By Rupert Howell

It was almost like a last second field goal if you look at it from a football perspective.

All the males in the family had won at least a second or third place in The Panolian’s Football Contest.
Well, all except Donghun Jang, a South Korean exchange student who is a junior at South Panola High School and is staying with the Kent Rowsey family in Pope this school year.

Until he came to Mississippi, he considered football—soccer. But now that he’s been through a season, he’ll miss the football played on the gridiron once he returns to South Korea in May.

So he guessed 10 of 20 correct the first week of the contest, scoring as high as Kent himself, and has boasted that he would win each week since.

His temporary brothers, Ben who is in the fourth grade and Will who is in the first, had managed to score in the top two or three during the season as had their father.

But it was still a surprise in the final week of the 16-week promotion that Jang scored first place and received a $25 check.

Sports Editor Myra Bean first thought someone was using a fictitious name as it was so uncommon with previous entry names. But then she noticed that the regular entries of Jang were consistently improving and he was a contender, although not a winner, every week.

“I would say he was the first non-citizen to win,” Rowsey noted and described Jang as, “A good kid. He’ll work.”

Jang has picked up pecans as well as operated a module builder for Rowsey while he was harvesting his cotton crop.

And he’s not planning on saving his winnings.

“I’ll spend it,” Jang said.

And besides “real” football, what else will he miss when he returns to Korea.

“Cornbread and sweet tea,” of course.