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Itawamba Community College has signed a trio of soccer standouts from Saltillo High School.  Amanda Harkins (5’7, midfielder) and Chelsea Plunk (5’2 striker) both played for Lady Tigers head coach Gary Cherry, who according to ICC head coach Mike Sullivan, has one of the biggest up and coming high school soccer programs in the area.

Harkins scored two goals and had 15 assists this past season while Plunk scored eight goals and assisted on 10 others.

“Amanda is a very strong and physical player, which will serve her well in our league,” said Sullivan, who also coaches the men’s program at Itawamba.  “We are looking for her to give us minutes in the midfield or at defender this season, while Chelsea is very fast and plays extremely hard.  I really enjoy seeing her play and hope she will be as exciting for us this year as she tries to win time up top for us.”

The Indians signee was Cody Garrison, who is a 6’1, 170 defender, who also played for coach Gary Cherry.   Sullivan is looking for Garrison to help out his defense, which was hit hard by graduation.

“Cody also plays extremely hard and is very intelligent with the ball as well,” said Sullivan, whose sophomores of this past season set school records for wins in a two-year career with 22 and best overall record in a two year span, 22-12-0.  “Cody will join a unit that was ranked fifth in the entire state last year in defense.”

this story originally appeared at wtva.com

Tupelo is known as the birthplace of Elvis Presley, the “King of Rock and Roll.”

Now, the World Basketball Association Exposure League is hoping the city will also be known as the birthplace of the Tupelo Rock-N-Rollers basketball team.

The Rock-N-Rollers, which begin playing in May, were formally introduced Monday afternoon in a ceremony at City Hall.

The team will play a 12-game regular season schedule, with games to be played on weekends.

The WBA, founded in 2002, offers a transition from college to professional basketball.

The team is locally owned by Russell Brooks and will play its home games at the St. Paul Christian Life Center in Tupelo.

After taking a year off during the remodeling of Bonner Arnold Coliseum, the Northeast Mississippi Community College Lady Tiger basketball camps are back in full force.

Northeast women’s basketball coach Ricky Ford has announced that three basketball camps will be held this summer for area youth.

Ford is offering a pair of junior girls’ camps along with a senior high/individual and team camp during June and July.

A junior high girls’ camp for seventh and eighth graders kicks off the summer camp program on June 4-6.

The second junior girls’ camp – this time for grades fourth-sixth – hits the hardwood on June 11-13.

Northeast wraps up its Lady Tiger basketball camp season with senior high girls (grades 9-12) and individual/team camp on July 6-8.

Each three-day camp is $110 for day campers and $130 for overnight campers.

Northeast’s Lady Tiger basketball camps teaches athletes skills in fundamentally sound basketball and helps them improve their abilities in the finer points of the game.

Athletes will also be guided on sportsmanship, leadership and citizenship while at the camps.

All junior high day campers need to arrive at 8:30 a.m. on Friday and Saturday of their respective camps while senior high day campers are to be at Bonner Arnold Coliseum at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Northeast’s basketball camps offer athletes a way to work on their passing defense and other fundamentals while receiving individualized evaluations on their shooting techniques.

When not on the basketball courts, campers will have the opportunity to partake in Northeast’s Gaye Roden Carr Aquatic Center which features an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

A $30 deposit is required with submission of an application.

this story original appeared at wtva.com

The New Orleans Saints will hold training camp this summer at the same place they practice the rest of the year – their Metairie facility.

Saints owner Tom Benson said on Monday the team has a state-of-the-art facility and sees no reason to leave it.

Training camp is tentatively scheduled to begin on July 29. It will mark only the fourth time in the team’s history they have held training camp at their permanent facility. The team held training camp at the Metairie facility from 2003-2005.

Benson says fans from the region are welcome to visit training camp.

The Saints have held their past three training camps at Millsaps College in Jackson. General manager Mickey Loomis says the decision to stay home was based on shifting “dynamics and economics.”

