CLINTON — Legend isn’t a word that is used casually.
It carries a history with it that evokes exceptional moments and years spent toiling to build something memorable.
It also earns anyone lucky enough to earn that distinction special favors, like rides to news conferences to talk about football.
At first glance Monday, it might have been unusual to see Noxubee County High School football coach Tyrone Shorter and Louisville High coach M.C. Miller riding in the same car to a gathering at the Mississippi High School Activities Association office to discuss their C Spire Wireless “Bright Lights Football” game at 7 p.m. Thursday in Macon.
After all, the matchup between the Tigers and Wildcats (both 8-1, 3-0 region) likely will decide the Class 4A, Region 4 title. It also is an opportunity for one of two programs rich in tradition to earn bragging rights in a series that Fox Sports South will broadcast live to nearly 13 million people in seven states.
But while Shorter and Miller will be rivals Thursday night, their relationship goes much deeper than just student and teacher.
“Someone asked me this morning when we first got here, ‘How can it be a rivalry when two coaches rode here together?’ ” Shorter said. “My comment on that is, ‘The old guy needed a ride.’ ”
Shorter’s remark brought a round of laughter to the group, but he followed it by thanking Miller for hiring him as a defensive backs coach at Noxubee County High. At the time, Shorter had received offers to continue to play football in the NFL, CFL, and Arena League, but he said he had a dream that showed him he needed to get into teaching and coaching.
Thirteen years later, Shorter was more than happy to talk about how the impact Miller has had on him and how much he has learned from a mentor who is known for having a toothpick in his mouth around the clock.
“I owe him a lot,” Shorter said. “I think he is a legend in this game. He taught me how to become a head coach. I watched a lot of things he did and it prepared me to be a head coach.”
Shorter took over at Noxubee County High in 2010 after Miller left the school first to accept a job at Harrison Central and then to return to his hometown and take over the football program at Louisville High.
Shorter’s teams pride themselves on a fast-paced, aggressive style of play similar to the one Miller instilled. The swarming defense and the aerial wizardry Miller concocted developed into a brand the Tigers cultivated with a swagger that Shorter displayed Monday.
“We beat them last year and we’re going to beat them again this year,” Shorter said.
That remark brought a round of laughter.
Come Thursday, though, no one will be laughing, even though there will plenty of memories. It remains to be seen if Miller, who led Noxubee County to its first football state title in 2008, will receive a round of applause from the thousands of Noxubee County fans at the game. But Shorter won’t forget what Miller taught him, and he doesn’t want others to forget what Miller did for Noxubee County High football.
Shorter said he and Miller are a lot alike in that they like to have a good time and they develop a bond with their assistant coaches. On game day, both are all about business and both men want to win. Shorter said Miller helped show him teaching and coaching young men isn’t about financial rewards and that you need to put in the hard work to earn the respect of the student-athletes and the community.
“I think we have the same philosophy in coaching,” Shorter said. “We are hard-nosed. We are disciplined. I saw the way he did things. He was rough on kids, but the kids would do anything for him.”
Shorter, who was a football and track and field standout at Port Gibson High, played football at Austin Peay before moving on to the practice squad of the NFL’s San Diego Chargers for one year. He played for one year with the CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos before he decided to move to Noxubee County to be closer to his mother.
The decision came right after he had a dream that encouraged him to go back to school to finish his degree and get into teaching and coaching. If not for the dream, he might have decided to pursue an opportunity with the NFL’s Tennessee Titans or in the Arena Football League.
Now he is responsible for the legacy Miller left and continuing it. At first, that was a daunting proposition, but it is one Shorter has embraced — just like he has mixed Miller’s lessons and things he has learned to become a successful leader.
“Everybody was expecting the same thing (Miller did),” Shorter said. “It was nerve-wracking at first because you have to win. … I remember last year I lost 15 pounds because I put in so much work and so much time. I had to do whatever I had to do to keep this program on top.”
Miller, who will be 62 on Nov. 2, started coaching in 1975. He anticipates staying active for a number of years and hopes to mold more young men and, possibly, to teach a few more young coaches about how to become head coaches.
Miller learned plenty in his days as defensive coordinator for coaches like Bobby Hall and Lynn Moore. He paid his dues and said he wasn’t going to pass on a down program to Shorter when he left Noxubee County High.
With one son by birth on each sideline, Miller will take pride in the fact he will have another son — Shorter — across the way carrying on what he helped build in Macon.
“I trained him and showed him how to do things the right way,” Miller said. “Around the third or the fourth year I saw he could be a great coach. I saw his work ethic. He was a good, hard worker. When you’re a young guy and a good, hard worker, you’re going to be successful as long as you do the right thing.
“My job is to help people. I made him a junior high coach, and you have to have one of your best coaches down there. He did a good job with junior high and that’s why we got the program rolling at Noxubee County and kept it going. Coaching against him means a lot.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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