By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

FLOWOOD — The annual Mississippi Association of Coaches Multi-Sports Clinic is in full swing this week.

The annual affair got underway with a golf outing Monday before things really get rolling on Tuesday as hundreds of high school coaches from all across the state descended on the Sheraton Hotel here just outside of Jackson. The Clinic wraps up on Friday.

Sessions are conducted for participants in as many as a dozen different sports and activities throughout the week. For many coaching staffs in different sports across the state as well as the “Southern Six” a trip to the clinic is a sort of rite of passage and the tradition has been passed down from staff to staff over the years.

As usual, the “Southern Six” is well represented on the speaker podium throughout the many different sessions covering various sports throughout the week.

Veteran George County head baseball coach Brandon Davis, fresh off back-to-back trips to the Class 6A state championship round the past two seasons around these parts, was a featured speaker Thursday at the event.

“I was honored to be asked to speak at this event,” davis said, in a lunchtime interview Thursday afternoon. “It’s a great place for coaches to come and gain knowledge about our profession, fellowship together with people who are dealing with similar issues and encourage each other to keep coaching as a calling not just a job.”

Davis spoke on “The bunt game: Small ball produces big things”.

He was joined on the baseball side of the ledger by Auburn head coach Butch Thompson and Baylor head coach Mitch Thompson, among others.

In football, Picayune head coach and Gulfport head coach Blake Pennock will be a part of a panel discussion, and Poplaille head coach Jay Beech is a featured speaker fresh off leading his Hornets to their first state championship in program history.

On the college side of things on the gridiron, former Moss Point High standout Marcus Woodson, now the defensive backs coach at Arkansas, was also a featured speaker as was former Louisiana-Lafayette head coach Mark Hudspeth who is currently the head coach at Gulf Shores (Ala.) High.

Other notable names on the docket this week included Southern Miss head men’s basketball coach Jay Ladner, Yolett McPhee-McCuin head women’s basketball coach at Ole Miss and former Track and Field Olympian Savante Stringfellow and new Southern Miss head women’s basketball coach Missy Bilderback.