Netflix’s “Final Likelihood U” first captivated soccer followers in every single place 10 years in the past. The documentary collection, which featured JUCO sports activities throughout the nation — initially soccer for 5 seasons after which basketball for 2 extra in a spin-off — initially spotlighted Scooba, Mississippi, and, extra particularly, East Mississippi Group Faculty.
EMCC served as the location of the firs two seasons of the critically acclaimed doc. And program frontman Buddy Stephens changed into a family title. His nonstop barking in addition to his simple profitable made him an unforgettable determine.
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However, after main the Lions to 5 Nationwide Junior Faculty Athletic Affiliation nationwide championships, Stephens is out as head coach.
EMCC introduced Monday that it is named affiliate head coach and offensive coordinator Preston Rice the crew’s interim head coach. Stephens is not talked about by the college in its assertion.
The information arrived within the wake of Stephens making crucial feedback about EMCC and Mississippi Affiliation of Group Schools Convention (MACCC) management in an article revealed final week in The Industrial Dispatch.
Buddy Stephens led EMCC to NJCAA nationwide championships in 2011, 2013-14 and 2017-18. (Photograph by Eric Charbonneau/Invision for Netflix/AP Pictures)
(Eric Charbonneau/Invision/AP)
Stephens, who spent 18 years in his publish whereas amassing a 155–31 file, condemned the latest adjustments to the MACCC’s common season and playoff codecs.
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As reported by the Dispatch, the league introduced earlier this yr that was rising the common season from 9 video games to 10, with every crew now taking part in 5 residence video games and 5 away video games. Plus, the MACCC altered its postseason qualification necessities. As a substitute of the highest two groups from each the North and South divisions competing for the state championship, solely the No. 1 seeds from every division have an opportunity to play for the title.
On the crew’s media day, Stephens claimed that the preliminary plan was for the MACCC to sport a 10-game regular-season schedule with two playoff video games, despite the fact that that mannequin would have bled into the NJCAA nationwide playoff schedule.
“Finally that is what occurred,” Stephens stated, per the Dispatch, which reported that he known as the leaders answerable for the construction modifications “idiots.”
“A few of the presidents within the state did not wish to must go to the nationwide playoffs as a result of they did not wish to journey the primary week. … The presidents determined they did not wish to must spend some huge cash to journey, in order that they did our system, our playoffs and our yearly schedule to ensure that them to have the ability to again out of the [NJCAA] playoffs in the event that they wished to and keep in our playoffs. But when they have been going to be a No. 1 or No. 2 seed and so they have been going to get to host and so they did not must journey, then they’d get out of our playoffs and decide into the nationwide playoffs to allow them to host.”
In line with Stephens, the NJCAA caught a whiff of that alleged plan and compelled MACCC groups to announce in the summertime in the event that they wished to be within the nationwide playoffs. That is why the MACCC settled for 10 common season video games and one playoff sport, Stephens stated, through the Dispatch.
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That system pissed off Stephens, who led second-seeded North division groups to NJCAA nationwide championships twice, squads who wanted that league playoff run to spice up their nationwide rating to make the four-team nationwide discipline however have been clearly able to successful all of it.
Stephens described the format shift’s course of as “junkified,” in response to the Dispatch.
EMCC president Scott Alsobrooks responded Monday with an announcement posted on the college’s Fb web page, wherein he famous the faculty “strongly disavows the remarks revealed in a latest article.”
Alsobrooks additionally stated: “These feedback are inconsistent with the faculty’s core values and requirements of professionalism, respect, and civility, and don’t mirror the views, mission, or expectations of EMCC. Whereas the faculty helps open and constructive dialogue, private assaults haven’t any place in that discourse and are opposite to the requirements we uphold inside our faculty neighborhood.”