Apopka faces dynasty in South Panola

South Panola High’s 78-game winning streak didn’t make football a big deal in Batesville, Miss. It does come with some nice perks, though.

Take the new artificial turf field (cost: $750,000) and the 75-foot-long by 10-foot-wide press box (another $100,000) at Robert H. Dunlap Stadium. Or the five state championships that the Tigers have won during their streak, the longest active run of any high school football team and the third-longest of all time.

Or the 250 T-shirts South Panola has printed to commemorate its football game against Apopka, the top-ranked team in the Sentinel Super 16 and Class 6A state poll, and welcome ESPNU, which will televise the game at 8 Friday night.

"Football is really big in Batesville,’’ Kenny Hopper (quarterback, South Panola Class of 1974) said via phone. "On Friday nights, there’s probably 10,000 folks at a football game in a town of 8,000. It means a lot to the town.

"If you watch those movies about Texas football, that’s probably what it is like.’’

It’s a measure of how big South Panola is to Batesville, located 20 miles from Oxford and 45 miles from Memphis, Tenn., in northwest Mississippi, that most don’t gauge the program’s success by its streak.

Adreanne Pugh, a senior at South Panola who attends most games, said the streak is nice in that it allows the school to hold spirit week every week during the season and students to get out early sometimes to attend road games. Coach Lance Pogue , in his second year after moving off from Europa (Miss.) High , insists he doesn’t mention the streak to his players.

"They know what it is,’’ Pogue said. "They know the challenge that faces us [Friday night].’’

Even Batesville Mayor Jerry Autrey doesn’t sense pressure surrounding the streak — except for one group.

"The pressure is on the seniors not to lose,’’ said Autrey (South Panola, Class of 1966), who plans to be there Friday night.

And why not? That group has a chance to end its high school career going undefeated, like the two previous graduating classes did. South Panola has not lost since falling 21-14 to Wayne County in the 2002 Class 5A state final. Since then, five consecutive 15-0 seasons have followed.

The Tigers are 3-0 this year (average score: 34-3) and ranked 18th nationally by USA Today.

"My son-in-law gets on me for not going to Ole Miss games,’’ Autrey said. "I tell him, ‘I’m used to seeing winners.’. ’’

South Panola’s run of success can be traced to the hiring of Coach Willis Wright in 1991. Two years later, the Tigers captured their first state title. No matter who has been the head coach since then — whether it be Wright or Ed Stanley or Ricky Woods or now Pogue — victories have been the norm. Since ’93, the school has captured seven state football titles.

That dominance led one Jackson, Miss., radio announcer to dub the school "the University of South Panola.’’

"Our foundation got the rights to the name,’’ said Hopper, treasurer of the South Panola Athletic Foundation booster club. "We even put the words ‘University of South Panola’ on a little football on the 40-yard line on our field.’’

That new field and press box, all paid for with private donations, are a legacy to the players South Panola has fielded over the years. Former NFL linebacker Dwayne Rudd, who played the final season of his seven-year career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2003, went there. So did current Pittsburgh Steelers defensive back Deshea Townsend.

Mississippi State senior defensive back Derek Pegues, an All-Southeastern Conference performer and the MVP of the Bulldogs’ Liberty Bowl victory against UCF last season, is a former Tiger, too.

"I follow them every Friday,’’ Pegues (South Panola, Class of 2005) said Tuesday night by telephone after practice in Starkville. "When I am in my room before the games, I check on the scoreboard [on TV] to see how they do.

"When I was there, they would get up at 5 o’clock in the summer. It’s the same way now. The last couple of years, they did not have the most talent, but they worked the hardest.’’

This year’s team was forced to retool after it lost four of five offensive linemen and entire secondary graduation. South Panola is led by quarterback David Renfroe, running back Nicholas Parker and linebacker David Conner, who has committed orally to Auburn.

"The day we’re going to lose, it’ll be a sad day around here, but we’ll try to start another streak,’’ Hopper said.

Said Pogue: "What we have done is remarkable, but you look at it in terms of life. There is a war going on, there are natural disasters, people with cancer, so you try to keep it [the streak] in perspective.’’

Stephen Ruiz can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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