(Left to Right) Pearl River president Dr. Adam Breerwood, baseball’s Nick Smith, men’s soccer’s Walt Thomas, football and men’s basketball’s Emil Jones, soccer’s Jack Byrd, tennis’ Pamel Munger and Pearl River Athletics Director Patrick Ochs.
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. — Pearl River Community College held another incredibly successful Athletics Hall of Fame celebration on Friday. The day got underway with a maxed-out golf tournament at The Bridges Golf Club and was capped off by a packed-house banquet at Hollywood Casino & Resort. The celebration was sponsored by Keith’s Superstores.
“Friday was amazing. There’s no other way to describe it,” Pearl River Athletics Director Patrick Ochs said. “We look forward to the Hall of Fame for 12 months, and Friday’s celebration certainly lived up to the hype. Our goal every year is to build an event that our Wildcat family can be proud of; one that honors our wonderful induction class. I have already heard from many of our guests who are looking forward to our 2025 ceremony.”
Ochs talked about the work that went into putting together the event and passed along a message to the 2024 Hall of Fame class.
“We had a special day, from the golf tournament in the morning to the duck derby that evening. What a day! Efforts like Friday’s make me incredibly proud to be a Wildcat,” he said. “An event this big is not successful unless you have buy-in from multiple departments. We are blessed at Pearl River to have a ‘we, not me’ culture engrained in us from our administration, and you see the fruits of that mindset on days like Friday.”
“To our honorees, we’re thankful you chose Pearl River way back when and hope Friday was representative of all you have done for our institution.”
GOLF TOURNAMENT
Pearl River kicked off the day with its four-man scramble golf tournament. The team of Austin Darden, Cruz Russell, Jason Spence and Reid Welsh snatched first place. Three of the four team members were part of last year’s winning team. Brad Ladner, Evan Ladner, Carter Nicholson and Jesse Walker earned a second-place finish. Greg Fairley, Justin Harris, Jeremy Tynes and Brad Wood finished in third place. Kurt Smith won the longest-drive competition. David Boyd won the closest to the pin competition.
Paw Paw’s Campers and Cars once again sponsored a hole-in-one competition, and for the first time in the history of the PRCC Athletics Hall of Fame Golf Tournament, there was a winner. Carter Nicholson sunk a hole-in-one on his final hole of the day to win the camper giveaway.
BANQUET
The day came to a close with the Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The 2024 class included soccer’s Jack Byrd, football and men’s basketball’s Emil Jones, tennis’ Pamela Munger, baseball’s Nick Smith and men’s soccer’s Walt Thomas.
Pearl River honored its Spirit of a Wildcat award recipients, Bobby and Marjory Thrash.
Additionally, PRCC honored the 20th anniversary of its 2003-04 school year champions. The honored teams were 2003 football, 2003 men’s soccer, 2003 04 men’s basketball and 2004 baseball.
HOW TO NOMINATE
Know someone who’s deserving of consideration to be included in the Class of 2025? You can nominate them by visiting PRCCAthletics.com/hof/Hall_of_Fame_nomination_form.
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