When it comes to Mississippi sports, Indianola has produced some greats, including players and coaches. Count Indianola Academy graduate Joey Hawkins among those. The Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Hall of Famer spoke to the Indianola Rotary Club this week, recounting a wealth of local and regional sports trivia, as well as talking about the inspiration of his book, Get Pumped.
Hawkins has famously coached at Jackson Academy and most recently at Presbyterian Christian School in Hattiesburg, where he recently retired. Between football and track, Hawkins compiled a career record of 444-88, including six high school football state championships and 16 track championships. His boys track team once won 158 track meets in a row at JA, with 11 straight state titles. With over 65 championships to his credit, Hawkins said he was very fortunate in his career. His biggest challenge came when he took over PCS, where the program was nearly dead.
“When I got there, we didn’t have a single player who could tackle me, and I was 50 years old,” he joked.
He did turn the program around, and before long, they were beating the best MAIS has to offer in Madison-Ridgeland Academy, JA and others.
“I had a fun time building it,” he said.
Hawkins was the guest of Rotarian Alan Silverblatt.
