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YOLANDA:

When Major League Baseball needs someone to host a showcase of some of the best HBCU baseball programs in the country, they look to Mississippi.

Hey, I'm Yolanda Clay Moore, and this is a Soul Sessions Extra from Jackson, Mississippi. This is the podcast from Visit Jackson, where we talk about the people, places, and events that make the City with Soul Shine. Today, we're talking about the HBCU Power Series coming to Trustmark Park in Pearl this February. Six tradition-rich programs, three days of games, and a weekend that celebrates everything great about HBCU athletics. And yes, your Jackson State Tigers will be playing right here at home.

February 12th through 15th, the HBCU Power Series comes to Trustmark Park. Major League Baseball selected the Mississippi Mud Monsters to host six programs: Texas Southern, Prairie View A&M, Grambling State, Jackson State, and Alcorn State. Thursday is Arrival Day: workouts, media, and pageantry. Friday through Sunday, three games daily at 11 a.m., 2.30 p.m., and 6 p.m. Jackson State plays prime time every night, 6 p.m. slots against Prairie View on Friday, Alabama A &M on Saturday, and Alcorn on Sunday.

Andrew Seymour, general manager of the Mud Monsters, says this weekend will feel “loud, joyful, and intentional.” School colors, brass bands, state rivalries, all at a professional ballpark. Tickets are $10 for adults,$5 for kids free for students from participating schools. We'll give you links at the end to find your tickets.

I talked with JSU head coach Omar Johnson about what this means. Coach Johnson, you're kicking off your season with this weekend of games. What was behind that decision?

OMAR:

Well, we normally we were opening up the season typically in Houston at the Cactus Jack. Well, they have the World Baseball Classic this year, and the facility wouldn't be available. So we started looking around, trying to find games, know, sometimes finding the first four weeks of the season is a little difficult because, you know, the after the first four weekends of the season, we have conference play and that's set by the conference. Dulin…Dulin is the head coach at Prairie View right now. He reached out to the Players Alliance and then the Players Alliance reached out to several coaches to find out what kind of interest we would have. They looked for a bunch of places to have it, but we were fortunate enough to get it here in Jackson, because they wanted to go to Miami, Atlanta, Dallas. So we were really, really fortunate to get it here. So we're excited about it. It's the first one. I think they're going to resume the Cactus Jack next year. We might go back to Houston next year, but we're going to enjoy having this here in town this year.

YOLANDA:

First of all, I'd like to say thank you for being the host; that does benefit our community. Tell me, what is it like to have all these teams in town?

OMAR: It's always good to have these tournaments to give some extra exposure. MLB is directly involved with it. We'll have some games on MLB Network. We'll have some games on the SWAC Digital Network. It'll provide a lot of exposure for all of the program. One thing I would like to add, I think the third weekend of the season, have UNC Asheville here in town in Valley and Alcorn going to come up and play at our facility also. So we'll have two weekends of this kind of format that will, you know, multiple teams come to our city and get a chance to play in our facility. This particular one on third weekend will be on our campus.

YOLANDA:

You mentioned the word exposure. Just tell me what does this mean for HBCU baseball?

OMAR:

We're lucky when it comes to like the exposure of having our teams being able to play on TV. Anytime you can get on MLB network, it's a ton exposure for your program, for your university. Those are great opportunities for our kids to be seen, for the rest of the country to see our brand of baseball.

YOLANDA:

Coach Johnson, talk to me about the legacy of Coach Braddy and what it means to be a part of this program with such a rich legacy.
OMAR:

I've been here for quite a while now. Coach Braddy was very influential, allowing us, allowing me to become the head coach. Actually, when I became the head coach, Coach Braddy was the AD. So he hired me to become the head coach here. So it's a great opportunity. I love Jackson State. I've been here a very long time. It's a part of my family. I don't take imy role as the head coach here at the university lightly.

YOLANDA:

February 12th through 15 at Trustmark Park, six HBCU programs. Jackson State plays at 6pm all three nights, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for kids, free for students with ID. We'll have links in our show notes at visitjackson/soulsessions. If you want to follow the Tigers all season, season tickets are at gojsutigers.com/tickets.

This podcast is produced by Visit Jackson, the Destination Organization for Mississippi's Capital City. Our executive producers are Jonathan Pettus and Dr. Ricky Thigpen, and Paul Wolf is our managing editor. Learn more about us at VisitJackson.com.

I'm Yolanda Clay Moore, and you've been listening to Soul Sessions.

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