(This is a column of opinion by Curtis Rockwell, Sports Director at SouthMiss6 Sports)

I got a text from an old friend Monday afternoon with the news that I knew was coming at some point, but was also hopeful I somehow never would get.

And that was that my dear friend Jeremy Forehand had, after many years, lost his lengthy battle with cancer.

Cancer, as we all know, does indeed suck. And that had become the battle cry of the guy that I simply called “Forehand” for most of the past 30 years or so.

I have covered prep sports in South Mississippi for most of the past three-plus decades.

I have been a by-lined sports editor or sports writer at all four daily newspapers in the south part of the state; The Mississippi Press, The Sun Herald, The Hattiesburg American and the Picayune Item, at a time when all were operational as pertinent news sources that the public trusted on a daily basis.

I met thousands of high school sports fans on that journey, seemingly from every nook and cranny, from Buzzard Roost to Lakeshore and all points in between.

But none quite ever impacted my life like my old pal “Forehand” did.

I first met him while I was a young and eager sports writer with The Mississippi Press and I covered a D’Iberville-East Central football game in Hurley in late October of 1995. Forehand, the solid senior starting quarterback for DHS, led his team in with a 6-3 record against the unbeaten Hornets who were leading the district at 8-0.

With D’Iberville’s back to the wall as far as state playoff contention was concerned, all my future co-worker and longtime friend did was lead his team to an exciting 21-17 upset over the home-standing Hornets and help DHS take its first step in earning a playoff berth that season.

I should have known then that there was something special about Jeremy Forehand.

A few years later, when his playing days were over, Forehand started a 27-year career in the operations department at The Mississippi Coast Coliseum.

And, after still bumping into one another from time to time at high school football stadiums across the Coast, it would be at the Coliseum in early 2000 when our relationship really began to strengthen. I joined the staff there in special events.

No matter what day it was or what time of the day or night it was, he always greeted everyone including me, with a big, infectious smile and a hardy pat on the back.

EVERY TIME. Without fail.

He was the kind of person that could make you feel better about whatever else might be going on that particular day.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people out there that dislike me who have never even met me, simply because of the many words I’ve written about sports over the years.

And I’m OK with that. I learned to live with a “thick skin” many, many years ago.

But, in all of those years, whether I was a journalist or working at the Coliseum or in public relations in the field of sports medicine at high schools all over the “Southern Six,” I never, ever ran across one person that didn’t like Forehand or had a bad word to say about him.

And I wasn’t the only one.

“I didn’t actually meet Jeremy until I moved back to the Coast in 2009, but he always treated me like we’d been friends our whole lives,” veteran South Mississippi journalist Creg Stephenson, now an award-winning sports writer for al.com, said. “No doubt a lot of other people had that same experience with him. He was a great sports fan and supporter of all our local teams, and more than that, he was a wonderful friend. He battled cancer like he did everything else, with a smile on his face. I’m so sad he’s gone.”

Forehand carried his uplifting personality and positivity with him constantly as well over the past eight years. He was diagnosed with cancer in mid-2017.

We spoke hundreds of times over those years, about everything from sports (a lot of sports), to music, to just life in general.

The last part due mainly to a major health issue that I went through earlier the same year that he was diagnosed with that nasty disease. And even though I survived, I can honestly say that Forehand always was much better at handling the obstacles that life throws at you than I was.

Jeremy put family above all else. He is survived by his wife Janet, daughters Macie and Lanie, sister Melanie, brother Les and his mother, Marlene.

In addition to his family, he also loved his dog Chipper, whom he called his “little Buddy”.

He also loved his Saints, his Atlanta Braves (Chipper was named after Chipper Jones), his Florida State Seminoles, his Gulf Coast Bulldogs and “wrasslin’” as well as of course, his alma mater, the D’Iberville Warriors. He worked with his dad and other family members on the “chain gang” for DHS and MGCCC football games for many years, and more recently he was a part of the broadcast crew for Warrior football contests.

In fact, when all was said and done, I believe that there was an ultimate reason why God chose to place him amongst the particular crew he landed on this earth with and why he became such a vital part of the D’Iberville athletic community.

And that’s because, through it all, Jeremy Forehand was the epitome of a Warrior through and through. The Ultimate Warrior. A Warrior that fought life’s curve balls with a grit and determination shown by few others right until the end, while still doing so with an endearing smile and a jovial disposition.

Godspeed, Warrior. Thanks for being a part of this world. I and countless others are better off because you were.

(This is a column of opinion by Curtis Rockwell, Sports Director at SouthMiss6 Sports)

(Jeremy Scott Forehand, age 47, passed away on Monday, May 26, 2025.

Visitation will be held on Thursday, May 29, 2025 at Bradford-O’Keefe Funeral Home in Ocean Springs from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at Sacred Heart Catholic Church on Friday, May 30, 2025 at 11:00 a.m. Friends are invited to visit one hour prior. Interment will follow at D’Iberville Memorial Park.)