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Sports/Dale McKee
Hey, I am Dale McKee. I have been a sportswriter since 1973 when the Leader-Call hired me from the five and dime store on Central Avenue called S.H. Kress when I was a college student. I did finish college from Southern Miss in 1974 and also attained a Masteršs from William Carey in 1978. I have worked part-time for the newspaper for the last five years although I have written for the Leader-Call for many years when I was needed. I retired from my full time job of 28 years- Post Office- in 2005.
Sports is the second love in my life behind my wonderful wife Teresa of 27 years. She teaches tenth grade English at Wayne County High School. She also taught at R.H.Watkins for many years. She has taught school for 22 years and has been named Teacher of the Year at Laurel and Wayne County High School. We have two sons Derek (25) and Brett (22). Derek was on the 2002 Houston Bowl team at USM and he graduated from USM last year. Derek played quarterback on the 2000 Heidelberg Academy state championship football team and also played on the 2001 Rebel state baseball championship team. He works for Weatherford Oil in Houston, Texas in their home office. My youngest son Brett is in the Marines and stationed in San Diego. Brett played on the Heidelberg Academy 2000 state championship team and then transferred to Wayne County where he played tight end on the first WC state championship team- the 2002 5-A team. Both of the boys have very lovely wives. I have lived in the Beat Four Community of Wayne County for the past 13 years. Before that I lived in Laurel for 25 years where I enjoyed coaching the Laurel Broncos in football and basketball and coaching summer league baseball I grew up an Ole Miss football fan in the late 1950šs and still like the Rebels and also support USM. I have supported the Saints and Braves for many a year. In my youth I liked Johnny U and the Baltimore Colts and also liked Brooks Robinson and the Orioles. In the old AFL I was a big Lenny Dawson and KC Chief fan. At World Series time I always supported the Yankees as a youth. Casey, Yogi, Whitey, and Mickey were the reason.
High school baseball
South Jones will host Wayne County in softball Thursday (April 10) and the winner goes to the playoffs Saturday at Brookhaven.
In high school baseball District Six will cross with District Five in the opening round of the playoffs.
The most likely order of finish will be Brookhaven, Lawrence County,. Mendenhall, and Forest Hills. The only position up for grabs in District Five is third place. If South Jones would upset West Jones Friday night, then they would finish third place. If not, Quitman would win the tie-breaker over South Jones and claim third place.
West Jones will travel to Forest Hills and Wayne County will head to Mendenhall for opening round action on Friday. The teams will then switch on Saturday with West Jones and Wayne County hosting. South Jones would host Brookhaven if they lose to West Jones Friday or a win has them hosting Lawrence County. Quitman would switch places depending on the Friday’s outcome of the SJ-WJ game.
Stringer is the number one team in Region 4-1A while Taylorsville and Heidelberg Academy will make the playoffs. HA has won the district that they have played in the last 13 years in a row.
April 10, 2008 11:16 am
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Happy Holidays
I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday. My next blog will come on January 9th.
Just some random thoughts over the last few weeks of sports happenings.
Really felt for Jeff Bower this past Saturday. I had a lot of mixed emotions about his force out at Southern Mississippi to start with. Jeff is an entirely different person when he is not talking to the media. Bower is a private person who took on almost a father figure status with the young men he has coached over the years. I know my son Derek who played for him really enjoyed his time with Coach Bower. He is a good guy with definite ideals on how to discipline the young athletes of today. I wish him only the very best in the future.
Saw where Bower’s defensive coordinator Dave Womack is going to Georgia Tech. Womack is a good coach that seems to fit in very well wherever he has coached.
I have a friendship with long time assistant coach Randy Butler and hope that he and all the former Bower coaches catch on with someone next season. I am going to miss not seeing Butler and all the coaches when I go to Southern Mississippi football practices.
