North Pike High School has a rich history of athletics, but difficult financial times have limited many of the Jaguars’ athletic programs.
So head football coach Chris Smith and his team took matters into their own hands, and Friday the team won a check for $4,000 from Coca-Cola as the winners of the Powerade Power-Up contest.
“It means a lot any time you can get that kind of money for your program to add to things that you need but couldn’t necessarily afford at the time,” Smith said.
Sarah Gillis, representative of the Coca-Cola marketing team in Baton Rouge, said this is the third year the regional offices there have held the contest for local athletic programs.
The contest invited athletic programs from all six divisions in the region, including southwest Mississippi, to submit essays or videos explaining why their program deserved the funding.
North Pike’s video was inspired by the popular segment “C’Mon Man” from ESPN’s Monday Night Football and was selected over entries from 17 other athletic programs in the area. The video starred players from the North Pike football team who gave viewers a tour of the Jaguars’ dated football facilities, ending each stop on the tour with the “C’mon Man” plea.
“It’s so much fun. It’s definitely the highlight of my job,” Gillis said. “Our philosophy is to always give back to our local community.”
Gillis said Powerade, a property of Coca-Cola, has a strong relationship with prep sports in the area, and after seeing Coke’s national marketing team introduce the idea a few years ago she knew it would have a major impact in Louisiana and Mississippi.
The contests in southwest Mississippi also were sponsored by local radio station K-106 as well as Southwest Mississippi Community College.
Smith said the football program plans to spend the money on most of the dated equipment featured in the video, including a new washer and dryer as well as a new air conditioning unit in the locker room for difficult summer workouts.
The head coach said the team’s last working washing machine broke down last week, noting that the check could not have come at a better time.
“We’re going to spend it all on the kids,” Smith said. “It’s their program, so we’re definitely going to spend it on all we can do for them.”
