As Geoff Pender reported earlier this month, Mississippi is the only state without an equal pay law. And his analysis found that compared to the rest of the country, Mississippi’s gender pay gap is higher than the national average of 19%. According to the American Association of University Women, women in the Magnolia State earn 23% less of what men earn, which translates to a rank of 41 out of 51 states and 13 out of the 17 Southern states.
View our data illustrating the varying gender pay gap in the Southern United States:
People wanting to draw their own congressional district can access legislative computers and in-depth data to do so until Nov. 5.
The guidelines of the Joint Legislative Redistricting Committee require public access for three weeks to allow the public to draw their own congressional districts and three weeks to draw their own state House and Senate districts.
People wishing to do so should call 601-359-1226 and ask for Ted Booth, executive director of the Legislature’s Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Committee. The offices and computers will be available from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. on weekdays.
“We will have operators available to help the public draw the districts,” said Ben Collins, the Geographic Information System coordinator for the redistricting staff, which is part of PEER. “If they want to look at DeSoto County, we will look at DeSoto County. If they want to look statewide, we will look statewide.”
Collins said members of the public can keep the maps they draw, and the maps also will be made available as part of the public record as the Legislature works to redraw the state’s four U.S. House seats and 174 state legislative districts to match population shifts found by the 2020 U.S. Census.
State and federal laws require redistricting to be conducted every 10 years to ensure equal representation of districts on the federal, state and local levels.
A three-week period early in January after the 2022 session begins will be made available for the public to draw state House and Senate districts.
The plan is for the Joint Redistricting Committee to adopt a U.S. House redistricting plan before the session begins in January. Then early in the session the entire Legislature will take up congressional redistricting with the hope of getting it adopted quickly.
The reason for the need for swift action on congressional redistricting is because the deadline for candidates to qualify to run for the congressional seats is March 1. The primary election will be held in June.
For the past two redistricting cycles, the Legislature has been unable to agree on a congressional redistricting plan and the federal judiciary ultimately drew the congressional district map for the state.
The next election for the 174 legislative seats is not scheduled until 2023 so the Legislature most likely will take up redrawing those districts late in the 2022 session.
Though healthcare workers were among the first able to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, just 32 of the 204 nursing homes in Mississippi have reported that at least 75% of their employees are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
This data comes from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which has called the 75% threshold a “realistic goal for providers to meet.”
The Biden administration announced in August that CMS was collaborating with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop a plan that will require staff working at all nursing homes accepting Medicare and Medicaid funding to be vaccinated, or risk losing their federal funding. While the new rules are expected to go into effect by late October, around 40% of nursing home employees in Mississippi have refused to get vaccinated.
Since mid-June, all staff and employees of Mississippi nursing homes have been required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or be tested for the virus twice per week under an order from State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs.
Still, public health officials have maintained for months that the vast majority of outbreaks occurring in nursing home settings are due to unvaccinated employees. Employees account for nearly half of all infections that have occurred in these settings throughout the pandemic.
In 2000, the year Eli Manning joined the Ole Miss football varsity, the population of Oxford was 13,572. In 2010, the next Census year, Oxford had grown by a remarkable 40% rate to nearly 19,000. What’s more, the real estate market soared. Ole Miss alums bought second homes there. The condo market exploded.
Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill graduated from Ole Miss in 1992 and has remained in Oxford ever since. She witnessed it all.
“Oxford’s population and real estate market took off during the Eli years, no doubt about it,” Tannehill said. “The years Eli was at Ole Miss were some of Oxford’s greatest years for growth an economic prosperity. The numbers are amazing. The trajectory, thankfully, has continued.”
Jackson lawyer Fred Krutz once told the story of shopping for an Oxford condo Eli’s freshman year. He found one he really liked. “I told the realtor it was just what I wanted but I thought the price was too steep for a little place like Oxford. She told me, ‘If that Manning kid is as good as they say he is, real estate prices in Oxford are fixing to go off the charts.’”
Rick Cleveland
Krutz continued, “Turns out, she was right.”
Back then, it seemed every kid in Oxford or at any Ole Miss sporting event wore a Rebel jersey, number 10. Ole Miss will pay tribute to Manning when that jersey number is retired Saturday evening during ceremonies at the LSU-Ole Miss game. He was inducted into the Ole Miss M Club Alumni Hall of Fame in ceremonies on Thursday night.