Saw where Tom Glavine is back in Atlanta with the Braves. Glavine, who has been in New York the last five years after skipping town over a contract extension, is happy to get back near his family. He has four young children and took a five million dollar cut to get back to the South. His wife and children stayed in Atlanta while he was in New York. It was tough on Glavine and his family being apart over that period of time. This could be his last year in baseball, but he is scheduled to make eight million dollars this year with the Braves. Andruw Jones is gone. Does that not sound strange? That seems a little sad. We saw him break in with the Braves as a 19-year-old and remember those two home runs in the World Series against the Yankees his rookie year. Jones’s claim to fame is his work as a defensive outfielder, and the Braves will have a chore in filling his shoes……………see you next year…………
December 24, 2007 11:56 am
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USM searches for new head coach
Southern Mississippi AD Richard Giannini is out looking for a head football coach today (Tuesday). Reports has him in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas interviewing possible replacements for Jeff Bower. The process could be over in a few days. Two names mentioned that he could be meeting with today are Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Larry Fedora and Auburn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp. Giannini has already interviewed Tryone Nix, Tim Hatten of Pearl River, and former Alabama head coach Mike Dubose according to media reports. Overall he has spoken with 75 coaches interested in the job, and says he will speak with others until he names a coach. One rumor that has some merit has Muschamp coming as head coach and Troy State offensive coordinator Tony Franklin coming as his offensive coordinator. Franklin is one of the master minds behind the spread offense that is being used in high schools today. He coached at pass happy Kentucky under Hal Mumme. Muschamp had the second ranked SEC defense. He coached at LSU and with the NFL Dolphins under Nick Saban.
December 04, 2007 09:28 am
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Ole Miss Head Coach and Bowl Talk
Ole Miss will try to find the best fit for their head coaching position. The University’s brass Chancellor Robert Khayat and Athletic Director Pete Boone will conduct the hiring process like last year’s basketball search that produced Andy Kennedy. The Chancellor and the AD messed up their last coaching search in hiring Ed Orgeron. Who would be the best fit for Ole Miss? Do you want a new car or used car? How much money do you have? The Rebels could find a retread or an up and coming coach. The one requirement should be that he has head coaching experience or at least he been a coordinator at an SEC school in the past. Names of head coaches mentioned are Houston’s Art Biles, Central Florida’s George O’Leary, Houston Nutt of Arkansas, former Florida coach Ron Zook, Mike Leach of Texas Tech, and Gary Pinkell of Missouri. Chris Hatcher of Georgia Southern, even though he is a couple of levels under 1-A, has been very successful. Hatcher played and coached at Valdosta State and also coached under Hal Mumme at Kentucky. I have heard the Atlanta Falcons’ head coach could be interested in Ole Miss or the Auburn job (if it comes open). Top assistants being mentioned for the Rebels job are Auburn DC Will Muschamp, Jimbo Fisher of FSU, and Virginia Tech’s Bud Foster. Tyrone Nix of South Carolina and Chris Strong of Florida will be likely be interviewed for the job.
The Hesiman Trophy winner should be Tim Tebow or Darren McFadden.
Did you know that this past weekend four SEC games were decided by less than seven points? Three of those games ended on the game’s last play. This season 15 SEC games were decided by less than 5 points while another 22 conference games were decided by less than 10 points. The SEC had five overtime games this past season. Ten teams are bowl eligible while eight of the teams had seven wins. Thanks to the SEC media office for that information.
Mississippi State will go bowling at the Independence, Music City, or Liberty Bowl. I think that West Virginia and Ohio State will play for the national championship in New Orleans in early January.
Taylorsville, Raleigh, and Laurel are all in the South State championship games this Friday night. We have 19 teams we cover in our area and we are down to three. Good Luck to all see you in Jackson…………..
November 27, 2007 09:35 am
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Football Preview
The adage saying from old school football coaches that “Defense wins championships, and offense sells tickets.” This Friday night when the West Jones Mustangs entertain Laurel, the old time saying could be tested.
In seeing both teams over the year, I can say one thing: Laurel has the best offensive unit that I have seen while the Mustangs have the quickest defensive unit. In the Mustangs’ win over D’Iberville, the Mustangs came up with some new defensive wrinkles that seem to bother the Warriors’ offensive unit. Laurel has scored 390 points on the season while West Jones has allowed only 146 points. Tornado quarterback Akeem Davis is one of two of the most exciting offensive players, I have seen on the year. Corey Harrison of Northeast Jones is the other. Marcus Pierce of West Jones is just a good football player, period. Both teams have a bundle of talent and both teams seem to operating on all cylinders. Each team has had a stretch during the season when they played below their standards, but both have overcome their sub-par play.
The Egg Bowl will also be played Friday. State should be a hands-on favorite. Will the pressure get to the Bulldogs? They know going into the game that they have to win to go post-season bowling. The Liberty Bowl really wants the Bulldogs for their bowl.
