Mississippi
Vote for the Mississippi top offensive football player entering the 2024 MHSAA, MAIS season
Watch as Madison-Ridgeland Academy football wins season opener over Parklane Academy
Watch highlights from Madison-Ridgeland Academy’s first football game of the 2024 season, a 42-20 win over Parklane Academy Thursday night.
Week 1 of the 2024 MHSAA high school football season is approaching, and MAIS is entering its second week of games. In anticipation of this year, fans have voted on their best returning high school player at each position in Mississippi this season.
This week, you can choose your top offensive player in the state.
Vote for your choice of Mississippi’s top offensive player among 20 players. Vote now before the poll closes at 10 a.m. on Monday. Fans may vote in the poll below one time per hour per device. You can do the same for the top defensive player poll here.
Here are the 20 players in consideration:
Kendetryon Backstrom, Kemper County: Backstrom threw for 2,071 passing yards with 15 touchdowns on 11 completions. He also had 1,248 rushing yards with 14 touchdowns.
Jermarj Bell, Northside: The Central Arkansas commit had 1,775 all-purpose yards with 981 receiving yards on 56 receptions, 14 total touchdowns and two punt returns for scores.
Jeremiah Cole, Magee: Cole had 46 receptions with 1,012 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns last season, including 210 kick return yards.
Moses Cummings, Purvis: Cummings had 1,755 rushing yards with 20 touchdowns on 244 carries last season. He produced 100 yards or more rushing yards in none out 10 games played.
Caleb Cunningham, Choctaw County: The Alabama commit is the No. 1 prospect in Mississippi and the No. 2 wide receiver in the country. Last season, he set Choctaw’s season records for receptions with 48 and yards receiving with 1,138 and scored 14 touchdowns.
Akylin Dear, Quitman: Dear, the Alabama commit is the No. 3 prospect in the state and the No. 2 running back in the country.
Micah Jones, Madison Central: Jones, a Florida commit, is the No. 15 prospect in Mississippi and the No. 28 tight end nationally for the Class of 2025. Last season, Jones recorded 168 receiving yards with a touchdown and helped Madison Central go 8-5.
Tray Kinkle, Holly Springs: Kinkle, a three-star recruit, had 1,247 rushing yards with 12 touchdowns and 26 receptions for 452 yards with four touchdowns. Kinkle holds offers from Ole Miss, Florida State, Auburn and Florida.
TOP RETURNERS BY POSITION: QBs | RBs | WRs | OLs | ATH | DBs | LBs | DLs | K/P
Deuce Knight, George County: Knight, a Notre Dame commit, is the highest-rated quarterback in Mississippi’s 2025 class and No. 6 overall in the country. He passed for 1,420 yards with 15 touchdowns in seven games last season.
Anson Lewis, Oak Grove: Lewis is a four-star wideout and his offers include Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Missouri. Lewis has transferred to Oak Grove after spending the past two seasons at Columbia.
Xavier McDonald, Morton: McDonald, a four-star recruit and the No. 2 overall prospect in the state, had 56 receptions for 1,166 yards with 16 touchdowns. McDonald has offers from Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Florida State, Auburn and UCF.
Quincy Phillips Jr., Brandon: Phillips had 87 receptions for 1,027 yards with six touchdowns in 2023. His receptions broke the school’s season record held by NFL player Jonathan Mingo.
Royale Shelvy, Jefferson County: In 2023, Shelvy produced 1,098 receiving yards with 66 completions, 404 rushing yards with 47 carries, 17 total tackles, one interception and 20 total touchdowns.
Darrell Smith, Picayune: Smith had 1,087 rushing yards with 124 carries and 15 touchdowns, 194 receiving yards with three touchdowns and 14 tackles last season.
KaMario Taylor, Noxubee County: Taylor, a Mississippi State commit and the No. 11 recruit in the state, helped lead Noxubee County to the MHSAA 3A state title game. He threw for 3,282 yards with 45 touchdowns and rushed for 789 yards with 15 touchdowns.
Macaleb Taylor, Grenada: Taylor produced 1,825 rushing yards with 326 carries and 21 touchdowns while also having 204 receiving yards for five for five touchdowns.
Kenzy West, Hartfield Academy: West, a three-star recruit, helped lead Hartfield to a MAIS Class 6A state championship while recording 915 receiving yards with 12 touchdowns and 1,368 return yards. West also had 22 tackles with four interceptions.
