There are 21,000 youth soccer players in Mississippi and around 3 million in the United States, according to Colorado Rapids Youth Soccer Club statistics. The sport is on the rise.
Olive Branch native Beau Dyas coaches two teams in the Hernando Express soccer club. Dyas began playing soccer at just 6 years old, but started playing competitive soccer when he was 11.
Tupelo native Elizabeth Rose graduated from the University of Mississippi with a degree in elementary education before returning to her hometown to teach.
“I quickly realized that it was not the career for me,” said Rose, who transitioned into a full-time job as a buyer for the family-owned store, Reed’s. “I spent 20 years there and learned more than I could have ever hoped to learn.”
Take a road trip outside of Oxford, down curvy roads or fields, and the journey might lead you to a small, Mississippi town called Waynesboro in Wayne County, population 4,903.
Two combined restaurants called Huff ‘n’ Puff Smokehouse and The Huff Sports Bar and Grill are there. The Smokehouse was built first, followed by the bar and grill. Both are owned by Tim Williams.
The small Mississippi communities of Hickory Flat, Pontotoc, Ingomar, East Webster and the African country of Uganda all have one thing in common – Michael Seger.
There are few people who leave a lasting, positive impact everywhere they go. Over the years, Seger has coached basketball and taught biology to countless Mississippi high school students. Seger has used every platform to mentor kids and inspire them to be their best selves.
As 2018 draws to a close, tuition rates will continue to rise in the new year at the University of Mississippi, which has seen a 65% increase in tuition over the last decade.
It’s cold outside, and that means it won’t be long until Christmas. Have you begun holiday shopping yet? Check out this video story about Oxford by Addison Markham of Oxford Stories. It may give you a few gift ideas. You can reach her at armarkha@go.olemiss.edu.
Amory native Carson Avery has been performing in beauty pageants since middle school. She started competing in pageants with her best friend. Now a freshman at the University of Mississippi, Avery hopes to continue her involvement in future pageants.
More than one in three Mississippi children grow up in households under the federal poverty line, which is higher than any developed country in the world, according to rethinkms.org. With those statistics, organizations such as Doors of Hope Transition Ministries, at 924 Van Buren Ave. in Oxford, provides support and financial help to needy families.
According to the Mississippi Department of Transportation website, in 2016, drunk driving fatalities represented 18 percent of total traffic deaths in Mississippi. America has more drunk drivers than most countries have people. And each year, more than 10,000 people die on our roadways due to drunk driving. The site says that is the equivalent of 20 jumbo jets crashing each year.
Mississippi has the nation’s most significant number of documented food insecure individuals. Statewide non-profit Extra Table and Lafayette County’s The Pantry are working to stop food insecurities in Mississippi.
Few former baseball players and firefighters also have “cake decorator” on their resume. Many have gawked over the cakes from Sweet T’s Bakery in Oxford. However, few know the story of the man behind them.
Oxford is a hot town for buying property. That has led some area real estate companies to double in size over the last decade.
Driving down south Lamar in Oxford, you may have never noticed a little dirt road that leads to a studio in the woods. While the structure might not look like much from the outside, it houses beautiful paintings by Oxford local Jere Allen. His paintings are more than just abstract thoughts. They are an attempt to share emotions with the world.
Sometimes music is personal. Tupelo native Maggie Houin, 20, wrote two songs this year for both her older sisters who each had a child. Her sister, Mollie Houin, was the first sibling to have a child in the Houin family. Her little girl, Tatum, inspired Houin to pen a ballad.
The first instrument Chandler Ladner mastered was a guitar at age 8. The piano followed. Then the saxophone. “I love challenges,” said Ladner. “It takes me to a new level and shows me new things, new attributes of music. Music is always a lesson based on the flow or rigidness of each note played. It will tell anyone a story and put them at peace at the same time. Music is life to me, and it should be to everyone. A life without music is a life wasted.”
In the famous farmlands of the Delta, where cultural history is as rich as the soil, there have been efforts to tear down the fabric of history it has come to represent. “Sharecropper shacks,” popularized during the post-Civil War agricultural system, were let by tenant farmers who would work the land.
Watering holes on and off of the Square have prepared their staffs for the Double Decker Festival.
Starting in the bed of an old pickup truck, Sno Biz was among the very first vendors to participate in the Double Decker Music and Arts Festival 23 years ago. The event now draws a crowd of more than 60,000 people with hundreds of vendors lining the streets.
Oxford drivers beware. According to Double Decker officials, most roads on the Square will be closed all day Saturday, and towing is scheduled to start around 4 a.m.
Starting Friday, the 23rd annual Double Decker Arts Festival begins its celebration of local foods, music and arts. As one of Oxford’s biggest events of the year, the event offers Oxford hotels an opportunity to make real money
In recent years, the Double Decker Festival has attracted around 66,000 tourists on average. However, Visit Oxford’s Joe Scott expects a record number of visitors this year.
Chris Keiffer, of the Daily Journal, later contacted Oxford Stories and asked to do a podcast about the project. Oxford Stories reporters Alexis Rhoden and T’Keyah Jones were interviewed for the podcast. You can listen to their interview at the link below.
As the spring season begins to bloom, the days get ever rainier, and the air is filled with the despair-ridden cries of allergy-stricken individuals, Oxford’s iconic Double Decker Festival draws near. The town’s festival set for April 27-28 draws thousands annually who shop for art and listen live music.
