The Mississippi Excellence in Coaching Fellowship recently announced the 25 Coaches who have been selected for the 2023-24 class.
Gentry High School head baseball and assistant football coach Eddie Ivory was one of the 25 selected.
The Coaching Fellowship, also known as Tomorrow’s 25, is hosted by the University of Mississippi School of Education in partnership with the Mississippi Association of Coaches (MAC) and the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA).
Its mission is to annually select and invest in 25 coaches from across the state who have been deemed emerging leaders in the area of high school and middle school athletics.
All 25 candidates were identified by a selection committee and represent the best the state has to offer.
Final selections had to represent the values of the coaching fellowship – love of young people and a desire to develop them for life within the context of sports – and had to be diverse in gender, ethnicity, sport, and region of the state. Serving on this year’s selection committee were Celeste Bramlett (Madison Central), Issac Boose (Oxford), Holly Moncrief (Brandon), Dr. Cheyenne Trussell (Meridian), and Averie Bush (Harrison County).
Over the course of 10 months, Coaches will travel five times to the MAC/MHSAA’s headquarters in Clinton for in-person class, while the other five sessions are done virtually.
The goals for each session of the coaching fellowship are to assist in three areas of growth for each candidate:
1. Coaching the Whole Athlete (Leadership, Resilience, Empathy, and Responsibility) - Each participant will be able to implement all sessions’ materials at their current school and share with their colleagues.
2. Opportunity to network with 24 of their peers who have demonstrated the capacity to be our state’s future leaders in athletics.
3. Access to current leaders in the MHSAA, MAC, Higher Ed, College Athletics, and “potentially” Pro Athletics to learn how they can grow their spheres of influence in their communities and across the state.
The first session was held on August 16, 2023. This year’s class of coaches will officially finish the program in mid- May.
