Another year of Winona High School athletics has come and gone, and athletic director Charlie Parkerson is pleased with the results and optimistic about the future.
“Football and track were huge highlights for us, football going to its first-ever state championship game and track taking third in boys and girls,” he said.
The Tiger football team won Region 2-2A and had three playoff wins before a 41-26 loss to Taylorsville in the 2A championship game at Ole Miss. Included were victories over two highly-rated teams, Newton and Scott Central.
Both track teams finished third at the state meet after winning district, region and North State meets. The future for the girls looks especially bright. Junior Krystle Hughes and sophomore Tyra Weathersby combined to score 55½ points at the state meet. Hughes won the 100 and 200 while Weathersby took gold in the long jump and silver in the triple jump.
Parkerson also mentioned tennis player Rachel VanHorn, who was runner-up in 2A girls singles after winning championships the previous two years.
“She came up a little short this year, but Rachel always represented us well,” he said.
“The one thing in looking back on last year for all our athletics, our teams were very young,” Parkerson said. “We're definitely looking forward to a strong future in everything.
“We're always excited about basketball. Both boys and girls have solid teams returning. Baseball and softball are still going to be young, but we played a lot of young kids. They're going to be a year older, so we're expecting big things from them.”
The new school year in the fall will come with a major change – consolidation with Montgomery County. “With consolidation, we are excited about the new athletes and students who are coming to our school.”
At this time, there have not been any changes in head coaches.
