Homecoming remains an important enough tradition in the Mississippi Delta that the violence that happened in Leland and Rolling Fork in October didn’t diminish the crowds. Relatives still traveled home. Dozens still set up grills and canopies at games. Mississippi Today produced a collection of stories of homecoming events in the Delta, where traditions have evolved over time.

CLARKSDALE — At the end of the first quarter, the Clarksdale High Wildcats were down by 8. 

Mosquitos bit into the ankles of players and spectators. Cheerleaders and majorettes rallied for a new routine in tune to the school band’s thumping brass bass. Coaching assistants white-knuckled clipboards as superfans on the sidelines winced at an interception by the visiting Ripley High School Tigers. 

Doubt crept in between sips of homemade lemonade and chips scooped into spicy cheese dip, manifesting itself in side-long glances, short prayers and yelps of support for quarterback Tommie Magsby. A murmur passed through the crowd in Clarksdale on a balmy 76 degree night: Would the Wildcats lose the coveted homecoming game?

The Wildcats have long produced stars and dominated football statewide. The NFL has recruited 17 Clarksdale players, the second-highest number of any Mississippi high school. This season, Clarksdale has only lost to perennial rival South Panola High School. Clarksdale has won two division championships in the last decade. At last year’s homecoming, the Wildcats lost by a single touchdown to Southaven High during a game some fans described as a heart breaker and nail biter.

Under the harsh stadium lights and amid the roar of an antsy marching band, forceful head coach Curtis Kemp gathered the team on the sidelines with at least four assistant coaches in tow. 

He pulled his tight end and wide receiver into the huddle. Kemp exhorted them all to “run the ball,” execute the plays they practiced in the near equatorial heat of summer, be physical, and in the words of one of his assistants, get the smell and “homecoming feel” out of your mind. 

“You don’t want to lose the homecoming game,” Kemp said.

Visiting Green Bay Packers offensive lineman and former Wildcat Elgton Jenkins was in the audience. So were family and friends.

Even before kickoff, the aroma of rib tips wafted from smoker to serving plate, from tailgate to tent. Near the back fence, a truck let down a neon green shaved-ice hut from its trailer. Teachers folded programs.

‘You feel connected to something bigger’

When Tomika Bates first arrived in her hometown, she made sure to visit Rice Bowl, the greasy spoon Chinese spot that has her favorite shrimp. She and her high school friend group — all from the class of 2001 — missed other comforts of home such as Double Quick chicken and time with family.

Most of Bates’ friend group now live in the suburbs of Memphis or Jackson and in Nashville. They are bankers, morticians, instructional coaches at schools and principals. But today, in matching royal blue jerseys decorated with red iron-on patches, they are Wildcat superfans. 

“I’m here for a good time,” Bates said. “We all look forward to seeing old friends, rehashing old memories, and creating new ones year after year.”

Dennis Jackson, a multimedia teacher at Clarksdale’s vocational school and a Wildcat alum, stood by the 50-yard line during much of the game. He congratulated his students as they traded places by the bench between plays.

Jackson played football at Clarksdale while serving in the Marines and for an Australian football team. He was based in Wollongong, Australia, for much of his life between leaving the military and recently returning home. He also spent time as an actor in Hollywood.

“You get to know your home more when you’re far away from it,” Jackson said. “People know us from out there.”

He remembers when he first left Clarksdale at 20.

It was near noon on a weekday in January in the late 1980s. Jackson was in the 900 block of Lower Brickyard, a Clarksdale neighborhood by McKinley Street, sitting across from his grandmother at her dining room table. They were enjoying a send-off meal of pinto beans and some of his other favorite dishes. She smiled at him.

When Jackson returned to Clarksdale two years ago, he hardly recognized his hometown with its many empty lots and closed storefronts. He looked around the streets for neighborhood kids playing outside but encountered an eerie quiet. 

“It was the depopulation that you can see most,” Jackson said.

