After 16 years roaming the sidelines in the Ty Cobb Gymnasium in Ackerman, Gary Beals has decided to make a move down Highway 15.
The longtime Ackerman and Choctaw County basketball coach told the Starkville Daily News that he’s retiring from the Mississippi Public School System and will be coaching basketball at Winston Academy in 2021-22. It was a decision that Beals struggled with recently but felt it was time for something new in his life and a challenge in Louisville that will be as fulfilling as any.
“I’m excited about it. They have some of the nicest facilities,” Beals said of Winston Academy. “It’s a great opportunity that I’m looking forward to. I think I’m going to bring a lot of experience. We’re going to work on fundamentals and I want to bring the energy to make practice fun. I want them to have some respect and some swagger about them.”
WA has fallen on hard times on the basketball courts in the last couple of years. After former coach Justin Childs left to be the head coach at Delta Streets Academy, the Patriots had single digit wins each of the last two seasons under coach Jordan Graham. The latter, Graham, has taken a job working at Harding Academy in Nashville and the open position created an opportunity for WA and for Beals.
Beals met with some of his new players in Louisville on Tuesday and spoke to them about the importance of hard work and fundamentals starting in junior high basketball. The coach is working to start the players at a young age and instill some basketball excellence at WA to get them back toward the top of the division.
Winning and development has been something that Beals has consistently done in his coaching career. He started his career at Tishomingo County, a place where he taught for 14 years. He became a basketball coach late in his tenure after coaching some football and was the head boys coach for four seasons. When he arrived in Ackerman 16 years ago, Beals was coaching boys and girls for Ackerman High School for several years. He ultimately coached at the school for 16 years and through the consolidation of Choctaw County High School.
The ultimate accomplishment on the court came in 2018 when Beals led the team to a 21-10 record with a Class 3A, Region 4 championship and 10-straight wins at the end of the year that earned them a trip to Jackson and the Big House for the state tournament semifinals where they fell just short of a championship berth in a loss to Tylertown in a 39-38 heartbreaking loss.
Over the years in Ackerman, Beals has built lifelong relationships and made his own impact on the players he’s coached and the teachers he taught with as an Indian and a Charger. His most proud moment was establishing a scholarship for students in memory of two of his friends and fellow teachers in Phyllis Graham and Steven Moss who died in a tragic crash on a bus in 2011.
An annual golf tournament helped raise more than $10,000 in scholarships in the name of those teachers for students. He takes to Louisville the memory of those two teachers and many others that have crossed his path along the way in a place he considers very near and dear to his heart.
“It’s a special place and the community here loves sports. You won’t find a better place to work. You get the support of the town and the community with no problems at all,” Beals said. “They just want their kids to be treated with respect and coached up. They want you to get excited and they love a winner.”
