Football: A coach’s life + Town noted for its coaches

Joshua Parrott • jparrott@theadvertiser.com • December 19, 2010

Mark Hudspeth was the starting quarterback for Winston Academy in Lewisville, Miss.

LOUISVILLE, Miss. — The scenic beauty of this sleepy town nestled in the rolling hills of east-central Mississippi provides the perfect setting for an escape from life’s worries.

It was here in Louisville — a community of about 7,000 with a laid-back attitude and genuine Southern hospitality — that Mark Hudspeth first showed the signs of his competitive nature, willingness to lead and determination to succeed. A love of sports helped him cultivate those qualities.

Life in the great outdoors of Winston County nearly ended in disaster one time for Mark, who fell from a 40-foot tree in his neighborhood during the winter of his sixth-grade year.

"He was trying to build a tree house," said his father, Doug. "It was a huge tree. The roots were sticking up all around it. He had tacked some boards to the side of the tree to use as a ladder, and one of the boards came loose. After he fell, he acted like it didn’t hurt. But after a few minutes he said ‘Dad, you better get me to the doctor.’"

The extent of his injuries was a broken pelvis. Mark was sidelined for six months, which seemed like an eternity for a young boy.

"I’m lucky that I didn’t fall on my head," said Mark, who was recently named UL’s new head football coach. "Or I might not be here right now."

Fortunately, Mark landed on his backside. It was one of the many stories from his past that helped shape his future.

The early years

Mark was always on the move, even at a young age.

Born in Montgomery, Ala., he moved to Louisville prior to his first birthday after his father changed jobs. He walked at nine months. His energy seemed limitless. Whenever Mark wasn’t playing sports, he was watching them on TV with a football in his hands.

During his early years at Winston Academy — a small private school for kindergarten through 12th grade — he organized games and divided up teams during recess. Mark was already displaying a keen ability to lead others.

"His first-grade teacher told me that he was always the leader and making the plans," said his mother, Diann. "Some kids are leaders, and some are followers. Mark was always a leader."

Everything else about Mark showed that he was a normal boy. He was raised in a loving home with a younger sister, Lea, and parents that owned Rebel Auto Parts near historic downtown Louisville since 1973. The family enjoyed sports — his mother set a school record in the 50-yard dash at Louisville High School, while his father had played baseball in his younger days — and Mark followed suit.

Mark grew up playing baseball, football and basketball, and by junior high he worked in the family’s auto parts store a few days a week after school and in the summer. He cheered for Mississippi State in nearby Starkville and the Los Angeles Rams. More than anything he absolutely hated to lose, whether it was playing football or a board game. His competitive nature was already apparent.

"Once one of his elementary school teachers asked me if we ever pressured Mark, and I said ‘Heavens no. We try to tell him when you’re playing ball to just have fun,’" his mother said. "He pushed himself. I always told him ‘Mark, it’s just a game. Have fun.’ And he said ‘Mom, it’s no fun to lose.’"

Some of the most intense competitions took place in the living room of the Hudspeth home, which was usually the gathering place for his circle of friends.

Wade Burke, now an assistant principal at Brandon Middle School in Brandon, Miss., has known Mark since the fifth grade. Those junior-high years featured hours upon hours of Nerf basketball.

"He had a big living room, and we’d play each other in Nerf basketball for three or four hours at a time," Burke said. "Man, those games were intense."

As far as Burke remembered, they never broke anything in the living room during those epic games. They also played basketball and football after school and on the weekends and spent time on three-wheelers, water skis and kneeboards instead of hunting and fishing.

Andy Kennedy, currently the head men’s basketball coach at Ole Miss, has known Mark since elementary school.

"When I reflect back on Mark, I think of a guy who always had an intensity and competitive edge and was very competitive," said Kennedy, who later became a Parade All-American basketball player at Louisville High. "He has always been that way."

Mark was a capable prankster, too.

 

"In junior high he would play practical jokes to get me to do things that I didn’t want to do," Burke said. "One time he wanted to go to the public library, and I said no. He knew I was a huge basketball fan and loved Dr. J (Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame forward Julius Erving), so he told me that I would love the library because they had videos of Dr. J.

"Of course when we got there, I realized that they didn’t have any Dr. J videos. But he made me believe they did."

Burke credited Mark for pushing him to work harder because he "just wouldn’t have it any other way." He was already proving to be a quality coach.

Growing up

When Mark got to high school, his interests turned to more physical challenges.

Mark earned a total of 16 letters (four apiece in football, baseball and track, three in basketball and one in golf) as a five-sport athlete in high school. His peers voted him as "most versatile" in his senior class. He was an honors student. His nickname: "Hoot."

"He played quarterback in high school, so he would say ‘Down, set, hoot, hoot,’ and the name stuck," said high school friend Davis Woodward, now an emergency room doctor in Starkville, Miss. "Around here he’s known as ‘Hoot’ and always will be."