Ole Miss, although winless in the SEC this season, could pull the upset. The Rebels who have not won in conference play since last year’s Egg Bowl have nothing to lose. Who will be the Rebel quarterback? My guess is we will see a lot on Brent Schaeffer. Seth Adams is not the athlete that Schaeffer is. I question the Ole Miss coaching staff for taking out Schaeffer late in the first half and replacing him with Adams. Schaeffer seemed to be moving the offense against the country’s number one team. Adams threw an interception in the shadow of the end zone stalling the possible score. The Rebels and their fans were left deflated going into the locker room. This week should be another great game between two old rivals.
November 19, 2007 09:29 am
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SEC Football
With the Ohio State Buckeyes’ stumbling Saturday, LSU now needs three more victories to virtually assure itself a berth in the BCS title game in New Orleans, where the Tigers won their last BCS national championship during the 2003 season. LSU travels to Ole Miss next Saturday, hosts Arkansas the day after Thanksgiving, and meets the winner of the SEC East (probably Tennessee or Georgia) for the conference championship in Atlanta on Dec. 1. LSU's presence in the SEC title game was assured when Auburn and Alabama both lost earlier Saturday.
The interesting question is whom will they play in the SEC title game?
Georgia (5-2, 8-2) remains atop of the SEC East, but they need help to reach the December 1 championship game in Atlanta. Tennessee has the same two defeats, but holds the tiebreaker over the Bulldogs. Georgia plays Kentucky in their final SEC game this Saturday.
Tennessee (4-2, 7-3) has two games left in SEC play with Kentucky and Vanderbilt.
If the Vols win both of those games they will play LSU in the championship game.
Kentucky (3-3, 7-3) has for the first time since the 1976 and 1977 seasons have recorded back-to-back seven-win seasons. They could sneak into the championship game if they win their final two games over Tennessee and Georgia. Florida (5-3, 7-3) finished their conference play this past weekend with their 51-31 win over South Carolina (3-5, 6-5). The Gators would have to have Tennessee lose one of their final two games and have Georgia lose to Kentucky to have a chance to punch a ticket to Atlanta.
Speaking of the Gators, did you see Tim Tebow’s performance against South Carolina? The talented sophomore accounted for all seven Gator touchdowns. He has accounted for 42 touchdowns this year, which is an SEC record breaking break, surpassing Danny Wuerffel’s previous mark of 41.
Ten of the SEC teams have six wins and are bowl eligible. Vanderbilt (2-5, 5-5), with their loss to Kentucky Saturday, will have to wait a little longer. Vanderbilt has not been to a bowl since 1982 when they played in the Hall of Fame Bowl. Ole Miss (0-6, 3-7) will not be bowl eligible this season.
Six wins is not an automatic bowl invitation. MSU (6-4), South Carolina (6-5) and Arkansas (6-4) are no locks for a bowl. The SEC has 10 teams bowl eligible with only eight bowl spots guaranteed. The Gamecocks end the season in two weeks against archrival No. 20 Clemson. Steve Spurrier hasn't missed a bowl since his first Florida team was on probation in 1990 and hasn't had a non-winning season in college since going 5-6 his first year at Duke in 1987. Arkansas has Mississippi State and LSU in their next two contests.
November 13, 2007 09:39 am
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Football Preview
Laurel and Northeast Jones will play at home this Friday night in 4-A playoff action while the West Jones Mustangs will play at Brookhaven. The Mustangs just out-fought the War Eagles to claim their 9-6 win and a spot in the playoffs. Adam Herrington kicked a 42-yard field goal in the last minute to give the home team the exciting win. The Mustangs’ offensive coaches decided a couple of plays before the kick to attempt the field goal and run plays to give Adam the right angle for his kick. Adam has kicked a practice long of 54 yards so it was not surprising he made the kick. A tip of the hat to the Mustangs’ defense. They played one heck of a game in de-clawing the War Eagles. Good luck to all the teams in the upcoming playoffs. We need one of you to bring home the big football from Jackson in December.
JCJC put on a scoring show in Itawamba last Saturday afternoon. This week, the Bobcats will travel to Perkinston to tangle with the undefeated Gulf Coast Bulldogs for the state championship this week. Perk nipped the Bobcats 20-14 in the regular season three weeks ago in Ellisville. Hope the Bobcats bring home the trophy.