HOUSTON – It was this time last year when Vardaman started heating up for their magical run towards the 1A North State Championship Series.  After a 7-1 victory over Class 4A Oxford Lady Chargers in the Houston Tournament on Saturday it looks like the Lady Rams are wanting to repeat last year’s playoff performance.

Casey High put the first run of the game on the board in the top of the second when she singled and scored on a wild pitch before the Lady Rams broke open the game with a six-run outing in the third.

Whitney Gee and Lane Harrison led of the inning when they reached on back-to-back errors.  Greta Parker reached on a fielder’s choice to load the bases before back-to-back walks gave the Lady Rams a 3-0 lead.  High connected on her second single of the game to drive in a pair of runs before Jenna Kay Holder drove in the sixth run of the inning to give Vardaman a commanding 7-0 lead.

Oxford managed their lone run of the game in the bottom of the fourth before the game was called due to the hour time limit.

High finished 2-for-2 with a pair of runs scored and two runs driven in.  Kelsey Nelson struck out four while giving up one run on two hits and one walk in the win.  Kay Russell was the losing pitcher for Oxford.

In other tournament action, Vardaman dropped a 3-0 decision to Saltillo as their bats were cooled off by one of the state’s top pitchers in Chelsea Lukens.

Parker led the Lady Rams’ offensive charge with a 2-for-3 with two singles, but Vardaman couldn’t come up with the timely hits as they left four runners on the bags in the three-run loss.

Lukens struck out ten batters, including a run of six-straight batters in a row, and gave up five hits in the win.  Nelson gave up three hits, struck out five, walked four, and hit another batter in the loss while Gee, Charlsie Moore, and Trisha Williams each singled in the game.

On Monday, Vardaman picked up a 12-6 win over Tremont to help secure the number three seed heading into the playoffs which are slated to begin this weekend with weather pending.

Sources tell CBS Sports that Kentucky could be introducing John Calipari as their new coach within the next 48 hours barring an unsuspected hang-up in the final stages of negotiations.

The source went on to say the offer would make Calipari the highest-paid college coach in America, though details remain sketchy. A separate source said the Memphis assistants are already touching base with recruits to make sure they’d jump to the SEC with them, and a different source said Memphis freshman Wesley Witherspoon would likely follow Calipari to Kentucky.

Mike Anderson of Missouri could be the top name on the list for the Memphis coaching search if Calipari jumps ship.

Northeast Mississippi Community College ’s golf teams has reached new heights after its jump to Division II competition at the beginning of the 2009 campaign.

Northeast can add another feather in its cap when the Tigers host the final Mississippi Association of Community/Junior College’s (MACJC) tour stop on March 30-31 at Shiloh Ridge Athletic Club in Corinth .

Northeast’s tournament will be the final regular season event for junior college golf teams around the state before the MACJC State Championship event at Kirkwood National in Holly Spring on April 6-7.

This season has been a year of firsts for the Northeast golf team.

In its first event back in Division II competition, Northeast registered a runner-up spot to perennial power Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College .

Northeast went on to register another runner-up slot in the MACJC third tour stop at the East Central Community College Invitational at Forest Country Club Feb. 28-March 1.

Northeast has also brought home fifth and sixth place finishes this season before wrapping up its season at Shiloh Ridge.

Tour stops this year have included the opener at Laurel Country Club, a stop over at Eagle Ridge Golf Course in Raymond, Forest Country Club and Wolf Hollow Golf Club in Wesson before the final match of the year.

The final match of the year will consist of 10 junior college teams from throughout Mississippi and will cover two days at the spacious Shiloh Ridge Athletic Club.

Shiloh Ridge is an 18-hole course that plays 6,525 yards with a par-72.

The course features 10 holes with water hazards and only four Par-3 holes that could come into play during the final stop for the MACJC teams.

The Robert Anderson-designed par 72 course requires skilled placement off the tees on the front nine while the back nine tests long-distance shot-making skills with links-style play.