In his free time, Mark still worked occasionally in the family’s auto parts store, played pick-up football and basketball and had fun on three-wheelers and in the water. According to Woodward, Mark probably "taught half of Winston County how to water ski and kneeboard."

Mark continued to take competition seriously, obvious by his spray painting yard markers on the field for backyard football games and constructing playoff brackets for pick-up basketball games. In the summer he even painted and cleaned up the football locker room. He had a daily curfew — and was always home on time.

"He’s the most confident individual I’ve ever been around," said Winston Academy headmaster Farrell Rigby, who coached Mark in basketball during his senior year. "People follow him because they believe in him."

As a prep athlete Mark shined particularly on the football field. (His claim to fame in basketball was hitting two half-court buzzer-beaters in the same game as a senior.) Winston Academy won the Class A state football championship when he was a freshman. He earned all-conference and all-county honors three times and played in the Mississippi all-star game after his senior year. He graduated in the spring of 1987.

 

"Nobody competed harder or worked harder," said former prep teammate Matthew Mitchell, now the head women’s basketball coach at the University of Kentucky. "Kids his own age even looked up to him."

Steve White, a receiver at Mississippi State in the 1970s, served as a volunteer football coach at Winston Academy when Mark played there.

"Mark was probably the most disciplined person I’ve ever been around," said White, who owns the Lake Tiak O’Khata Resort in Louisville. "He worried about the details and wanted you to worry, too."

But standing 5-foot-11 and weighing only 170 pounds, Mark lacked the size to play major college football. Smaller-division schools Delta State and Mississippi College recruited him to play football. He ultimately earned a football scholarship to play at Delta State, an NCAA Division II school in Cleveland, Miss.

Mark bulked up to 190 pounds in college and became a four-year letterman, starting at free safety (and leading the team in interceptions) as a junior and quarterback as a senior. Soon the realization hit him that his playing career would soon come to an end. He told his mother that he couldn’t sit behind a desk for the rest of his life because "that’s like being in prison."

There was a choice to be made after graduating from Delta State in 1992: Go into the family auto parts business or become a coach. It was an easy decision.

"Football was all I knew," Mark said. "If I couldn’t play, I wanted to coach."

It’s been almost 19 years since Mark went into coaching. Nine of those years were as a head coach. He led Winston Academy to a combined 25-1 record from 1996 and ’97. In 1997 the Patriots won the Class A state title. From 2002-08, he was North Alabama’s head coach and posted a 66-20 record with five D-II playoff appearances.

Mark spent the past two years as Mississippi State’s receivers coach/passing game coordinator. Now he’s in the early stages of his first job as an NCAA FBS head coach. Woodward believes that his long-time friend will find success with the Ragin’ Cajuns.

"I’ve always told people that if I could only take two people to war with me I’d take my dad and Mark Hudspeth," Woodward said. "My dad would keep us alive, and Mark Hudspeth would make sure we would win."

Town Noted for its Coaches * * * * * * * * * *

Joshua Parrott • jparrott@theadvertiser.com • December 19, 2010

LOUISVILLE, Miss. — With Mark Hudspeth recently being named UL’s new head football coach, the town of Louisville continues to gain attention for its ability to produce coaches.

 

Hudspeth, born in Montgomery, Ala., before moving to Mississippi, is the fourth active NCAA Division I head coach that was raised in Louisville.

Back in October, the Southeastern Conference honored its three current head basketball coaches from Louisville in Van Chancellor (LSU women), Andy Kennedy (Ole Miss men) and Matthew Mitchell (Kentucky women).

There’s also Louisville native Kim Rosamond, an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the Vanderbilt women’s basketball team.

"It’s been a tremendous coaching tree from that community," Hudspeth said. "I think it’s all because we had such great high school coaches in that area."

Hudspeth credited two of his former football coaches at Winston Academy — Robert Herring and Bud Turner — for playing a major role in his decision to become a coach.

Herring won two state championships at Winston Academy and more than 300 games with stops elsewhere in Mississippi and Alabama. Turner was a legendary coach in the community.

Kennedy, a Parade All-American at Louisville High before playing at North Carolina State and UAB, couldn’t find a reason why Louisville has produced so many active Division I head coaches.

"I really don’t know," he said. "Louisville and Winston County aren’t unlike many small towns in the south. That community is united by its love of sports. They’re passionate about athletics, and you grow up understanding that and gravitate toward it."

Davis Woodward, now an emergency room doctor in Starkville, Miss., was one of Hudspeth’s closest friends in high school.

"It’s the cradle of coaches now," Woodward said of Louisville. "Nobody really understands how this has happened. When you grew up in this town, you just played sports and were always looking for a game somewhere."

Mitchell added that coaches in the area helped inspire others to later walk the sideline. Gary Hughes, who coached basketball at Louisville High and later Winston Academy, was one of those influential coaches.

"Sports were the focal point of entertainment in town, and people really supported it," Mitchell said. "There were a lot of inspirational people around that were coaches. They made you think coaching was something of value and something worth doing."