It was a banner year for East Central Community College.
The school’s baseball team reached new heights as they opened the season with 27 straight wins and were ranked the No. 1 team in the NJCAA. They ended the season with a school-record 55 wins and finished tied for third.
Meanwhile the ECCC football team had a turnaround season and finished with eight wins and finished second in the state under second-year coach Jonathan Webster.
In other news, it was a year of individual achievement. Sebastopol’s Adarius McDougle repeated at the Class 2A Mr. Football while Newton County’s Adilyn Vaughn was named the Class 4A Miss Volleyball. Union’s Andy Ogletree continued his climb up the professional golfing world, making $2.77 million on the LIV Tour. Meanwhile Newton County Academy’s Kemp Alderman overcame a hand surgery and finished his year by moving up in the Miami Marlins minor leagues and hitting bombs in the Arizona fall league.
Two area teams won state championships this year as the Newton County Academy tennis team claimed its seventh state title and Union added another powerlifting title to its resume.
Volleyball continued its rise in prominence as three area schools flexed their muscles. Newton County didn’t defend its title but made the 4A semifinals while Union had a banner year and lost in the 2A semifinals. Lake made a late push and lost in the 2A finals.
Overall, there weren’t many bright spots for area football teams but Newton County Academy continued its eight-man excellence, registering double-digit wins for the third straight year.
Here’s a look at this year’s top stories:
No. 1
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East Central baseball team has historic season
The East Central Community baseball team, under the guidance of veteran coach Neal Holliman, had a season for the ages this past season.
The Warriors opened the season with 27 straight wins and vaulted to the No. 1 ranked team in the NJCAA Division II rankings. The Warriors stumbled at the Region 23 Tournament where they lost two straight but got an at-large bid to the Division II World Series, heading back to the Enid, Okla., for the second straight season.
The Warriors were the No. 3 seed in the national tournament and finished just a game out of the finals as they lost 2-1 to Brunswick College in the semifinals.
The Warriors finished the season with a 55-9 record, setting a school record for wins in a season.
No. 2
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East Central football team makes state championship game
While the college’s baseball team enjoyed unprecedented success, the ECCC football team was getting prepared for a historic season of their own as coach Jonathan Webster entered his second season in Decatur.
The Warriors started the season 2-2 with a pair of single-digit losses to Northwest and Pearl River. East Central then quietly reeled off five straight regular-season games to make the MACCC state playoffs. The Warriors then beat Holmes 31-21 in the semifinals before they lost 34-7 to Northwest in the state finals.
The Warriors finished with an 8-3 record after going 4-5 in 2023 and went 5-1 in South Division play. The Warriors finished ranked No. 10 in the nation in the final NJCAA poll. It was East Central’s best season since 2015 when they also went 8-3.
Webster was named the MACCC South Division Coach of the year for his efforts.
No. 3
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Sebastopol’s McDougle repeats as Class 2A player of the year
In 2023, Sebastopol’s Adarius McDougle burst onto the scene when he rushed for 1,968 yards and passed for 464 while scoring 200 points. He was named the Class 2A Mr. Football.
McDougle entered the 2024 with a large bullseye on his back but that didn’t stop him. McDougle improved on his 2023 season with 2,062 yards rushing and 793 yards passing while scoring 232 points. He was again rewarded with the Class 2A Mr. Football for a second straight year.
McDougle finished his high school career with a combined 5,287 yards of offense and 432 points, culminating one of the best two-season stretches in recent history and one that will be hard to match in 11-man football.
No. 4
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Newton County’s Beasley, Vaughn honored as Lady Cougars fall short
The Newton County volleyball team entered the 2024 season in unfamiliar territory as the defending Class 4A state champions after going 33-4 and dominating Purvis to win the title in 2023.
Newton County seemed destined to make another appearance in the 4A title game as they hosted New Albany in the Class 4A semifinals. The Lady Cougars lost that semifinal contest 3-1 in Decatur to finish the regular season with a 32-5-1 record.
