Greenwood High School’s Clinton Gatewood will be the head coach of the North All-Stars in the 2019 Bernard Blackwell All-Star Classic.
“It’s a nice honor for sure. It’s good to see people are paying attention to what we are doing here in Greenwood,” said the 10th-year GHS head man, who has guided his team to the North 4A finals in three of the last five years. “But for now, we are focused on that first game.”
That will come on Friday, when the Bulldogs host cross-county rival Leflore County High School.
His assistants are Sam Williams (Pelahatchie); Robert Dobbs (Yazoo County); Allen Glenn (Amory); Marcus Rogers (Holmes County Central); Chris Daniels (Byers); Cary Weaver (Greenwood) and Sheldon Hodge (Amanda Elzy).
The 2019 Bernard Blackwell All-Star Classic will take place on Saturday, Dec. 21 at Gulfport’s Milner Stadium.
Gatewood has a 89-32 record at Greenwood. The team will be looking to improve on last year’s 11-3 mark that included a tough 17-14 loss to eventual-champion Louisville.
The Bulldogs played in a scrimmage Friday night against 6A foe Meridian in Louisville.
As you count down the days to the season, here are some notes from around the state:
Winona
Last season, Winona averaged almost 37 points per game on the way to a 13-1 record and the third round of the 3A playoffs. At the center of that potent offense was An’Darius Coffey. The Ole Miss commit passed for 1,401 yards, 16 touchdowns as a junior and ran for a team-leading 1,445 yards and 19 touchdowns.
Rule Changes
The MHSAA made a couple of big rule changes during the offseason.
There will now be a 40 second play clock instead of 25 seconds. The clock will start as soon as the play is over just like in college. It is designed to make the pace of play a lot more consistent.
The other major rule change is the MHSAA will use instant replay during the football state championships for the first time. The MAIS used instant replay last year for the first time in the football state championships and in the overall basketball tournament.
MHSAA Reclassifications
Several schools are moving around as the MHSAA undergoes another routine reclassification of regions.
New Hope and East Central moved up to 5A from 4A. Stone and North Pike dropped from 5A to 4A. Choctaw Central, North Pontotoc and South Pontotoc moved up to 4A from 3A. Amory, Byhalia, Noxubee County and Senatobia dropped from 4A to 3A. Clarkdale was the only school to move up from 2A to 3A.
Some other major moves were South Panola moving from Region 1-6A to 2-6A.
MAIS Reclassifications
The MAIS has made a move to their own six classification setup to try to even out the number of schools, especially in the smaller classes.
The way the classes were broken down was by the number of male students in each school from grades 8-11 last year.
Class 6A will be the same teams that competed in Class AAAA, Division I last year. Class 5A will be teams that were in Class AAAA, Division II and in Class AAA.
Class 4A will be teams that were Class AAA and Class AA, while 3A will be the smallest classification of 11-man that will consist of schools that were Class AAA, AA and A.
Class 2A and 1A will be for schools that will play 8-Man football. There are 28 total schools that will play 8-Man this season.
MS All-Stars
Union’s Brad Breland will be the Mississippi head coach in the MS/AL Game that’ll be held on Saturday, Dec. 14 at Southern Miss’ M.M. Roberts Stadium in Hattiesburg. His assistants are Tyler Peterson (Brandon); Tim Shramek (Germanttown); Chris Cutcliffe (Oxford); Patrick Schoolar (Neshoba Central); Anthony Dillon (North Forrest); Joey Tompkins (Winona); Bernard Euell (Velma Jackson) and Derrick Hooker (South Delta).
nContact Bill Burrus at 581-7237 or bburrus@gwcommonwealth.com.