Oxford is hardly recognizable from the pre-Eli days. Count Archie Manning, Eli’s father, among those amazed at the transition.
“It’s not the sleepy little college town I remember from my college days, that’s for sure,” the elder Manning said Thursday morning. “I don’t know how much Eli had to do with all the growth, but I do know he loved his time here, just like I did.
“Eli doesn’t get real excited about anything, but he is excited about this weekend.”
Ole Miss has honored Eli Manning for this weekend’s festivities by painting his name in the end zones. (Photo: Ole Miss Athletics)
Eli Manning met his wife, the former Abby McGrew, in Oxford. They returned to Oxford Thursday, bringing their four children in tow. Although they live in the New York area, they retain an Oxford home. Archie and Olivia Manning still have a condo on University Avenue.
Certainly not all the Oxford growth is due to Archie’s and Olivia’s youngest son. Says real estate developer Campbell McCool, “I really believe the fuse was lit when Robert Khayat became chancellor in 1995. The Eli years poured gasoline on the flame. Oxford exploded.”
Ole Miss never won a conference championship during the Eli years. He did lead the Rebels to 24 victories in three seasons as the starter and set 45 school records. He capped off his college career with an almost perfect, MVP performance in a Cotton Bowl victory. He was a first team All American and finished third in Heisman Trophy voting.
But those numbers don’t tell why he became such a beloved Ole Miss legend. As was the case with his father, some of Eli’s greatest, most valiant performances came in defeat — such as the time, as a sophomore, he threw for seven touchdowns against Arkansas in a losing cause.
Peyton Manning, left, Eli Manning, and Cooper Manning on the field as their dad Archie’s No. 18 was retired in Oxford. (Photo: Ole Miss Athletics)
Khayat, now retired, once told me why he believed Eli Manning has become such a beloved icon at Ole Miss. It wasn’t just his on field accomplishments or the two Super Bowl MVP trophies he won with the New York Giants. It wasn’t just the fact that Ole Miss season ticket sales increased 61% — or $5 million per year — during Eli’s college career.
“It’s the image he projects: wholesome, honorable, intelligent, humble,” Khayat said. “And it’s not just an image. That’s Eli. He’s the quintessential student-athlete. Every college wishes it had an Eli Manning. We were so fortunate to have him at Ole Miss.”
Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, where Eli will be honored Saturday evening, underwent a 10,000-seat, $25 million expansion during No. 10’s time there. That’s when Ole Miss began construction on the the indoor performance facility, now known as The Manning Center, for Archie and Olivia Manning.
Eventually, all that might have happened anyway. It wouldn’t have happened nearly so fast had it not been for Eli Manning.
This weekend’s ceremonies coincide with the notable recruiting visit to Ole Miss of a football prospect named Arch Manning, Archie’s grandson, Cooper Manning’s son, Eli’s nephew and the No. 1 recruit nationally in the class of 2023.
Coincidence? Certainly not.
“I have no idea where Arch is going and I try to stay out of it,” Archie Manning said. “But I am happy it works out that he will be here this weekend for his uncle.”
The Mississippi Supreme Court has scheduled an execution in the case of a Union County man convicted of killing his wife — the first execution scheduled in Mississippi since 2012.
David Neal Cox was sentenced to death in 2012.
David Neal Cox was sentenced to death in 2012 after pleading guilty to all eight charges against him, including one count of capital murder, two counts of kidnapping, one count of burglary, one of firing into a dwelling, and three counts of sexual battery.
In 2010, Cox broke into the home of his sister-in-law, shot his estranged wife twice, and barricaded himself, his wife, his son and his stepdaughter in the home for 10 hours. The wife died due to lack of medical treatment, and the stepdaughter was sexually assaulted twice during the 10-hour period.
Cox’s attorneys filed a petition for post-conviction relief (the lessening of a sentence) in 2016 citing multiple issues with the trial, but Cox subsequently submitted multiple motions asking to have his court-counsel dismissed, all appeals terminated, and his execution scheduled. Cox has submitted multiple letters to the court stating his guilt and his belief that he should be executed.
A hearing occurred in February 2021 to determine Cox’s mental competence, which found that he was capable of understanding the gravity of the situation and that his motions could be honored. His court-appointed attorneys submitted appeals to this ruling, which resulted in the Supreme Court decision that was issued today.
