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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.
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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Answering a sports question, or two
I have been asked many sports questions in the last week or so. So I will take a few minutes to answer the many questions I have been asked.
Q-One fellow asked me who my favorite quarterback of all-time.
A- I grew up a Johnny Unitas fan, liked Lenny Dawson, then switched to Archie, switched to John Elway, and of course in today’s game like Steve McNair, and the Manning brothers along with Brett Favre.
Comment- He said he saw a web-site poll that had the fans name their all-time quarterback. The choices made were Elway, Favre, Peyton Manning, Joe Montana, and Unitas The final vote had Favre with 34 percent followed by Manning second at 23 percent. Montana was third at 20 per cent followed by Unitas (10), Marino (7), and Elway (3).
Q-The second question asked how many people were at the Jungle Friday night.
A-I would say over 5,000. I was told the ticket sales ran around 4,000, so with all the extras it will run another 1,000. A very nice payday and even bigger win for the Tigers. With South Jones and Laurel on the road, it gave local fans a chance to see the feud.
Comment- West, South, and Laurel are playing at home and Northeast only has to travel 27 miles to WABO this week.
Q-What do you think of Northeast Jones now?
A- I think they play great defense. Chucky Nichols is tough to tackle and Eric Shelby had a great night despite some injury problems.
Q-What is wrong with Wayne County and West Jones?
A-It does look a little weird to see Wayne and West at the bottom of the standings. Comment-Wayne is still looking for consistent play at quarterback plus they are still looking for some playmakers on offense. The War Eagles have had three seasons of outstanding play at quarterback, and defensive teams could not load nine on the line like they have on occasion this year. Tracy Lampley had almost 200 yards, of offense last week so that is the bright spot. Their quarterback issue could be resolved if Calvin McDougle returns from an injury, but honestly they have not played well on offense, defense, or special teams the last two weeks. Laurel and NE Lauderdale out played them when the game was on the line. But they never gave up in either game.
West Jones has had some injuries in certain positions that have resulted in some depth problems. The West Jones defense is their strength this season as Wayne Graves has done another masterful job with that unit. The offense has not played up to par in a couple of games. They need to make plays at those key times in the game. The Mustangs should be favored in games against Quitman and South Jones. That will get them back to three region wins by winning those games, and four wins should make you playoff eligible. So the Wayne County game could be the game that decides who goes to the playoffs. Is it not interesting that it could come down to the final regular season game between those two for the fourth and final playoff berth? Then do not forget NE Lauderdale; they are definitely in the hunt. One of these teams-- West, Wayne, or NE Lauderdale-- will be left at home for the post-season.
Q- Who is the best player you have seen this season?
A- I would say Akeem Davis. Davis has done everything for the Tornadoes up to this point.
Q- What teams outside Jones County are having good seasons this year?
A- Taylorsville is the best in the surrounding area. Bay Springs is right behind the Tartars. They meet in Taylorsville on Oct. 26th.
Comment- Get there early……
October 08, 2007 03:28 pm
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