It’s been a championship kind of year for Northwest Mississippi Community College and those championships were celebrated during an event this week on the Senatobia campus.
A “Celebration of Champions” was held at Howard Coliseum to honor the remarkable achievements of Northwest students, athletes, faculty, and staff from the 2024-25 academic year.
Here’s a list of honorees celebrated during the event:
The NJCAA Region 23 and MACCC Champion Football Team
The MACCC Champion Volleyball Team
The Back-to-Back National Champion All-Girl Cheerleading Team
The Back-to-Back National Champion Co-Ed Cheerleading Team
The Back-to-Back National Champion Dance Team
The Undefeated (22-0) National Champion Women’s Soccer Team, winners of conference (MACCC), region 23 and national titles (NJCAA)
MACCC Coaches of the Year: James Beattie (Women’s Soccer) and Benjy Parker (Football)
Legendary baseball coach Mark Carson, who is now the winningest coach in Northwest history
Others who were recognized at Northwest included:
The 2024-25 Homecoming Queen
Mr. and Miss Northwest from the Oxford, Senatobia and DeSoto campuses
Hall of Fame inductees
Phi Theta Kappa All-Mississippi Academic Team members
William Winter Scholar award recipients: Daniel Alderman of Hernando (sophomore general college student) and Carla Townsend, History Instructor
MS Humanities Council Teacher of the Year: Ramona Brawner, English Instructor
Newly accredited instructors through ACUE (American College and University Educators)
The 2025 Employees of the Month
College president Dr. Michael Heindl said the event was set up to celebrate all of the great things going on at the college.
“Whether it be arts, athletics or academics, tonight is about our student athletes, our students who have excelled in the classroom,” Heindl said. “We’re also able to actually recognize some of our best employees and faculty tonight.”
Heindl called the successes of the past year for the school “historic.”
“The college has been serving this part of the state for 98 years,” Heindl said. “To be able to recognize students, faculty and staff in this way is really quite historic. To have these many wins is a big deal.”
To be a championship program, a lot of factors are involved. It starts with great coaches who recruit great competitors and get great support.
A native of Glasgow, Scotland, Northwest women’s soccer coach James Beattie has been leading the Lady Rangers for five years. This past season was historic with an unbeaten record of 20-0, climaxed with an NJCAA Division II national championship.
Beattie said the support his program has received is instrumental in the team’s success.
“It starts with the administration at the top,” Beattie said. “We’re really well backed. Our president is super involved in terms of facilities, making sure the girls have everything they need, from soccer, to academics, to life in general.”
Football coach Benjy Parker HS fashioned program records for winning percentage of Northwest football coaches, both overall and in MACCC North. He has solidified NWCC’s reputation as a powerhouse in junior college football, marked by consistent postseason appearances and a strong pipeline to Division I and professional football.
“I think everybody wants to win and it’s our success that brings players here,” Parker said. “It started a long time ago with coach Bobby Ray Franklin winning all of those games and it’s our tradition.
Baseball coach Mark Carson is the school’s all-time winningest coach, having reached 557 career victories earlier this season. Carson, who played baseball at Northwest and later returned to coach the Rangers, has been leading the program since 2006. He noted how all of the programs have had successful years in the 2024-25 school year and how that helps him recruit players.
“It’s been a really successful year,” Carson said. “Our facilities are really good and another thing is our location. We are literally 20 minutes from a lot of things like the Memphis Grizzlies, Ole Miss is in our backyard and Starkville is two hours away. I try to play that card and our education with recruits.”