The Supreme Court scheduled Cox to be executed on Nov. 17, 2021, at 6 p.m.
Mississippi Today reporter Geoff Pender contributed to this reporting.
It was late at night in December 2018 when Andy Flores discovered an opportunity that would change his life.
The senior at Ocean Springs High School was searching the internet for college scholarships when he came across a result for an aid program on the website for Mississippi’s Office of Student Financial Aid. The description said the program paid for all four years of college.
Flores was intrigued. The son of Panamanian and Mexican immigrants, he was the first in his family to apply for college, much less attend. Flores knew he was smart, but whether his family could afford to pay for college was another matter entirely.
Huddled over his laptop, Flores read through the qualifications for the Higher Education Legislative Plan for Needy Students (HELP) grant: A 20 or higher on the ACT? Check — Flores had scored a 33. A GPA better than 2.5? Check. Coming from a household making less than $39,500? Check.
“I was like, ‘Wow, wait, I should apply,’” Flores said.
20-year-old Andy Flores started a petition in support of the HELP program after he learned the Post-Secondary Board’s proposed doing away with the grant. Credit: Andy Flores
Three years later,Flores is thriving as a double-major in public policy and philosophy in the honors college at the University of Mississippi. The 20-year-old is the co-founder of the First-Generation Student Network, and, when he graduates, he plans to continue advocating for marginalized students in Mississippi.
“The HELP grant quite literally changed my life and saved my chance at higher education,” Flores told Mississippi Today.
After years of budget woes, the Post-Secondary Board, which oversees student financial aid in Mississippi, proposed last week a drastic overhaul of the state’s programs. In an unanimous vote, the board recommended replacing the state’s three existing programs with the “Mississippi One Grant,” which would award financial aid using a formula of need plus merit. “Need” would be determined by a student’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and “merit” would be based on composite ACT scores.
Jim Turcotte, the chair of the Post-Secondary Board, said the redesign is intended to give financial aid to more students. But with a finite pot of funds, granting aid to more students will necessitate decreasing the average amount of each award — especially for the poorest students.
If the Legislature adopts the program this session, low-income students will lose thousands of dollars in financial aid. Flores, as a current HELP recipient, would not see his award go down: The proposed program has a legacy period. But the difference between Flores current award under HELP grant and what he would get from the Mississippi One Grant is illustrative of what prospective students will face under the proposed program.
Over the course of his four years at UM, Flores is slated to receive more than $35,000 in financial aid from the HELP. That’s a yearly award of approximately $8,700, the annual tuition at UM. With the Mississippi One grant, Flores would get the maximum four-year award — of just $18,000.
Yet low-income students weren’t included in the Post-Secondary Board’s discussions of the proposal. The board convened a panel of eight financial aid directors to rewrite the programs, but they did not bring students, their parents or families into the policy-making process.
Now, these students are speaking out. Flores has started a campaign called “Help save HELP” to compile testimonials in an effort to make sure legislators know how much the program means to students and their families. A change.org petition that Flores created already has over 1,000 signatures.
“We want to talk about a college education as a great equalizer, but then we get this on our plate, when the HELP grant has been shown to be effective time and time again,” Flores said. “It’s a big, jumbled mess.”
Noah Watts was near tears when he got his financial aid award the summer after his senior year at East Union High School. Watts always knew he wanted to go to college, but with a single mother who works as a receptionist in a doctor’s office, he didn’t know how his family would afford it. But thanks to more than $8,500 in annual financial aid from the HELP grant, he’s now a sophomore at University of Mississippi considering studying pre-health.
Noah Watts attends University of Mississippi with the support of the HELP grant.
Under the Mississippi One Grant, Watts would struggle to afford UM. With an ACT of 33 and an expected family contribution of zero, Watts would receive the highest annual aid award of $4,500 under the proposed program, leaving him to make up the more than $4,000 difference through scholarships or the Pell Grant.
“I was just worried, instantly,” Watts said of when he learned about the proposed changes. “It was like a very, very bad feeling in my stomach. I was thinking, ‘What if that was me? What if this was two years earlier, and I had that money taken away from me?’”
Without the HELP grant, students who talked with Mississippi Today say that in order to attend college, they might’ve had to take jobs or student loans, making it harder to focus on their studies or get involved in clubs. For many students, their life would be radically different without the HELP grant.