After Northeast’s tournament, teams do not get a break as they head to Kirkwood National Golf Club in Holly Springs for the MACJC State Tournament on April 6-7 followed by the Region XXIII Tournament at the Mississippi State University Golf Course in Starkville .

Trust is earned, but sometimes it needs to be given.

Millions of people have entrusted the salvation of their souls to man, rather than placing their trust in God. They believe in God, they believe He exists, but they do not place their trust in God.

I have been dealing with the problem of trusting only in myself when it has come to many of life’s issues.  One night of earnest prayer and trusting the Lord with those problems has made a earth-shaking difference in those things that had been bother me over the course of two years.

“He who is of a proud heart stirs up strife, But he who trusts in the Lord will be prospered. He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But whoever walks wisely will be delivered” (Proverbs 28:25,26).

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5,6).

I put my trust in the Lord and He has led me to new friends, old friends, and new opportunities that has helped me get my feet back under me. I will not say that all my down-trodden moments have been lifted, but it has given a much needed new-found confidence that things will continue to get better as long as I continue to trust the direction He needs me to go.

“Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him” (Psalm 2:12).

BOONEVILLE – Itawamba handed Northeast an 11-2 division loss in the first game of their Sunday afternoon doubleheader, but things started going the way of the home team in the second game to allow the Lady Tigers earn a split of  the twin billing with a 3-1 victory… but it didn’t come easy.

Sara Beth Michael gave Northeast a 1-0 lead with a single to center to plate Shardae Ward in the second inning.  Jayme Smith scored on a double by Amy Blakeney in the fourth before Samantha Yarber scored on a double by Emily Barnes in the fifth to give the Lady Tigers their 3-0 edge.

The Lady Indians rallied to load the bases in the sixth, but a questionable double-play helped the Lady Tigers escape the inning with no damage done.

Cyndal Cleveland grounded to second who quickly flipped to the shortstop covering second for the force out, but the throw to first appeared to pull the baseman off the bag allowing two runs to score for Itawamba.  Instead, the home plate umpire, who had a perfect angle on the call, helped rule the first baseman kept her heel on the base to successfully turn the double-play and preserving their three-run lead.

Itawamba scored their lone run in the top of the seventh on back-to-back doubles from Lindsey Brasfield and Mandy Lindsey.  Stephanie Pounders scored as a courtesy for Brasfield.

Ward went 2-for-3 from the plate with a pair of singles and one run scored, Nicole Singleton 2-for-3 with a pair of singles.  Barnes and Barnes each added an RBI double.  Smith singled and scored a run while Michael singled and drove in a run for the Lady Tigers.

Brasfield went 2-for-3 with a single and a double and Lindsey finished 1-for-1 with a RBI double.  Heather Whitworth and Molly Speck each singled for Itawamba.

CeeCee Austin smashed a two-run home run to center in the Lady Indians’ 11-2 game one victory.

HOUSTON – Despite unfavorable playing conditions, the South Pontotoc Lady Cougars picked up a pair of convincing wins on Saturday in the Houston Tournament.

South Pontotoc 14  West Point 2

South sent sixteen batters to the plate in to score 13 runs on three hits and six West Point errors as Anna Roberts, Jala Parker, and Jade Cobern all singled and scored two runs each in the in the first inning scoring onslaught.

The Lady Green Wave scored their runs second and fourth innings, but the Lady Cougars took care of business only allowing two hits and committing one error before the game was called due to the hour time limit.

South Pontotoc 10 Calhoun City 0

In their second game of the day, the Lady Cougars once again used a big outing in the opening inning of the game to put their opponents on the ropes early.

South took a 5-0 lead when Paker, Hope Clair, Roberts, Elizabeth Henson, and Haley Washing all scored in the first inning off three hits and three Calhoun City errors.  They tacked on another four runs in the second when Paker, Cobern, Clair, and Henson crossed home to give the Lady Cougars a dominate 9-0 lead before tacking on an addition run in the third for the 10-0 victory.

Calhoun City couldn’t get the bats going as they only managed two hits in the contest while striking out five out of their last six trips to the plate.