At Walmart, he began to feel at home. He ran into an old teacher and some former neighbors. One offered him a job at the school district. He is now enjoying his second year as a multimedia instructor at the vocational school.

After years as a retired athlete, he has become a Wildcat superfan again.

“It’s always been a tradition, you know, running into friends, getting a chance to tell a few lies,” Jackson said of homecoming night. “You feel connected to something bigger.”

‘I gotta be there’

By the second quarter of the homecoming game, Clarksdale’s fortunes had turned. The Wildcats were up by a touchdown. The team was playing with renewed vigor.

Magsby, the team’s star player, intercepted the ball near the 40-yard line. The audience was electric. Kemp led Magsby and his teammates to the field house as the buzzer sounded for halftime.

Kemp used the moment to impart wisdom and a winning strategy.

“I just told ’em it was going to be a long practice next week if we couldn’t get it done,” he said about the homecoming victory in a post-game interview.

The homecoming court was announced during halftime. Escorts led candidates across the muddy field. The students’ families descended from the bleachers to get a closer look.

One contestant, Erin England, and her brother carried a life-size portrait of her late father. The other contestants, in flowing gowns and hoop skirts, batted away bugs with white satin gloves and pushed curls behind bedazzled earlobes.

“Our next senior maid enjoys playing sports and spending time with friends. She loves going shopping and spending her mom’s money,” the announcer declared, describing England. “Her favorite Bible verse is Psalms 28:7: ‘The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart.’”

Mary Miller, the mother of quarterback and homecoming king Tommie Magsby, beamed from the stands during the third quarter. She held up a posterboard with his jersey number until the last play.

“I know his plays. I know when he’s going to run it. And each time, it’s a touchdown,” Miller said. “It’s like I know what he’s gonna do before he does it. He’s generous with the ball, and he’s got vision. You can’t teach people that.”

Since Magsby’s peewee league days, Miller has driven him to practices and made sure he had his water bottle and cleats. She remembers his first tackle and early victories. Even as a child, he spoke of little else than football.

In a recent game against Cleveland Central, Magsby ran a 90-yard touchdown. He might have scored five touchdowns if not for an opposing player tugging on his face mask. Coahoma Community College has offered him a football scholarship.

“I’ll miss seeing how good he plays out there,” Miller said. “Now, I work out of town. I have to put in time to make sure that I’m here. If I miss a game, it just does something to me. I gotta be there because that’s my son on the field. I want to let him know that he does have support and we follow him wherever he goes.”

Taking home the win

The locker room had a sour stench by the homecoming game’s triumphant conclusion: 43-14. Shoeless players in muddied pants blasted music from speakers. Admirers and superfans lingered just outside where equipment was being pulled in from the field.

Kemp reclined in his office beside a white board covered with Xs, Os and initials.

“As a coach, you really have to tamp it down,” he said with a wide smile, hardly able to contain his glee.

It was his students’ night, not his.

Kemp graduated from Clarksdale High in 1999 and became head coach three years ago. He’d previously worked as Northside High School’s head coach. He had wanted the job for much of his coaching career.

“Clarksdale has been a good team for some time,” he said.

More than developing star players and bringing home wins, Kemp said he is mostly in it for the mentorship.

If you’re an upstanding guy, the football part will work itself out, he said. He just asks for commitment and accountability.

The young men Kemp coaches sometimes remind him of a time when he was young, and shared NFL dreams with his teammates.

One of his fondest memories was playing during the 1999 homecoming football game. The Wildcats were playing Greenville’s T.L. Weston High School. The lights were bright and the fans were loud. Kemp was on the field with his best friends. The Wildcats had a handful of injured players and weren’t favored to win.

Kemp scored four touchdowns. The last one sealed Clarksdale’s win, and players and fans mobbed him at game’s end.

His wildest dreams seemed within reach.

“I wanted to go pro,” Kemp said. “Most players won’t. But if I could see them doing something, taking care of their families and doing stuff around town as young men, I’m fine.”