“I would probably be homeless — I probably wouldn’t be talking to you right now,” said Tabrelle Deering, a senior accounting major at Mississippi State University. “The HELP grant enabled me to live off campus and pay all my bills for each entire semester and have a little bit of money left over in case of emergency.”
Tabrelle Deering said the HELP grant is what allows her to afford her bills as a college student. Credit: Tabrelle Deering
Deering is the second person in her family to graduate high school. Her mother died when she was 15, so when it came time to apply for college, she had to do it on her own while taking care of her four siblings.
“I did my FAFSA completely on my own,” she said. “It was a bit difficult, but Google was a big help. … It was just kinda like, if I was gonna do it, I knew I had to do it by myself.”
She didn’t know if college was going to be possible until she got the HELP grant. And now, like many HELP recipients, Deering wants to give back to the state that has helped her by becoming a teacher.
Other students say the HELP grant has fostered a sense of social responsibility.
“Programs like the HELP grant are Mississippi’s smartest investment,” said Justin Childs, a junior at Mississippi State University. “For Mississippi to have the most competitive and educated workforce, it needs to address those who are most harmed by systemic oppression and poverty.”
Childs receives around $9,100 a year from the HELP grant. “It was my ticket” to college, he said.
But under the Mississippi One Grant, Childs would see his financial aid award drop to $3,300 a year. Childs would receive $2,500 for his “need,” the maximum award, so the decrease is mainly due to his ACT score, which is a 21.
Justin Childs, a junior at Mississippi State University, said the HELP grant makes it possible for him to focus on leaving at mark at his school.
The minimum ACT score to receive aid from the Mississippi One Grant is an 18, but students won’t receive any additional “merit” aid unless they score higher than a 20. In Mississippi, the average ACT score is 17.7.
Not only do Mississippi’s public schools do a poor job of preparing students to take the ACT, Childs pointed out that the test is not the best indicator of academic potential.
Child’s ACT score aside, he has flourished at Mississippi State. He is now double majoring in political science and psychology and volunteers as a mentor to first-generation college students.
With the HELP grant, Childs said he can “focus on my studies and what I want to do with my time here at Mississippi State, how I want to leave a mark here and just help the students I mentor.”
The current debate over Mississippi’s financial aid programs gets at an important point: What exactly should the state’s goal be? Is it to award students for good grades in high school, or encourage them to pursue certain fields in the workforce? Should the state help low-income students afford college, or award aid to as many people as possible?
Although they all voted in favor, the nine members of the Post-Secondary Board seemed split during the meeting as to how to answer those questions.
And the Mississippi One Grant will impact students in ways the board did not intend. The proposal meets the board’s goal of giving aid to more students and staying in budget. But it does so by cutting aid substantially for the poorest students. And that means, on average, Black and low-income students will be getting much less.
Under the new program, non-white students at four-year universities will lose approximately $900,000 in state financial aid while white students will gain more than $1.4 million, according to data released from OSFA. At an individual level, the average white student will receive $83 less than they would under the current system, but the average Black student will lose out on $689 of state financial aid. And the average HELP students will lose the most: $1,672.
This shift in resources was “not an intended outcome” of the new program, Turcotte told Mississippi Today. The committee didn’t “deliberately say, ‘let’s take money from this group and give it to that group,” he said. “We didn’t want to have a disparate impact on low-income students, white or Black.”
For their part, students who currently receive the HELP grant say that Mississippi should use its money to help students who need it.
“If the state wants to ensure a brighter future for the students, its teachers, its communities, that starts with investing in people’s future and codifying parts of law that affirm their worth,” Flores said. “I genuinely believe that people tend to flourish when you recognize that they’re not defined by what kind of financial position they’re born into.”
As legislators consider the board’s proposal, Childs said he’d like to see them ask students and families what goals they think Mississippi’s financial aid program should achieve.
“It’s weird to me how a lot of these programs for poor Mississippians are never open-door or town hall or even, what’s the word, referendum,” Childs said.
Low-income students want to know that their contributions to the state matter.
“This is something that helps the future generations,” Deering said. “Taking (HELP) away could possibly hinder a lot of students. … I feel like we should help every child in Mississippi, because we are the future. Why not help your future?”
The Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees announced on Thursday it had unanimously voted to renew Mark Keenum’s contract as president of Mississippi State University for another four years to 2025.
