I have a few notes from the ACCS-Jackson Prep state championship series last week.

Several former Natchez residents were in attendance. Louie Brown, former Natchez High and Mississippi State athlete, now lives in the Jackson area. He coached AC coaches Gill Morris and Jim Huff in youth baseball years ago and remains interested in their program.

Melvin &uot;Termite&uot; Jones, a contemporary of Morris and Huff, now lives in Castlewoods and also played youth baseball for Brown. Connie Lonigro Adams came over from Spring Hill to watch her son, AC catcher Joseph Dunlap.

It was fun to watch daddies like Ray Simpson, John Mark Williams and old golf buddy Lloyd Trisler cheer for their boys. Been there and done that.

Natchez sports fans will remember Richard Williams, who coached Mississippi State’s basketball team to the Final Four a few years ago.

Richard attended the AC-Prep games because he coached Morris and Huff at South Natchez (might have been Natchez-Adams High, I don’t remember).

Williams remembered several others whom he coached but didn’t want to leave anybody out.

By his own admission, he was not a gifted athlete. But Richard knew he wanted to coach by the time he was a 10th-grader.

After earning a degree in math at State, he tried all over Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia for a job teaching math and was finally hired in Natchez by Obie Brown, then assistant superintendent.

He was hired to teach seventh-grade math at Montebello Junior High and to be assistant basketball and baseball coach.

After a two-year stint, Williams went to Jackson for two years, returning to Natchez in 1967 to teach math at Natchez High and to assist coach A.C. Williams in basketball and baseball.

When A.C. Williams moved on to Delta State, Richard became head basketball coach and continued to coach baseball as assistant to Buddy Wade.

Copiah-Lincoln hired Richard Williams away in 1979, and State hired him as an assistant basketball coach in 1984. He became head coach at State in 1986 and remained in that position through 1998.

He subsequently coached the Memphis Hounddogs of the Continental Basketball League and is currently coaching the Jackson Rage, a professional basketball team in the World Basketball Association. The Rage is leading the league with a 7-1 record.

The officials for the WBA are NBA applicants who have been to NBA officiating clinics and are supervised with an eye toward their moving up to the NBA when ready.

Richard Williams said the officiating for the Rage games has been very good.

Williams is probably the only individual to have coached basketball at all levels in Mississippi from junior high all the way up through professional basketball.

He left with the thought &045; &uot;I’m a pretty good coach when I have good players.&uot;

And that’s official.

Al Graning is a former SEC official and former Natchez resident. He can be reached at

AlanWard39157@aol.com.