Did you see where the Ole Miss Rebels played before only about 23, 000 fans this week in their win over Northwestern State? The University’s President Robert Khayat says he likes Coach O, and even though the Rebels are 3-7, he thinks the embattled coach should be retained. Ed Orgeron is 10-23 overall in his three years and 3-19 in SEC play. I have a couple of opinions. The Rebels at times look like the worst football team in SEC history. The players seem to get up for the big games, but a head coach’s job is to make sure they are ready to play every week. Ole Miss is the only SEC football team that has been eliminated from post season contention. Information leaking from Oxford says Coach O has still not turned the defense over to his defensive coordinator.
On the other hand, Mississippi State’s Sylvester Croom finds himself lobbying for a bowl game for his 5-4 Bulldogs. The Bulldogs might have turned the corner in their rebuilding efforts when they claimed at 17-point win over Kentucky. I read in a statewide newspaper that Croom spent a large part of the Bulldogs’ open date lobbying bowl directors for a possible bid. The Liberty Bowl said that MSU would be a strong candidate with that sixth win. The Bulldogs will take on Alabama, Arkansas, and Ole Miss in their final games. MSU could be playing the Crimson Tide at the right time and claim that sixth victory. If not, they should get that sixth win against the Rebels.
LSU, with their win over Alabama, claimed the Western Division Championship. They still have two games left in Ole Miss and Arkansas. They have wins over Auburn, Alabama, and MSU, so they would claim almost all of the tiebreakers if they actually lost those two games.
The SEC had nine teams with the required six wins, and Vanderbilt and MSU need only one more win to hopefully earn a bowl bid. The bad news is that the SEC can send only eight teams unless two teams can get in the top ten in the final BCS standings. Then the conference can send nine teams. Ole Miss and State are the only SEC teams to win seven games and not get an invitation to bowls in the ten years. Ole Miss fans remember the Independence Bowl taking a 6-5 Alabama over the 7-4 Rebels. OM had beaten Bama in the regular season. Under the new bowl rules, a six-win team cannot be chosen over a seven-win team. The Bulldogs lost to Ole Miss (15-14) in 1997 as both teams finished the season 7-4. Ole Miss headed to the Motor City Bowl that December leaving Jackie’s Dogs at the house. Other possible avenues for MSU are the Bell Helicopter Bowl in Fort Worth and the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego. The Bell Helicopter Bowl has a tie in with the PAC-10, but they will unlikely fill its bowl obligations, leaving an at-large berth spot. In the Poinsettia game, they have a designated at-large spot. These scenarios would give the SEC their 11 teams with Ole Miss sitting at home. It could be this year that the SEC teams will have to have seven wins to acquire a bowl spot.
November 06, 2007 09:47 am
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Weekly Predictions
The final regular season games are here and playoff spots will be in demand come Friday night. As I project my winners for this week, I see some very fine teams that may be left out of the playoffs come about 10 p.m. Friday night.
In the local area “If” Laurel, NE Jones, Wayne County, NE Lauderdale all win this week they would make the 4-A playoffs. If they do win, the following schedule of games for November 9th would be Laurel hosting Florence and NE Lauderdale hosting McComb, while Wayne County would travel to Lawrence County and NE Jones would go to Brookhaven. In case of the three-way tie for second place between NE Lauderdale, Wayne, and NEJ, the Trojans, because of their win over Laurel, would be seeded second. Wayne would win the tiebreaker over NE Jones and be seeded third because of their head-to-head result. “If” West Jones beats Wayne County then the Mustangs would be seeded fourth and NE Jones would move up to second place and host Randy Martin’s McComb squad.
NE Jones is coming off a very emotional win last Friday night that guaranteed the Tigers an invite to the playoffs. This week the Tigers, who have completed their region record, will be playing Cleveland in a 7 p.m. kickoff game. So Coach Hathorn and his players will be able to play for fun this week. The impossible ending to last week’s game against NE Lauderdale was only fitting in a week of sadness. To score on the final play on such an unusual scenario of events is a once in a lifetime play.
Other playoff bound teams are Raleigh, Mize, Bay Springs, Taylorsville, Enterprise, Mount Olive, Heidelberg Academy, Wayne Academy, and Perry Central. Collins, Stringer, and Sylva-Bay all have outside chances “If” certain teams lose this week and they keep winning.