Keenum’s salary will remain $800,000 per year, matching University of Mississippi Chancellor Glenn Boyce as Mississippi’s highest paid college president.
The portion of Keenum’s salary paid for by the state of Mississippi, however, will increase to $400,000. The other half will come from MSU’s Foundation. The state’s universities typically supplement presidents’ salaries through their foundations, which are considered private entities that raise private funds.
Previously, the state of Mississippi paid $300,000 toward Keenum’s salary.
“I appreciate the fact that the Board of Trustees wants to see the strong momentum we have at Mississippi State continue in the years to come,” Keenum said in a press release sent by MSU. “I also appreciate the confidence they have placed in me, and I look forward to continuing to work with them and all of our many stakeholders.”
The vote was taken over a month ago in an executive session at the board’s Sept. 16 regular meeting. Tom Duff, the vice president of the board, made the motion to renew Keenum’s contract.
Duff also moved to include a new provision in Keenum’s contract directing MSU’s Foundation to pay out up to an additional $800,000 in “retention pay” if Keenum remains employed as president through 2025.
“It is wise on the (MSU) Foundation’s part to incentivize stability and continuity in leadership as the institution moves forward,” J. Walt Starr, the IHL board’s president, said in a press release.
IHL’s press release notes that Keenum did not request this additional pay, but the board saw “the wisdom in taking steps to invest in retaining the effective and visionary leadership that Dr. Keenum has brought to MSU.”
Keenum wrote in an Oct. 15 letter to Hines Brannon, the chairman of MSU’s Foundation, that he would like “a majority — if not all” of the additional retention pay to go toward student scholarships, according to MSU’s press release.
“As you know, one of my passions personally is to grow our support of student scholarships,” Keenum wrote. “While I know any possible action on the retention incentive item is several years away, I wanted you to know of my desire to make this investment in our students.”
Three football teams have canceled games with mighty Greenville Christian, the state’s top-ranked high school football team. All have cited small rosters, injuries and concern for the health of their players.
That has caused Saints coach Jon Reed McLendon to search in vain far and wide — as far away as Washington D.C. and south Florida — to fill open dates.
But McLendon did not have to look far to find Friday night’s foe. The Delta Streets Academy Lions are about 50 miles east, down Highway 82 in Greenwood. The game has been scheduled for months. Despite long odds, Delta Streets is not begging out.
Rick Cleveland
If a betting line existed on the game, Greenville Christian would be favored by 40 points or more. The truth is, McLendon probably could name the score Friday night and make it happen. But that’s not the point, Delta Streets executive director T. Mac Howard and his second-year football coach Travis Upshaw say.
“We signed up to play this game and we’re going to play it,” Upshaw said. “We are not teaching our guys to quit.”
Perseverance is one of the school’s five stated and published core values, with this addendum: “We work hard even when we fail.”
Says Howard, the school’s founder, “We are building character here. Part of that is the discipline to do what you said you were going to do. We said we were going to play. We are going to play. Wins and losses are not what define us. We are developing young men.
“These young men will face difficult times later in life, maybe with their marriages or with their jobs or with life in general. We all face them, right? You do. I do. We all do. You can’t just quit, you know. You got to face up to them.”
Ahmaude Jones, 12, works on homework during Study Hall under the watchful eye of Study Hall monitor O’Ryan Patterson at Delta Streets Academy in Greenwood, Wednesdsay, October 20, 2021. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Some facts about Delta Streets:
The school is just nine years old, the brainchild of Howard, who grew up in the Barnett Reservoir area and played football and baseball at Northwest Rankin before attending Mississippi State, where he was a football walk-on under Sylvester Croom.
Delta Streets, located in downtown Greenwood in a partially renovated (and still being renovated) automobile dealership, has an enrollment of 95, all boys, in grades 7 through 12. The school currently has no football field or gymnasium. The football team usually practices in an open field behind a nearby church.
The school’s enrollment is about 75% African American and 25% Hispanic. The football team has 18 players, but only 14 of those are 10th grade or older.
There is a strong emphasis on both Christian faith and discipline. Discipline is non-negotiable.
“We are not a fit for everybody,” Howard said. “If a student can’t or won’t follow our rules and values, they move on. Typically, they go back to public school.”
