Every year at graduation time, local schools’ valedictorians and salutatorians are highlighted on the front page of The DAILY LEADER. But what happens to those students after they graduate and begin their adult lives? We caught up with several class leaders from five or six years ago to see how their lives have changed since graduation.

 

     Six years after graduating from Bogue Chitto Attendance Center, 2006 valedictorian Meleah Brown finds herself back at high school and still involved in the sport she’s loved since she was a child.

     Brown, who is now Meleah Howard, is beginning her first year at Lawrence County High School as head slow and fast pitch softball coach.

     “The Lawrence County job was an opportunity for me to come home,” she said. “I had been away from the Lincoln County area for four years, and I wanted to come back.”

     Howard’s time at Bogue Chitto included playing softball, a sport she’s loved since she was about 8 years old.

     After graduation, Howard signed with Copiah-Lincoln Community College to play softball as a pitcher and third basemen for two years from 2006-2008. From there she headed north to Starkville to be Mississippi State Bulldog.

     “I really wanted to play softball at Mississippi State, but the coach wasn’t interested in junior college transfers,” she said.

     But that wasn’t the end of Howard’s softball career. While studying at Mississippi State, she became an assistant coach at East Webster High School.

     “After I couldn’t play anymore I thought I just couldn’t be away from softball,” Howard said. “I started coaching summer ball softball when I was 19. I loved being around the girls and a lot of them had seen me play or play against me. I just loved being out on the field.”

     Howard graduated in December of 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in teaching and coaching.

     The following January, she began working at East Webster High School as head softball coach and faced a challenge after the team’s recent move up a classification to class 2A. East Webster softball had been a softball powerhouse in the years prior to reclassification, having won the 1A championship four years in a row.”

     “In my first year as head coach in spring of 2011, we advanced to the state title game,” Howard said. “No one expected us to make it that far, because that year was our second year being in 2A.”

     Howard’s 2012 East Webster squad advanced to the quarterfinal round of the playoffs before bowing out to Hatley High School.

     But after being in north Mississippi for several years, Howard decided she wanted to come home. Accepting the Lawrence County coaching position allowed her to do that.

     Howard’s future plans are to get her master’s degree and move up to coach at a junior or senior college.

     “I enjoy coaching and teaching in high school,” she said. “Sports have always been my life. I started playing tournament ball when I was 8 and I pretty much played until I was too old to play.”

     But Howard did something in June of this year that may have taken her mind off of softball, at least temporarily. On June 23, she married Marc Howard of Bogue Chitto at Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church in Bogue Chitto.

     Marc Howard graduated in 2001 from Bogue Chitto and is also a teacher and coach.

     “Bogue Chitto is my home,” Meleah Howard said.

     When asked where her teaching abilities came from, Howard credited Bogue Chitto Attendance Center and added it was in the family. Howard is the daughter of Terry and Vasie Brown of Bogue Chitto.

     “I had really good teachers at Bogue Chitto,” she said. “I really loved my time there. My mom’s a teacher, so I think I got the teaching part from her.”

     Howard said her time in high school went by quickly. She recommended students enjoy their time at home while in school, before furthering their education beyond high school.

     “Everyone’s senior year goes by so quickly,” she said. “What they don’t tell you is that your college career goes by even faster and then you have to live in the real world and pay bills and work. It’s hard enough to get a job with a degree, so getting a degree will help you a lot.”