Projected winners this week are Taylorsville, Bay Springs, Raleigh, Stringer, Collins, Richton, Seminary, Mount Olive, Sylva-Bay, Leake, Heidelberg Academy, JCJC, USM, Ole Miss, Alabama, the Saints, and in the NFL’s “Halfway” Super Bowl let’s go with the Patriots………
October 30, 2007 09:25 am
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Football Preview and Weekly Picks
This week, we have two outstanding games in the area preview. Unbeaten Taylorsville will face once-beaten Bay Springs while on the Academy side Heidelberg Academy will host Wayne for the district title.
Taylorsville is loaded with the likes of Billy Hamilton, Bobby Wilson, Terrence Bester, and Dominique Sullivan, just to name a few of their talented skill players that have exploded on occasion in the big games as they have won eight straight games. Bay Springs is also loaded with talent as Jamey Moffett, Cameron Woullard, Justin Gaines, and Robert Ross lead a highly explosive offensive unit.
Some eyebrows were raised in Taylorsville last year when the Tartars went out and named Bud Blackledge as their head coach. Blackledge had only one year of head coaching experience before this year as he went 1-9 last year at South Jones. Blackledge’s record as an assistant coach at both West Jones and Wayne County shows that he is a capable head coach. On the other sideline Friday night will be long time veteran assistant coach Gird Warren. Warren took over two seasons ago at Bay Springs and has upped the Bulldogs into one of the finest teams in the area. They dominated Quitman earlier in the season and have won most of their games by a wide margin.
On the private school football all of us knew the final game between Wayne and Heidelberg would decide the district title. The teams have a history of close games, and this game Friday night will be another cliff-hanger in the long storied history of the series.
Also, the Rebels will be honoring their Hall-of-Fame football coach Buddy Sauls.
Sauls started the football program at Heidelberg and was the mainstay on the sidelines for many of the schools 300 plus wins. He led the Rebels to an MPSA record of 33 consecutive wins in the early 1980’s.
WEEKLY PICKS: Last week I did my best picking, only losing two games. I failed on the Stringer win over Dexter as well as in not predicting Gulf Coast over Jones.
This week, I go with Laurel, NE Lauderdale, West Jones, Wayne County, Bay Springs,
Stringer, Morton, Mize, Raleigh, Mount Olive, Heidelberg Academy, Newton Academy, Collins, JCJC, USM, Auburn, Kentucky, and the Saints. (I have chosen 104 winners out of 144 games this year overall).
See you next week when the final regular season games will be played.
October 22, 2007 10:09 am
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Dale's Blog 10/15/2007
Heading into the final three weeks of the season, the Region 5-4A race is a scramble.
Northeast Lauderdale was not rated higher than fifth in the region pre-season football polls before the season. The Trojans, after whipping Wayne County and Laurel, have set their sights on the regular season championship. IF the Trojans whip NE Jones (H), in two weeks and Quitman (A)
the following week, they will represent the region as the first place team in the playoffs no matter what any other team does. If Laurel wins over NE Jones and South Jones, all they could do is tie NE Lauderdale for the top spot, but would go to the playoffs as the number two-team.
The third and fourth place playoff spots are far from settled. All five remaining teams in the region have a shot, providing they each start winning and not lose again. Northeast Jones and Laurel both need one more win to claim a spot, as four wins will secure an invite to the post-season party this season. Three wins might not secure a place in the playoffs. The loser of the Quitman and Wayne County game this week could be eliminated from the playoff picture.
Taylorsville, Bay Springs, Enterprise, and Mize should make the playoffs in Region 7-2A. A Wayne Academy win over Sylva-Bay this week will put the Jaguars and Heidelberg Rebels in the Class A MPSA playoffs. A Saints win this week will keep us waiting until about 10 p.m. on October 26 for the
playoff teams. Raleigh, Collins, Greene County, and Perry Central are all in the 3-A playoffs picture. Mount Olive, Bogue Chitto, Dexter, and Puckett are the 1-A teams in the post season.
Close winners this week are Laurel over NEJ, West over South Jones, Wayne County over Quitman, NE Lauderdale over Collins, Stringer over Dexter, Bay Springs over Enterprise, Raleigh over SE Lauderdale, Wayne Academy over Sylva-Bay, JCJC over Gulf Coast, USM over Marshall, Ole Miss over Arkansas, and West Virginia over State. Also Taylorsville should handle Seminary, Newton County over Heidelberg, Mize to whip Clarkdale, while Greene County downs Perry Central, and North Forrest will handle Richton.
October 15, 2007 11:11 am
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