HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WDAM) – Dozens of athletes from a half dozen states were in the Hub City Saturday, taking part in a competition that tested both arm strength and skill.

It was all part of the Mississippi State Armwrestling Championship held at Brewsky’s.

More than 120 professional and amateur competitors from Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas and Tennessee participated in several different weight classes, for first-, second- and third-place medals.

Competitors up to 75 years of age were part of the event.

“It’s more technique than it is power,” said Sean Boom Hancock, Professional Armwrestling League-USA president/ International Federation of Armwrestling world champion. “I tell people it’s like a mixture of chess and drag racing,

“There’s a counter-move, an offensive move and a defensive move for everything that these guys do on the table and it’s got to be done instantaneous, like drag-racing, or you’ll lose the match.”

The state championship has been held every year in the Hub City since 2017.

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From Rawls Springs Volunteer Fire Department Facebook

FORREST COUNTY, Miss. (WDAM) – A recent early-morning accident near the intersection of U.S. 49 and Mississippi 42 tied up traffic for about an hour.

A post on the Rawls Springs Volunteer Fire Department Facebook page said that first responders answered a call of a two-car accident around 5:30 a.m. Thursday.

Upon arrival, firefighters found both vehicles with major damage in the southbound lane of U.S. 49.

All occupants had vacated the vehicles, RSVFD said.

The post said responders immediately began traffic control and medical assessment. One driver reported minor injuries and was transported to a local hospital for further examination. All other occupants reported no injuries, RSVFD said.

The southbound lane of U.S. 49 was congested for about an hour, the post said.

Forrest County Fire Services, AAA Ambulance Service and Mississippi Highway Patrol also quickly responded to the scene.

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Local bystanders fell to their knees …

My dear friend Father Michael Champagne spent two years planning his annual boat parade. Privately he told me, “Nobody’s gonna give me a tugboat for two days, that’s ridiculous! And they did.”

And so his annual Eucharistic procession took to the Mighty Mississippi.

I followed the Eucharistic procession down the Mississippi. It was easy to do by car because there were stops along the way. I stood in the heat with faithful Catholics, kneeling in silence when we heard the bells ringing as the boats approached us.

The crowding inside the cathedral in New Orleans made the breezy French Quarters more appealing to me and many others. The PA system allowed us to hear clearly, and many watched the Mass on their phones livestream. Local bystanders fell to their knees!

Early Sunday morning, Father Michael and I were sharing stories with each other when he mentioned his admiration for Father Chester Arceneaux, rector of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in the Lafayette, Louisiana, who had heard the confession of a homeless man at the event.

Although he is suffering from cancer treatments, he attended; but he needed to sit down when all seating was already taken. He asked a man sleeping on a bench to make room for him. After assuring the man that once you are baptized, you are a Catholic for life, the man poured out his painful story and received the sacrament of reconciliation right there on the spot.

This was a shining example of his personal belief that his job as a priest is to be “hope in the midst of despair.”

WATCH

Monica Hidalgo Breaux, Ph.D., MSW, earned her Ph.D. from Arizona State University while teaching human behavior and research methods as a faculty associate in the social work graduate program.