Head coach Matthew Beasley was named the Mississippi High School Athletics Association 2023-24 Coach of the year in volleyball. He was later named as the head coach of the Mississippi Association of Coaches North-South All-star game.
Junior Adilyn Vaughn was named the 2024 Class 4A Miss Volleyball for the Lady Cougars. Vaughn had 283 kills as a sophomore and 249 as a junior and was also named to the North-South All-Star game.
No. 5
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Andy Ogletree brings home $2.7 million in LIV cash, plays in two majors
Union’s Andy Ogletree had a breakout professional year in 2023 as he earned his way onto the LIV Tour with two Asian Tour wins, winning the Tour’s Order of Merit and bringing home more than $1 million in winnings.
Ogletree had an up-and-down season on the LIV Tour but was good enough to finish 34th on the LIV Tour 2024 leaderboard with earnings of $2,777,416. His highest finish was a tie for third in Adelaide, Australia, where shot a three-day total of 16-under par. Als also finished tied for sixth at JCB Golf and Country Club in the United Kingdom. He shot 9-under par for the tournament and was in contention for the tournament title but shot a final-day 74 after shooting back to back 65s.
After winning the Asian Tour, Ogletree played in the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club where he missed the cut. He also played in The British Open at the Royal Troon Golf Course where he made the cut. Ogletree previously played in the Masters and the U.S. Open in 2020 after winning the 2019 U.S. Amateur.
Ogletree had season-ending surgery on Oct. 14 but finished the year with one big swing when he asked girlfriend, Allie Lourie, to marry him on Dec. 7 in New York City.
No. 6
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Kemp Alderman bounces back from surgery, promoted to Double AA
Former Newton County Academy standout Kemp Alderman had a wild ride in 2024. After winning a national championship at Ole Miss in 2022, Alderman returned to Oxford for his senior year and was selected as the Ferriss Cup winner as the state’s top collegiate baseball player. He was then drafted by the Miami Marlins with the No. 47 pick in the second round of the MLB draft.
And just when it seemed that Alderman was a on a fast track to make the majors, the slugger had his season derailed when he had surgery to repair a broken hamate bone in his left hand — the same surgery had by Mike Trout and many other MLB power hitters.
Once Alderman got back in the lineup, he was hitting just over .200 for the Jupiter Hammerheads before going on a three-week tear to raise his average more than 75 points. Alderman spent 33 games in Jupiter and was promoted to High-A ball in Beloit, Wisconsin where he played another 33 games. He ended the minor-league season when he was promoted to Double AA Pensacola for the last six games of the season.
Alderman was then selected to play in the Arizona Fall League. He only played nine games in Arizona but finished with six home runs, which was good for second in the 30-game fall league. Alderman made headlines on Oct. 18 when he hit a home run that was clocked at 119.5 miles per hour, which was the league’s hardest-hit ball.
Seven days after launching that Arizona missile, Alderman got another when he married college sweetheart Sailor Selby.
No. 7
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Newton County Academy wins another tennis championship
Even when Newton County Academy thinks it’s a rebuilding in tennis, they are still state championship contenders.
That was certainly the case this past year when NCA won its seventh state championship in tennis as they captured the Class 3A girls state championship.
In bringing home that team state championship, NCA won two individual events. Piper Collins and Jamie Stamper won the state championship at No. 2 girls doubles while Madilyn Smith won at No. 2 girls singles.
Collins and Stamper easily won their semifinal match, beating Tunica 6-1, 6-1 to advance to the finals. In the finals against Regents of Oxford, Collins and Stamper lost the first set 6-3 but rallied to win the next two sets 6-1, 6-4 to win the match and the championship.
Smith’s championship wasn’t nearly as dramatic as she beat West Memphis Christian 6-0, 6-1 in the semifinals and then beat St. Augustine 6-1, 6-0 in the finals.
Ayden McDill and Landry Parks beat Tunica in the semifinals to gain a valuable point but lost to Laurel Christian in the finals to finish as runners-up.
No. 8
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Union wins another powerlifting state championship
While Newton County Academy was adding another tennis title, Union was busy pumping iron and added another powerlifting championship.
