- MGCCC players enjoy bar-b-que at the The Shed Dec. 3.
BILOXI, MS—It’s already been a two-day whirlwind for Blinn College and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, and the fourth annual Mississippi Bowl doesn’t kickoff until Sunday.
Blinn quarterback Eric Matthews signs a football at the Biloxi Boy’s & Girl’s Club Dec. 3.
Everyone associated with this year’s game kicked off the weekend at the Mississippi Bowl banquet held at Keesler Air Force Base.
The day before the battle between the No. 5 Buccaneers and No. 9 Bulldogs was stacked with fun, food, and friendship all along the Mississippi Coast.
Each team held a walkthrough practice at Biloxi Indian Stadium and then spent some time with some of the area’s youth. Blinn’s players signed autographs and threw footballs with the children at Biloxi’s Boys and Girls Club while the Bulldogs played touch football with the kids from dreamprogram.net, an organization serving and enhancing the leisure lifestyle of people with disabilities in Jackson County Mississippi and surrounding areas.
The wives of coaches and administrators from both colleges ate lunch at Biloxi’s Mary Mahoney’s restaurant and spent the day shopping.
If that wasn’t enough, both squads enjoyed team meals Saturday Night, with Gulf Coast getting fed at The Shed and Blinn dining out at the Isle of Capri.
“We wanted to help support our local team,” said the Shed’s Ruby Pope. “We’re so excited to have the guys here, and we wanted them to have a great meal and enjoy themselves the night before the game.”
Now that the pre-game festivities are coming to end, the only thing left is to play football Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. Gulf Coast head coach Steve Campbell is anxious to see how his 9-2 Bulldogs will handle Blinn’s triple-option offensive attack.
“In Mississippi, most of our opponents spread it out and throw it,” he said. “When you see them on film, it answers a lot of questions about why they’re so good. What they present on offense is definitely something different then what we’ve seen in a while.”
On the flipside, Blinn head coach Ronny Feldman is excited his team gets one more chance to play in 2011. The Buccaneers dropped a 34-31overtime decision to Tyler back on Nov. 5.
“We’re happy to be here,” Feldman said. “We get to compete against a quality opponent and scheme against someone different. Our guys didn’t want their season to end after that loss, so we’re excited about this game.”
