MCC looks to move on after Rose

By Daniel Rigdon / Sports Writer
The Meridian Star

MERIDIAN — The Meridian Community College administration will be looking to fill a big void now that former skipper Chris Rose accepted the head coaching job at East Mississippi Community College Thursday afternoon at a press conference in Scooba.

"We hate to see him go. He did an outstanding job at MCC," said Meridian Community College president Dr. Scott Elliott. "We hate to see him go, but from what I understand they offered him something that he couldn't afford to turn down for the betterment of himself and his family. I have to be happy for him in that respect."

"He had talked to us about the opportunity on numerous occasions throughout the past month," added Meridian athletic director Hilary Allen. "It is a coaching business and there are opportunities to advance and decisions you have to make with your family in mind. I think coach Rose made this decision with his family in mind. We are wishing him well and he has done a great job for MCC. The numbers that he has put up during the five years he was here were phenomenal."

MCC will look to fill the void left by Rose as quickly as possible according to Dr. Elliott.

"We have decided to conduct a regular job search on the position and we are going to be advertising for it immediately," said Elliott. "We are expecting to finish the application process by June 30. Thereafter, a search committee will scan those applications. They will then conduct interviews and ultimately make a recommendation to the administration on a new head coach.

"We've had a lineage of superlative coaches at MCC and my commitment is that we are going to continue that tradition and get a great coach for this program," added Elliott. "I want that for our players and our community."

According to Elliott, assistant coach Dillon Sudduth has been asked to take over the supervision of the program while the search is conducted.

"In the meantime we've asked Dillon to be responsible for maintaining close contact with our returning sophomores and incoming freshmen that we've signed already," noted Elliott. "We have also asked him to coordinate our State Games baseball activities and continue to recruit premiere players to the program as recruiting is finishing up. Those are the things we've asked him to focus on.

"Dillon is going to be welcomed to apply for the head coaching position and in any respect, whether he be the new head coach or continue as an assistant, we would hope that he would remain associated with the program. He has done a real good job for MCC."