The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame, with which the Miss-Lou chapter is affiliated, has developed a program which sounds really worthwhile. It is called &8220;Play it Smart&8221; and has the program currently in 136 high schools in 36 states.

&8220;Play it Smart&8221; trains academic coaches to work with high school football teams during the entire school year, taking the transferable life skills learned on the field and applying them in the classroom and in the community. Financial support comes from, among others, the NFL and the Players Association.

Some of the visible results of the program include:

498 percent of those participating graduate from high school. This compares to 86 percent of the national rate. 480 percent of the seniors participating enroll in college. The national rate is 64 percent.

4Rosters of participating high school teams with less than 40 players increased by 35 percent.

&8220;Play it Smart&8221; began in 1998. Fifty-seven players who participated in the program this year signed Division I-A letters of intent last Wednesday, joining 97 others who played at the Division I-A during last season.

Complete information is available at the OFF & HOF Web site, www.footballfoundation.org.

While it is wonderful this program exists for the high school football player, because each year you see so many major college signers who fail to qualify academically, wouldn&8217;t it be great if enough people would volunteer to provide the same tutoring for the non-athletes?

A few weeks ago I mentioned a few athletes in the metro area with Natchez ties. On of those, Maeve Wilson from St. Andrews, certainly qualifies as the real student athlete. Maeve has started on the St. Andrews girls&8217; basketball team since eighth grade and is currently a senior carrying a 3.96 GPA. She is headed to either SMU or the University of Georgia.

In her spare time, Maeve starred on St. Andrews&8217; slow-pitch softball team. Her proud parents are Curtis and Joanne Wilson and grandparents are Mr. & Mrs. Ed &8220;Speedy&8221; Wilson of Natchez.

I was sorry to hear of last weekend&8217;s passing of Coach Johnny Vaught from Ole Miss. Although I was never able to officiate any of his games because I had attended Ole Miss, I had been privileged to play golf with him a couple of times at SEC functions. He was very pleasant but a fierce competitor on the golf course.

And I am told he was the same at any game or recreation. Several Natchezians played for Coach Vaught, and I am sure they have some wonderful tales. All the former Ole Miss players I know speak of Coach Vaught in the same tones used by former Alabama players when talking about Coach (Bear) Bryant.

And that&8217;s official.

Al Graning is a former SEC official and former Natchez resident. Reach him at

AlanWard39157@aol.com

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