, play better defense, and cut off the penetration."

Warren complemented Humphrey's double-double with 23 points, five rebounds, five assists, and three steals for Saltillo. Joiner led all scorers with 44 points.

J. J. Pegues and Drew Bianco each chipped in 10 points apiece for Oxford (15-6, 2-1).

Saltillo finished 20-for-22 from the free throw line.

I've coached against or known for a lot of years. To be considered in that FROM 12 group is quite an honor.” are really a lot of outstandOnce word got out ing coaches in there that Wednesday, Hill was show-

ered with text messages from his family, who he said were all “smiles and tickled to death” about the news.

“I've had a lot of nice remarks,” said Hill, who re-

turned to the sidelines this past fall to help his son at New Albany. “The only way we could have made this better was if they had gotten that call right and we

won that state championship.”

Joining Hill in this year's class are Bobby Hall, who has coached at schools such as Amory and Madi-

son Central, Sam Washington, Mike Wilkinson, who is the head of the athletic trainers in the state and large contributor to the MAC, and Johnny Barfield.

BY BEN MIKELL SPECIAL TO OXFORD CITIZEN

The weather has been a little warm up in north Mississippi this week.

Friday night, it was freezing inside the Saltillo gym.

Jordan Freeze ended up with a double-double on the night, but nearly completed an extremely rare quadruple-double with 13 points, seven rebounds, nine assists, and 10 steals for the Oxford Lady Chargers in their 56-35 win over the Saltillo Lady Tigers.

Oxford girls coach Cliff Ormon thought the press turned the game into Oxford's favor and Freeze was an instrumental part of their success against Saltillo (3-18

Hill

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