Early in his coaching career a young Junior Graham gathered some words of wisdom from veteran Weir head coach Joe Gant.
He told Graham, now the head coach at Winona Christian School, that the key to winning football games was twofold. One was to keep it simple and two was to get your kids to play hard.
Graham said that stuck with him through the years and is something that he lives by today as a coach. It’s something that has brought him 183 victories as a coach, including a state championship at Weir, putting him among the elite in Mississippi High School football.
For his accomplishments, Graham was recently a first-ballot selection to the Mississippi Association of Coaches Hall of Fame. He will be formally inducted in this summer.
“I was really kind of shocked,” Graham said. “Very seldom do you go in on the first ballot and several of us were selected on the first ballot this time. I have been so fortunate over the years. I have had some tremendous staffs and coached so many really good football players. Obviously, I got a lot of credit for the wins and losses but it was those guys who really made us go.”
Graham started his 27-coaching career at Duck Hill, where he started the school’s first-ever football program, going 6-6 in two junior high football seasons. He then went to Winona High School as an assistant and then on to Weir High School where he met one of his mentors in Gant. He stayed at Weir for 14 years, seven as an assistant for Gant and seven as the head coach as well as the boys’ basketball coach for eight years. It was during that time that Graham got the foundation in coaching from Gant that has helped him prosper through the years.
“I learned that if you keep things simple and play hard, you are going to have a chance to win some ball games and be in a lot of them,” Graham said. “You go back and look at the things we did at Weir and they were real simple. We emphasized effort. I might not be the best technical coach, but typically, our kids play hard. When you play hard and with a lot of effort, it can mask a lot of deficiencies that you may have.”
Graham said Gant’s impact also extended beyond the football field.
“I went to work for him in 1993 and I was his assistant for seven years,” Graham said. “We had a tremendous run, playing for four state championships in those seven years and winning three. We had a special friendship. So much of the stuff we do today, we did together at Weir. He had so much of an impact on the things I did off the field as well. He got me involved in the coaches association and I started to begin to realize how important that organization was to the coaches in our state.”
While Graham gives a lot of credit to the coaches and players he has coached with, there are two people he gives a lot of credit to, the first being his mother, Gloria Graham, and the second being his wife, Suzanne Graham.
“If I had to pick one person as being an influence on my life, it would be my mother,” Graham said. “She was a unique individual. I have some visual deficiencies and she just wouldn’t let that keep me from playing sports. She made sure I blended in. She wanted me to play ball and that became a big part of our family.
“And then there is my wife. I can’t tell you how important she has been. I have drug her all over the state and without any complaining on her part. You don’t stay in this profession unless you have a good support system at home. And my family is top notch in that area.”
After leaving Weir, Graham became the head coach at Eupora where he played for the state championship in 2012, losing to 2A powerhouse Bassfield. After retiring from the public schools, Graham was at Winston Academy for one season and just finished up his third season at Winona Christian, winning his second district championship in three years.
“I have also been very fortunate to have had good administrations that valued athletics, with the understanding that they can coexist with academics,” Graham said. “The places who realize that succeed year in and year out.”
The MAC induction ceremony will be Friday, June 21 in Jackson.
