Raleigh Wood turned into a total type of individual. It becomes with super disappointment that I discovered on Thursday that Wood had exceeded away after a long war with mind most cancers. The Wood family has been a part of the Starkville athletic way of life for decades. Football is a huge part of what the Woods does. However, Raleigh’s game was baseball. When beginning my sports activities writing career again within the past due Nineteen Eighties at the Starkville Daily News, Raleigh was establishing his own career as an assistant baseball coach at Starkville High School beneath the mythical head educate Danny Carlisle.
There have been a few accurate times lower back then. It wasn’t best the kingdom championships, and he was a part of 3 with the Yellow Jackets. However, it changed into additionally the relationships mounted with dad and mom, coaches and gamers. Even even though I did no longer recognize Raleigh extraordinarily well, he turned into a wonderful encouragement to me as I tried to cover SHS and its postseason achievement in baseball. Raleigh went directly to have a 30-yr run inside the Mississippi’s public college device as a trainer, teacher, and administrator.
After supporting the Jackets, Wood became the top baseball coach at Winona and Grenada. He went into administrative work in the Grenada School District and served as simple school important. Baseball turned into a part of Raleigh’s life earlier than turning into an instruct. He pitched for East Mississippi Community College in the early 80s after graduating from SHS. For his contributions to the Lions, Raleigh joined his brother, Marcus, as EMCC Sports Hall of Fame inductees during successive years. My final opportunity to speak with Wood was earlier than he was inducted into the EMCC Hall of Fame’s remaining year. I was happy to see him get that reputation because it became very tons deserved.