By Brad Greer

The 2019 South Panola High School baseball season got underway Saturday night at the 4th annual Tiger baseball banquet held in the fellowship hall at Calvary Baptist Church.

Guest speaker of the event was Millsaps College head baseball coach Jim Page. Now entering his 31st year at the helm of the Majors program, Page has 764 career wins and has been named conference Coach-of-the-Year seven times along with the NCAA Division III South Region Coach of the Year in 2013.

The South Panola Diamond Club organized the event, which included dinner and a silent auction.

Junior high coach Charles Willoughby introduced his 2019 players, and head coach Jake Mills talked to parents and players about the upcoming season before introducing the varsity team.

Mills played part of his collegiate career at Millsaps under Page and the two coaches enjoyed recounting various experiences from their baseball careers.

Page challenged the players to take advantage of the instruction provided by the baseball staff, and not to forget that team harmony will outlast individual talent in the course of a long season.

“One of the main things ask going into a baseball season is what kind of chemistry is the team going to have. How hard are you going to play? When you get smacked in the face how quickly are you going to get up and punch right back?” Page asked the players during his speech.

“There are three  things you need to learn about your team and the first is talent. The second thing is the dream and i know you guys think about that a lot. The third and most important thing is you don’t get the results you want by focusing on the results you want,” said Page, explaining that the successful players work day-to-day without thinking about the end of the season.

“It’s how you work at practice and how do you apply that focus during a game and then how do you respond to the results,” he said.

Page currently sits 14th among active NCAA Division III coach and is 26th on the all-time wins list. Page ranks 7th all time in Mississippi collegiate baseball wins.

His 2013 Majors team made the College World Series for the first time school history and finished the season ranked eighth in the nation. Page played at Millsaps from 1981-85.