George Wilcox, Leake Academy: The sophomore was second in MAIS in passing yards with 3,098 on 199 completions with 29 touchdowns, averaging 281 passing yards per game.
Gavin Wooley, Falkner: Wooley threw for 2,350 yards with 28 touchdowns on 131 completions. He also rushed for 457 yards with five touchdowns.
Case Thomas, Madison-Ridgeland Academy: Last season, Thomas produced 59 catches for 1,296 yards, which led MAIS, and recorded 17 touchdowns.
Michael Chavez covers high school sports, among others, for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at mchavez@gannett.com or reach out to him on X, formerly Twitter @MikeSChavez.
Mississippi
Along the Mississippi River, an acorn-collecting ‘legend’ works to save struggling forests
Jerry Boardman doesn’t remember exactly when he started collecting acorns in the fall.
But the thousands upon thousands of them he gathers to share with people working to improve habitat along the Mississippi River makes the 81-year-old resident of De Soto, a village of about 300 between La Crosse and Prairie du Chien, a pretty big deal.
“It’s like a myth or a legend,” Andy Meier, a forester for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who receives a portion of Boardman’s bounty, said of the integral role it plays in his work. “It just has always been that way.”
In reality, Boardman began collecting around the time that the need for acorns — a nut that contains the seed that grows oak trees — was becoming critical. For the past few decades, the trees that grow in the Mississippi River floodplain, known as floodplain forests, have been struggling. Although they’re named for their ability to withstand the river’s seasonal flooding, they’ve recently been overwhelmed by higher water and longer-lasting floods.
Overall, forest cover along the stretch of the river from Minnesota down to Clinton, Iowa, decreased by roughly 6% between 1989 and 2010, according to a 2022 report on ecological trends on the upper Mississippi. In the years since, losses in some places have neared 20% — and were particularly acute following a massive flood event in 2019.
What exactly is driving the excess water isn’t fully fleshed out, but climate change and changes in land use that cause water to run off the landscape faster are likely factors.
The result is mass stretches of dead trees that can no longer perform their functions of providing wildlife habitat, sucking up pollutants that would otherwise run downriver, and slowing water during floods. Reno Bottoms, a sprawling wetland habitat on the river near Boardman’s hometown of De Soto, is one such example of the dispiriting phenomenon.
Boardman, who has been a commercial fisherman, hunter and trapper on the river for most of his life, called the change in forest cover in recent years “shocking.” To combat it, he puts in about 100 hours a year between August and October gathering acorns from the floodplain in De Soto, Prairie du Chien and La Crosse. The idea is that if the trees that produced the acorns were successful enough at warding off flood damage to drop seeds, those seeds might be similarly resilient if replanted.
He looks for acorns from the bur oak, pin oak and swamp white oak, the latter of which is particularly well-suited to the floodplain forest. And the numbers he puts up are impressive — last year, he collected about 130,000; this year, 65,000.
He splits up the total to give to the Army Corps and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, both of which have foresters planting trees to restore floodplain habitat.
“Pretty much everything that Jerry collects, in one way or another, will return to the river,” said Meier, with the Corps.
Last fall, for example, they scattered between 20,000 and 30,000 of Boardman’s swamp white oak acorns near McGregor Lake, a river backwater near Prairie du Chien where the Corps is piloting an effort to protect trees from flood inundation by raising the forest floor a few inches.
This spring, Meier said, he was “blown away” by the approximately 1,000 seedlings that had taken root there and begun to sprout.
Having access to Boardman’s acorns is important because it gives foresters the chance to experiment with direct seeding, instead of buying young trees and planting them. Direct seeding is both cheaper and more likely to result in a viable tree, because the seed is local.
“When we have an opportunity to get something we know came from the river, we know that it’s adapted to growing there,” Meier said.
To maximize his time, Boardman uses a contraption not unlike ones used to pick up tennis balls to scoop up the acorns. One small variety, though, requires collectors to “get down on your hiney or your knees” to pick them up, he said. For those, he relies on a little grunt work.
Ev Wick, a fifth grade teacher at De Soto’s Prairie View Elementary, has taken his students out for an acorn-gathering day with Boardman for the past several years. Boardman scouts the best trees ahead of time, Wick said, then the kids get to work. They can pick up between 5,000 and 6,000 in a day, propelled by friendly competitions to see who can collect the most or fill their bucket quickest.
They’re interested when Boardman tells them all the acorns they collect will eventually be planted on the islands they see in the river, Wick said. But most of all, they do it to thank Boardman for taking them out fishing and ice fishing in the winter and spring.
