Bio

Regena McMillan

Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College (1974-1976) / Basketball
Vancleave, Mississippi

Regena "Red" McMillan was a member of the first group of women basketball players to sign an athletic scholarship at Gulf Coast. She attended the Perkinston Campus from the full of 1974 to May 1976. She was named All-State her freshman year. During her sophomore year, she was named team captain, All-State Honorable Mention and was voted Most Athletic. Averaging 15 points and eight rebounds per game, she dazzled fans with fadeaway jump shots and double-pump lay-ups. She also belongs to an elite group of women basketball players who have scored more than 1,000 points in both high school and college. "I have always loved to play basketball; that was something my parents taught me,” she says. I also had a great coach in high school as well as Coach Sue Ross at Perk who taught me more at the college level.”

"I was quiet,” she said. "But after playing a few games, I loosened up. At first, I did not like the nickname ‘Red.’ Then I realized that my teammates and our fans were not calling me that in any negative way but because they liked the way I played. Before long, I learned to enjoy the nickname."

McMillan was a top athlete who made the Dean's List while at Gulf Coast and later at the University of Southern Mississippi. "The coaches really stressed academics with us and checked our grades. They told us that it was important to excel in everything we did, not just basketball. That is a philosophy I have carried with me throughout life."

After graduating from Perk, she played basketball at Southern Miss and then moved home to Vancleave to be a physical education teacher and coach at Vancleave Middle School. Over the years, her coaching duties have included basketball and cross-country. "Coach Mac," as she was called, was named Deep South Conference Coach of the Year in 1983 and 1984. Coach Mac also led her track teams to numerous conference and district championships. Her eighth-grade basketball team won a Mid-Coast Conference championship in 2009 with an undefeated season (12-0).

She was recognized for her commitment to her students in the classroom as well as to her athletes. Before retiring at the end of 2009, she was selected as Teacher of the Year, In 2010, McMillan served as Sunday school teacher at the Community of Christ Church in Vancleave.