In The Blue Banquet to honor new Hall of Fame class

PERKINSTON — Families, friends and fans of Mississippi Gulf Coast student-athletes will have the chance to support them by attending the In The Blue Banquet on Feb. 2, 2024.

This year's MGCCC Athletic Hall of Fame inductees will be honored at the event, which starts at 6 p.m. The annual fundraiser will take place at the Hospitality Resort Management Center on the Harrison County Campus. Gulf Coast Athletic Hall of Famer and former Wichita State University head men's basketball coach Isaac Brown will be the featured speaker.

Brown was the Bulldogs' most valuable player in the 1989-90 season, when he led Gulf Coast to the NJCAA Region 23 title by averaging 16.4 points, 7.2 assists and 2.0 steals as a sophomore. He went on to play collegiately at Texas A&M and Louisiana-Monroe, where he led ULM to the Southland Conference title and an NCAA Tournament berth.

After assistant coaching stops at Pearl River Community College, Pascagoula High, Okaloosa-Walton Community College, South Alabama and Louisiana Tech, he took a similar role at Wichita State in 2014. He was eventually made head coach at WSU in 2020-21 and led the program for three seasons. Brown was inducted into the Gulf Coast Hall of Fame in 2019.

Tickets for the event cost $50 with four sponsorship levels available. To buy tickets or sponsor the event, go to https://mgccc.edu/in-the-blue/.

This year's Hall of Fame honorees are:

Gary Bourgeois, Tennis

Bourgeois led the Mississippi Gulf Coast men's and women's tennis teams from 2004 through 2020, and his squads consistently competed for conference and region championships.

The 2013 men's team won the MACJC and NJCAA Region 23 championships, and his 2017 women's team did likewise. He led 17 squads to the NJCAA National Tournament and sent more than 30 Gulf Coast players on to four-year schools, from NCAA Division I to the NAIA. More than 50 players garnered Academic Student-Athlete Awards, and Margarita Lopareva became the school's first CoSIDA Academic All-American in 2019.

Joey Butler, Baseball

Butler was a slugging outfielder who played two stellar seasons at Gulf Coast on the way to a professional career that saw him spend parts of three seasons in the majors.

He batted .402 in 2005 as a freshman at Perk, earning a spot on the All-MACJC Second Team. Butler batted .374 with 38 RBI in 52 games as a sophomore before signing at the University of New Orleans. He was drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 2008 MLB Draft and batted .281 with 108 home runs and 526 RBI in 1,126 games, including the minors and Japan.

Stacie Davis, Women's Basketball

Stacie Davis was a dominant rebounder who helped lead Gulf Coast to an MACCC South title and an NJCAA All-American spot as a sophomore. She made an immediate impact as a Bulldog starting in 1995, averaging 11.7 points as a freshman when she helped lead Gulf Coast to a 13-12 record. It was the women's basketball team's first winning season since 1988.

The 1995-96 season saw the Bulldogs win the MACJC South title and finish in the Region 23 Championship game. Davis was named to the All-MACJC team and became the women's basketball program's first All-American when she was named an NJCAA Honorable Mention recipient. She went on to be a top player at McNeese State before pursuing a career in nursing.

Aubrey Matthews, Football

Matthews was a speedy receiver from Moss Point who played on the 1980 state championship team and went on to play 11 seasons in the NFL. The Bulldogs went 11-1 for George Sekul in Matthews' freshman season on the way to that title. In 1981, he led Gulf Coast with 22 passes for 468 yards and four touchdowns, earning All-State First Team honors. He also excelled in the classroom, winning the Dr. G.N. Guild Scholastic Award.

Matthews was a two-year letterman at Delta State before spending 11 years (1986-96) in the NFL with the Falcons, Packers and Lions. He had 160 catches for 2,112 yards and nine touchdowns. In 1987, he caught 32 passes for 537 yards and three scores for Atlanta. Four of his Lions teams made it to the playoffs, and he caught 29 passes for 359 yards and three touchdowns in 1994.

Terry McCovey, Men's Basketball

McCovey was part of two MACJC South champions in 1980 and 1981. He started on the 1981 team which went on to win the state championship.

He went on to play at Arkansas College, now known as Lyon College, and was inducted into the school's hall of fame in 2021. McCovey served in the U.S. Air Force, where he continued to shine on a number of military teams. He played for the Sacramento Kings' summer league team in 1988. He's the president of the United Way for Jackson and George Counties and has served on many boards for community organizations in his community.

Ashlee Nodhturft Scott, Softball

Nodhturft was an NJCAA All-American player who helped lead Gulf Coast to the 2001 and 2002 MACJC championships, as well as back-to-back Region 23 titles. She led the Bulldogs to their first national championship appearance in 2001, with the squad finishing fifth.

She went on to play two years at Delta State, where she was an All-Gulf South Conference performer both seasons. She still ranks in the top 10 in DSU history in career home runs, doubles, runs scored, RBI and batting average.

Lloyd Seymour, Football

Seymour was defensive captain of the 1968 state championship team who won a pair of titles during his time at Perk. He played offensive guard as a freshman before becoming a linebacker the following season, when he earned a spot on the NJCAA All-American Second Team. Coach George Sekul named him to his Team of the Decade.

Seymour went on to play at Mississippi College. He was named the team's most valuable defensive player and co-captain during his senior season. He worked in the Biloxi Public School District for 30 years.

Brice Wilkinson, Golf

Wilkinson helped lead Gulf Coast to its first team national championship in golf in 2018, when the Bulldogs beat the field in Foley, Ala. He tied for sixth as the Bulldogs edged MACCC rival Meridian by a stroke over 72 holes. 

In his freshman year, the Bulldogs finished second at the national tournament in Mesa, Ariz. Wilkinson earned the Phil Mickelson Award as national freshman of the year. He still has the lowest scoring average for a season (71.23) in school history, and his mark of beating 95 percent of his opponents in 2018-19 is second-highest in school history. He was named to the PING Division II All-American first team, the NJCAA Division II All-American first team, Academic All-American first team and All-MACJC first team twice. Wilkinson played three seasons at Southern Miss and won the 2022 Mississippi State Amateur.

Danny Anderson, Bulldog Hall of Honor

Anderson went on from being a student athletic trainer at Gulf Coast to being the man in charge for nearly 14 years. And during nearly half that stretch, he was a one-man band as the head athletic trainer.

He went to Perk from 1994-96, then moved on with his associates of arts to the University of Southern Mississippi. He graduated there in 1999 with a bachelor's in athletic training and began work as a certified athletic trainer at Encore Rehabilitation. He came to Gulf Coast at the start of the 2001-02 academic year and was the athletic trainer for Gulf Coast's 2007 national championship football team. In 2008, he won the National Athletic Trainer's Association Above and Beyond Award for the community college level.

For more information on MGCCC's 11 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.