1996

WEEK OF ---------

Eccc·s Coats hopes winning ways continue

By Creg S tephenson The 'vl~· o a" s·a

DEC.-\T ·R - \\ 1!he C ats has been on both e nd s of the ladder a - n j ... mor college football coach in the state of :\fi--•-"'•ppi. A , head coa<"h of Peari. River Community College in Poplar.,lle, he once took h1 s team to a 10-0 record. In h1- fir:- t -ea,on as head coach at East Central CC, hi- Wamors finished 2-8, losing games by such -core- a::- 43-0, -18-7, 58-10 and 66- 18. The \\'arnor s' la"t winning record was a 7-4 mark m 19 I . Stnce then . East Central has gone 2-8. 2- , 4-6. .;-6. 1-9, 1-8-1 and 2-8. But Coats isn't mtere.sted in the past. He's concentrating on sustammg momentum on a team that won its last two g a me s agains t Sout hwes t a nd East Mississippi 1 and, Coats said, had a s trong offsea– son. "We won our last two," Coats said. "We had a real good spring and a good offseason conditioning program. We want to build on that this year. This team really hung together well, when a lot of peo– ple would have just hung it up." East Central held its annu a l med i a day Monday and Coats aid the biggest difference in t he Warriors of 1995 and t his yea r's edition is experience. "Last year, we only 12 sophomores and three of

1995 results Holmes Co-Lin

(2-8)

43-0 17- 13 48-7 43·18 58-10 34-17 66-18 31-10 24-10 29·28

.L .L L .L L .L L .L w w

Northwest. Gulf Coast. Pearl River ltawamba Hind Jones Southwest. East Mississippi

1996 schedule

at Holmes NORTHEAST at Northwest. ITAWAMBA.. at Pearl River HINDS (Homecoming) at Gulf Coast

Sept. 5 Sept. 12 Sept. 19 Sept. 26 Oct. 5 Oct.12 Oct. 19 Oct. 24 Oct. 31 Nov. 7

.?p.m. 6:30p.m. 7 p.m. .6:30p.m. .2:30p.m. 2:30p.m. 3p.m. 6:30p.m. ?p.m. 6:30 p.m.

JONES. at Co-Lin SOUTHWEST

those were our kicker, punter and long snapper," Coats said. "This season, we have 22 sophomores and they've been really good leaders." See ECCC, Page 48

era1 publications as one of the Top 10 r ecruits in hi s home state ofWest Virginia. Coats' said he believes this recruiting class will help upgr a de h is team in an a rea even more important than lead– ership - talent. That talent, Coa ts sa id , will give his team the confidence it needs for suc– cess. "We need to get to the point where we expect to win," Coats said. "We've slowly been build– ing up our confidence a nd we need more of that."

ECCC

Continued from page 18

Also expected to cont ribute is a talented group of incoming freshman. Among them are run– ning back Mack Pi t tma n (5-9, 235) the most valuable player in the Florida high school all– star game, quarterback AI Hunt (5-10, 196), who had two touch– down passes in the South Carolina all-s tar ga me and defensive tackle Corey Hamler (6-1, 303), who was rated by sev-

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