The smiling face of Mississippi State University pitcher Chris Stratton stared back at me from the sports page.

     Upon further examination, I thought, “He has got to be related to Lee Stratton.”

     Sure enough, the SEC Tournament’s MVP is the son of former Brookhaven basketball coach Lee Stratton. In case you have been lost in the Homochitto National Forest for the last few days, the hard-throwing Stratton was picked in Monday’s first round of the Major League Baseball Draft by the San Francisco Giants.

     That means the talented youngster from Tupelo will sign a $3 to 4 million contract with the Giants in the next few weeks. For sure, his family is bursting with pride.

     “We hope to talk to the Giants a little more,” said the elder Stratton. “There are more negotiations. Chris is excited about the opportunity.”

     Lee Stratton coached BHS basketball from 1982-1986 and enjoyed exceptional success.

     “We loved Brookhaven,” said Stratton. “It was fantastic. We went to the state tournament in my last year, 1986.”

     The Panthers lost in the semifinals to Grenada, a team that was coached by big Sammie Blackmon, a former star at Monticello High and Copiah-Lincoln Community College.

     How the Panthers made it to the state tournament semifinals is even more interesting.

 

     In their first state tournament test, the Panthers produced what Stratton describes as “one of the greatest comebacks, ever.”

     Stratton’s team was runner-up to Gulfport in the South State championship game held at Forest Hill the previous week. They had upset mighty Murrah in the semifinals before encountering the Admirals who were directed by future NBA star guard Chris Jackson.

     Recalling the game against Greenville Weston, Stratton said, “We were down 19 points with 4:56 left in the fourth quarter and no 3-point line. Robbie Mink was my assistant coach. We were talking about what we would say in the dressing room. We would tell the players how much we enjoyed coaching them and what a good season we had.”

     Miracles do happen. The Panthers mounted a monumental rally.

     Stratton remembered, “Cameron Smith made a free throw and we were tied. Weston called a timeout with eight seconds on the clock but they didn’t have any timeouts left.”

     That booboo resulted in a technical foul on Weston.  “Cameron had just missed the first free throw. He knocked down the second one to put us ahead and we ran the clock out.”

     The victory celebration erupted and spilled onto the portable playing surface in Jackson’s Mississippi Coliseum.

     “It was awesome,” said Stratton. “We had a great crowd there.”

     Stratton recalled some of the BHS players in the starting lineup: Sammy Wilcher, Kevin Wilbert, Trey Thomas.

     For the record,  Grenada lost in the state finals to Murrah, which had finished third in the South.

     Stratton said he and his family briefly visited Brookhaven this spring. “We came through when we were going to LSU for a series. I gave them a tour of the city and they enjoyed it.”

     After playing for and graduating from Mississippi College, Stratton coached two years at Crystal Springs before moving to Brookhaven. He coached with intensity and the Panthers responded in winning fashion.

     He coached at Tupelo for 17 years and produced several outstanding teams. He served one year as Tupelo’s principal after working as an assistant principal for eight years. Currently, he works in the central office as an executive director. “I go wherever I am needed.”

     He has 32 years in the field of education. His wife Janet is school nurse. Their oldest son, Matt, is a recent MSU graduate and now working for a Nashville-based paper with an office in Memphis. He is getting married June 30.

     Their youngest child, Kathrine Stratton, plays soccer and tennis for Tupelo. A 5-foot-11 goalkeeper, she has verbally committed to sign a soccer scholarship with Alabama’s Crimson Tide.

     Kathrine’s summer travel soccer teams have carried her to Germany, France, California and Pennsylvania. Obviously, she loves playing soccer.

     Chris Stratton, a 6-foot-3 right-hander with a 95-mph fastball, is the first MSU player selected in the first round since Paul Maholm went No. 8 overall to Pittsburgh in 2003. For sure, he appears to have a bright future with the Giants.

 

     The Tri-County Heroes made history last Saturday night on King Field, winning their inaugural Gridiron Developmental Football League game 21-20, against the Mississippi/Pike County Iron Horse. An enthusiastic crowd, estimated at 1,200-plus, witnessed the sweat-soaked affair as quarterback Jimmy Johns engineered a last-minute touchdown drive.

     Johns and a group of 35 former high school and college stars have brought football excitement to the community in a relatively dead time of the sports year. The Heroes have nine regular-season games left on the schedule, including four more home games.

     This Saturday’s road date with the Jackson-based Mississippi Raiders has had several site changes. Moved from Newell Field in Jackson to Hazlehurst’s Robert McDaniel Field, the game has been shifted to Hughes Field, located on Ellis Ave., in the Capital City.

     Kickoff has been moved from 7 p.m. to high noon Saturday. In other words, there could be more heat-related illnesses in the stands than on the playing field.

     Whew!

     Those aluminum bleachers radiate heat like an oven.

     The players practice about once a week so the heat will hit them like a giant sledgehammer, too. Only time will tell.

     Heroes head coach Phil Campbell and his players wished to extend their thanks to the community for the enthusiastic support. There is talk of selling Heroes t-shirts and game jerseys for the fans to wear.

    

     Contact sports editor Tom Goetz by Email: tgoetz@dailyleader.com