Union dominated the Class 2A powerlifting meet, beating rival Sebastopol 48-22 to claim the title.
Union had four lifters bring home individual state championships. Semaj Burnside won the 123-pound weight class while Vaiden Bouder won the 220-pound weight class. Blaine Cooper won the 275-pound weight class while Alec Pientowski won the 308-pound weight class.
No. 9
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Lake makes volleyball state championship game, Union makes semifinals
While Newton County was dominating Class 4A volleyball action, both Lake and Union made plenty of noise in Class 2A.
Lake made the Class 2A championship game where they lost to defending champion Ingomar in the finals. Lake’s big win came in the semifinals as they beat St. Andrew’s 3-1. But in the finals, they lost 3-0 to Ingomar and their star player Macie Phifer, whom many consider the state’s best high school volleyball player. Lake finished with a 20-10 under first-year coach Jeremy Bowen.
On the other side of the county, Union also saw their season come to an end against Ingomar. Union actually took a set from the champions, winning the first set 25-20 before the Lady Falcons rolled off the next three sets to advance championship series. Union finished the season with a 34-9 record.
No. 10
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NCA football continues eight-man excellence
A year after making the Class 2A championship game in 2023, Newton County Academy found itself in a rebuilding year in 2024.
The Generals entered the season after going 12-2 in 2023 and losing 32-28 to Desoto in the 2A finals. But the Generals graduated a majority of their offense.
The Generals stumbled out to a 2-2 start with a four-point loss to rival Sylva Bay and then a 42-20 loss to Humphreys Academy in game four. The Generals then reeled off nine straight wins before falling 40-30 in the Class 2A semifinals to Desoto.
The Generals ended the season with an 11-3 record, finishing the season with double-digit wins for the third straight season. Head coach Stevie Nelson has posted a 40-11 record in four years of eight-man football at NCA after taking over after the winless 2020 season.
Honorable mention
After making the Class 2A North State championship game, the Union Yellowjackets had six of its football players to sign college scholarships.
After 12 years as the head softball coach at Union, Jacob Casey stepped down to focus his efforts as the school’s volleyball coach. The Union softball team then got hot and made it to the Class 2A semifinals before falling to East Union in a three-game series.
Union hired two new head coaches for the 2024-25 school year. Former player Hayley Stephens was named the fast-pitch coach to replace Jacob Casey. And in a surprising move, former ECCC softball coach Kristen Chaney was named the girls basketball coach, replacing Casey Madden.
Newton County Academy tennis coach Pete Mazzella was honored by the United States Professional Tennis Association, receiving an award for Industry Excellence for the Southern Area. The award came a year after Mazzella was honored as the USTA High School Coach of the year for the state of Mississippi.
East Central announced this past year that they would be adding girls volleyball, following many of the state’s other community colleges. East Central hired veteran coach Patrick Hiltz to be the program’s first-ever coach.
After having the best season in school history, it was an up-and-down year for the Union football team. It started in the summer when senior quarterback U’Darrian Hickman was severely injured in an ATV accident and lost for the season. Union then stumbled through the season and limped into the Class 2A playoffs as the No. 4 seed with a 3-7 record and back-to-back losses to Sebastopol and Philadelphia in division play. But Union found some late-season magic and made it to the third round of the Class 2A playoffs with wins over Walnut (55-28) and Leflore County (36-14). They finished with a 20-3 loss to Northside to finish with a 5-8 record.
The Newton County girls powerlifting team finished second in the Class 4A state meet. County had two second-place finishers in Natalie Allen in the 123-pound weight class and Kalyn Clayton in the 132-pound weight class.
It was an eventful year for the East Central girls basketball program. Freshman Miriam Prince was named the state’s Freshman of the Year after averaging 16.3 points a game, helping the Lady Warriors to its best record in a decade. Prince left after her freshman year an signed with Louisiana-Monroe. In March, head coach Betsy Harris resigned after two years with the program and leading the team to a 19-11 record.
