By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

Over the past almost five decades, the baseball teams at Pascagoula, East Central and George County high schools have all combined to win 11 state championships.

And there has been one common thread throughout this nearly 50 year run of success.

All 11 state championship-winning teams were led by graduates of that same high school who guided their alma maters to the promised land in that particular season.

“That’s awesome,” former Pascagoula High standout player and head coach Johnny Olsen said. “I didn’t really realize that, but it certainly says a lot about those schools and those particular baseball programs.”

“It’s noteworthy,” veteran journalist Creg Stephenson, who covered prep sports in South Mississippi for 20 years, said. “It seems like coaching at your alma mater is probably more common in baseball than in other sports. It’s nice for the coach and nice for the community when it works out that way.”

The streak started back in the late 1960’s at Olsen’s former school when Doug Horn guided Pascagoula to back-to-back state titles in 1967 and 1968.

Horn was three sport letterman at Pascagoula High from 1957-1959. He was a three year starter at catcher in baseball, a two year starter at guard in basketball and a quarterback/defensive back in football. Doug helped lead the 1959 PHS baseball team to the school’s first District Championship and to the South State finals.

As the head coach at PHS, Horn compiled an overall career record of 47-10 at PHS Head Baseball Coach, including a playoff record of 13-0.

One of Horn’s players on that first state championship squad was Donnie Davis. 

Davis was a three-sport letterman while attending Pascagoula High School, playing Baseball, Basketball, and football from 1964-1967. He played in the outfield for three years and help lead the 1967 PHS squad to the Class AA State Championship.

Davis played offensive end and punter on the football team and still holds several school records for some of the longest punts. He was selected All-Big 8 football in 1966.

Davis continued his career on a baseball scholarship at Mississippi State University from 1969-1971. He helped lead the MSU team to the College World Series with a .371 batting average.

Davis returned home to led the Panther baseball program to a state championship in 1983. Olsen, who played for Davis in the mid-to-late 1970’s, served as an assistant on that team and then took over the program the next year when Davis returned to coaching football.

Olsen was a two-sport letterman at Pascagoula High School from 1975-1977. He played outfield in baseball and helped lead the PHS baseball team to two District Titles and a Big 8 State Championship. He also played Defensive back and was voted team Captain of the 1976, 12-0 Big 8 State Championship football team.

In 1996, Olsen helped guide Pascagoula to the Class AA state championship. He is the winningest coach in PHS baseball history. His accomplishments include 17 District Titles, one State championship, and one State chahmpionship runner-up. He retired in 2010 after 27 years of coaching with a career record of 556-264.

He is also the only head baseball coach in the “Southern Six” to lead two different teams to state titles, as he guided resurrection to its first state title in 2022.

One of Olsen’s players during his long and successful run at PHS was Richie Tillman. Tillman replaced Olsen at the helm of their alma mater in 2011 and led his Panthers to the 2013 Class 5A state championship.

Tillman played catcher under Olsen in the mid-1980s.

In between Pascagoula’s back-to-back state crowns in the late 1960’s and 1983, East Central became the second high school in Jackson County to win a state title in baseball in 1981.

That Hornet squad was led by head coach Rocky Long, and one of his standout players on that team was his first cousin Gary Long.

A Long has been the head baseball coach at East Central for the past 48 years. Rocky Long stepped down in 1996 after 18 years, having started the Hornet dynasty with that state championship in 1981 in his third year leading the program. He became the Athletics Director and hired Gary Long to replace him, who had returned home to become his assistant a few years earlier. 

Gary Long, who is currently the Athletics Director at ECHS, returned home to take over the Hornet program and led East Central to its second state title in 2008. 

One of his assistants on that state title team was Bo Long, his nephew. Bo Long replaced his uncle Gary at the helm of the Hornets in 2013 after 12 years as his assistant coach.

Bo Long led East Central to back to back Class 5A state championship in 2022 and 2023.

Finally, and most recently, George County just won the Class 6A state baseball championship last week. It was just the second state title in school history for the Rebels, who won their first crown in 1997.

Current GCHS head coach Brandon Davis was a senior standout catcher on that 1997 squad, and this year marked the fourth time in the past decade that he guided his alma mater into the overall state finals in two different classifications.

That 1997 team was led by head coach Bruce Thornton, a 1985 graduate of George County High School.