Acorn-gathering is just one of Boardman’s talents. Along with other members of Friends of Pool 9, a group of area residents who work to protect natural resources, he hosts fishing days, runs river cleanups and counts bald eagle nests to report to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Whether it’s acorn-related or otherwise, Meier said it’s amazing to see the commitment Boardman has to ensuring the river continues to thrive.
To Boardman, the chance to donate acorns or otherwise help out is a no brainer.
“That river has given me so much,” he said. “I’ve just got to give back all I can give.”
Madeline Heim is a Report for America corps reporter who writes about environmental issues in the Mississippi River watershed and across Wisconsin. Contact her at 920-996-7266 or mheim@gannett.com.
Mississippi
Women’s Basketball: Mississippi State shows no mercy on Mercer in blowout win
STARKVILLE — Former Mississippi State assistant coach Michelle Clark-Heard returned to Humphrey Coliseum on Wednesday night as the head coach at Mercer, and her ex-boss, Sam Purcell, made sure it was a rude welcome home.
The Bulldogs limited their fourth straight opponent to under 50 points and have held all five teams they’ve played to under 30 percent shooting, defeating the Bears 81-44.
“We’re watching film, we’re trying to find every advantage we can,” Purcell said. “That stuff matters to us. That’s culture, that’s DNA. We train hard, we work hard, and we’re a multiple defensive team. I always say there’s bad coaches out there if you only play one style, and that’s not who we’re going to be. We can press, we can trap, so it makes it a nightmare for our opponents.”
Mercer did not make a 3-pointer until there were less than two minutes left in the fourth quarter, finishing 1-for-17 from behind the arc. MSU (5-0) made more than half of its field goals and was 10-for-22 from deep, outscoring the Bears 44-14 in the paint.
Fifth-year senior guard Jerkaila Jordan entered the game having made just one 3-pointer on 15 attempts so far this season, but she made her first shot of the night from distance behind a screen in the final minute of the opening quarter. Jordan then blocked Hanna Knoll’s 3-point attempt on the other end, and Eniya Russell connected from long range to beat the buzzer and put the Bulldogs ahead by double digits.
Jordan recorded a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds, and she was 3-for-4 from 3-point range, nailing a triple from each corner 33 seconds apart in the third quarter.
“She just needs to relax. That’s it,” Purcell said. “The kid’s a pro. She trains hard, she’s in the gym every single day. She knows what’s up. I haven’t said one thing to her. I knew it was going to finally end, I’m just glad it happened before we head on the road.”
Madina Okot had another big night in the post, tallying 15 points, eight boards, two blocks and two steals. The Kenyan is shooting 65 percent through five games in the maroon and white and is pulling down nearly 10 boards per contest.
“This has been my dream, and I just feel happy,” Okot said. “I’m just grateful for the team and for this coaching staff. They’re really doing great, I’m putting in work and they’re ready to support me to get everything I desire to get here.”
MSU already led by 20 at the half before winning the third quarter 32-7, finishing the period on an 18-2 run. The Bulldogs’ last four opponents have scored a total of 24 points in the third quarter.
Junior sharpshooter Debreasha Powe was also in double figures with 13 points, going 5-for-7 from the floor and 3-for-5 from behind the 3-point line. Destiny McPhaul had an efficient night as well, and Quanirah Montague had eight points in just 13 minutes of action. MSU shared the ball extremely well, with 26 assists on 33 made field goals.
“I was just locked in,” Montague said. “I was ready to get in the game, ready to have energy and bring energy to my team.”
The Bulldogs will not play in Starkville again until Dec. 29, following eight straight games away from The Hump. They are back in action Sunday against Jacksonville in Orlando, Florida, a neutral-site game that is part of the inaugural WBCA Showcase.
Wednesday’s win was No. 50 for Purcell in 73 games at MSU, making him the fastest coach in program history to reach that milestone.
“It’s all about the young women who step on the floor and sacrifice night in and night out,” Purcell said. “I’ve never scored a point here at Mississippi State. I’m fortunate to have a university that gave a first-time head coach an opportunity. You need one school to believe in you, so it means the world that Mississippi State believed in me.”
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Mississippi
Court says it's ending dispute over control of airport in Mississippi's capital city
FILE – Sen. Josh Harkins, R-Flowood, right, reacts as Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson, left, purposes amendments that would affect Harkins’ proposed legislation that would shift control of the Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport to state officials and surrounding counties, March 3, 2016, in Senate chambers at the Capitol in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
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