It’s been nearly two weeks since the Hattiesburg Lady Tigers hoisted the gold ball trophy, and head coach Caronica DeBose Jackson still has yet to come down from celebration mode.
It was in fact the program’s first-ever state title. After coming oh-so-close several times in years past, Jackson and company finally got over that hump, hence the reason for her unchanged elation.
After Chelsea Ulmer made the championship-sealing basket, the final buzzer sounded and the Lady Tigers rushed the court in celebration, the coveted trophy was first handed to Jackson, who has taken it on somewhat of a mini tour ever since that unforgettable moment.
“Over Spring Break, the girls were laughing at me, because she’s been riding shotgun,” Jackson said with a laugh. “I strap her in the seat belt and everything.
“I’m really enjoying it. Like I told some of our other coaches, I don’t think the players truly understand what they’ve done. We’ve been here the last 13 years, so we’ve been there to come up short, come up short and come up short. I still don’t think they’ve actually grasped what they’ve done.”
For coaching the Lady Tigers to a 26-6 record, a Region 7-5A title and the program’s aforementioned, first state championship, Jackson has been named our Sports601 Hattiesburg Basketball Coach of the Year.
“I received it before, but I think it means a little more this year, because we won a state championship with a team that nobody expected us to do it with,” Jackson said. “I think that’s why it means a little bit more this year, because I did have to put a whole lot more into this group to get more out of them.”
It was a relatively young group that actually experienced the pageantry of the state tournament a season ago when, again, few expected them to make it that far. Players like Chelsea Ulmer, Kenedi Walker, Chaise Stinson, Ty Vance and our Sports601 Hattiesburg Girls Player of the Year, Melyia Grayson, got that experience on the big stage and were therefore primed to be even better this year. Also, they had Terralyn Ulmer, the team’s senior leader who had experienced it all before.
Put it all together, and it made for a unique combination of talent as compared to some of Jackson’s other teams.
“In the past, I’ve always had one or two standout players we could always depend on,” Jackson explained. “We could lean on her when things are going wrong. With this group, it was a total team effort. Literally, you never knew who was going to step up.”
On the court and off it, the 2017-2018 Hattiesburg Lady Tigers were a group to remember, said Jackson.
“They’re so young, and just having Terralyn [Ulmer] as the leader on the court and only two other seniors, it was definitely a fun group to be around.”
