Starkville High School athletic director Stan Miller does not believe in symbolic awards.
After being named the state's top athletic program for the 2011-12 school year in Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 5A, Miller got his legal pad out and started making plans. Miller was already planning a trophy to recognize the Yellow Jackets' achievements.
"I'm going to Tally's Trophies (in Raleigh) right after the Fourth of July," Miller said. "They make the gold ball basketball trophies for the state champions. We are going to develop this all-sports trophy."
For more than two decades, the Clarion-Ledger has compiled an annual listing of the top athletic programs in each of the MHSAA's six classes. Each school receives points for different levels of postseason advancement in each of the MHSAA's 22 sanctioned sports.
Starkville High paced the state's 32 Class 5A schools with a total of 397 points. The Jackets outpaced Oxford by a total of 23.5 points. Overall, Starkville finished third in the state behind Class 6A powers Tupelo (437.5 points) and Madison Central (431).
Tupelo won the overall title for the 18th time in 25 seasons. The Golden Wave had an amazing eight state championships. Madison Central has won the other seven all-sports titles.
"As I have always said before, athletic directors do not win all-sports trophies, so it's the coaches and players who do that," Miller said. "My job was to make sure our coaches were working as hard as they could with our kids and making sure they are working with their programs in the summer."
Starkville High received some credit in 19 different varsity sports. Only Tupelo, Madison Central and Starkville scored in that many. Few Class 5A teams were close to that total.
Of the major sports, SHS football played for the state championship, boys basketball lost in the state semifinal round, girls basketball lost in the first round of the playoffs, while baseball lost in the second round of the playoffs.
The Yellow Jackets won their lone state championship in boys soccer, which was the first ever for that program. Girls soccer also advanced to the second round of the playoffs.
"Our goal this year was to win that all-sports trophy, since it's never been done before here in Starkville. So I knew moving down to 5A, we had a tremendous chance to do it.”
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