T.Mac Howard at Delta Streets Academy he founded 2012 for at risk young males in Greenwood. The school provides a Christian-based education for grades 7 – 11. “We’re working hard to give these kids a chance,” said Howard, Wednesday, October 20, 2021. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Howard, himself, formerly taught and coached at Greenwood High School, where he was dismayed with the lack of discipline — more specifically, he says, the lack of demand for discipline.
Delta Streets began the school year with 105 students. Ten have moved on. On the other hand, enrollment has steadily increased year to year.
Al’Javeez McGhee, who goes by AJ, is the team’s slender, 17-year-old senior quarterback who ran afoul of the school’s rules in the seventh grade, came back a year later and, said Howard, has blossomed as a student, athlete and citizen.
“AJ is going to be successful in life, no matter what he chooses to do,” Howard said.
McGhee, soft-spoken to the point coaches have had to insist he bark the signals, wants to be a scientist. Currently, he takes two college courses at nearby Mississippi Delta Community College and plans eventually to attend a four-year university.
Delta Streets, McGhee says, “has equipped me to be a better person. My teachers have pushed me. My mom pushes me. I have learned so much here.”
McGhee has known and competed athletically against many of Greenville Christian’s players for much of his life. Earlier this fall, he traveled to Ridgeland to watch the Saints dismantle defending MAIS state champion Madison-Ridgeland Academy 58-32. So he knows what his team is up against.
“Oh man, they are really, really good,” said McGhee, who is realistic about his and his team’s goals Friday night.
“I just want to compete,” McGhee said. “We want to score against them, put some points on the board — not many teams do.”
Delta Streets Academy head football coach Travis Upshaw at football practice in Greenwood, Wednesday, October 20, 2021. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Upshaw, the head coach who once played as a 380-pound nose tackle for Texas State and later in the Arena Football League, says he has set some realistic goals for Friday night in terms of first downs, defensive stops and other statistical categories. He once played a game against nationally ranked Texas A&M when he was at Texas State, which was then a division below A&M and given little chance to compete. “But we were down only three points at halftime, and eventually lost a close game in the fourth quarter, but we were competitive,” he said.
Upshaw said he and his Texas State teammates left College Station feeling better about themselves and eventually finished the season ranked No. 4 in Division I-AA, winning two playoff games. He would dearly love for his small pride of Lions to have a similar experience Friday night.
Delta Streets Academy running back Jaylin Lewis Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Realistically, this matchup is far more one-sided than that one years ago in Texas, but running back Jaylen Lewis, the Lions’ best player, is eager to play. He ran for 240 yards and four touchdowns in a 33-20 victory over Rossville (Tenn.) Christian Academy last week.
“I want to compete,” Lewis said. “I want to show what I can do. I know how good they are, but I am not scared.”
Upshaw says his team is making strides. The Lions are on a modest two-game winning streak. Two weeks ago, in a 13-8 victory over Riverside, Cristian Ledesma, a 10th grader, kicked the first extra point in school history.
“We’re taking it one step at a time,” Upshaw said, chuckling. “How about that? The first extra point in school history.”
Both Howard and Upshaw believe Delta Streets’ best days are ahead for both the school and the football program. Renovation continues on the converted auto dealership, adding classrooms. The hope is to eventually expand to lower grades.
Plans are proceeding on a $2.2 million gymnasium, which will be located on campus. Approximately $1.65 million has been raised, and, Howard says, “That’s going to happen.”
A football field is also on the drawing boards, which would be located adjacent to the school buildings. That’s a $1.4 million project. Howard is constantly raising money. Individuals, companies and churches have donated to the school, including a $1 million donation from one individual toward the gymnasium.
There are only five seniors on this year’s football team, and the middle school team, which defeated Greenville Christian recently, has better numbers and potential. Several 8th and 9th graders dress with the varsity team.
None of that will help Friday night.
“We’re going to go out there and compete,” Upshaw, the coach, said. “We know what we are up and against. All we can do is our best.”
And here’s the deal: Friday night’s game is for the division championship. Greenville Christian is 8-1 overall, compared to Delta Streets’ record of 3-6. But both teams are 2-0 in their respective MAIS Class 3A division.
If Greenville Christian wins as expected, the Saints will have a first round bye in the playoffs. Delta Streets would play in the first round. And should the Lions win that playoff game? There’s a good chance the would play Greenville Christian again.
