HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Harry Breland has never been one to blow his own horn or pat himself on the back.
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Harry Breland has never been one to blow his own horn or pat himself on the back.
“I don’t feel like I’m anything special,” Breland said. “But some good things happened to me from the very first. I guess I was just due to be a coach.”
Breland is much too modest. The fact is, Breland was more than just a coach.
Over the course of his 41 years in coaching, Breland was a trailblazer, a mentor, a winner. And you’ll soon be able to call him a Hall of Famer.
“I’d heard it was a possibility, but it had kind of gotten past me,” Breland said. “This is the most elite Hall of Fame for high school coaches, and it’s really, really special to me.”
Breland will be inducted into the National High School Hall of Fame tonight in Chicago, becoming just the seventh Mississippian to be so honored.
“Harry Breland is a very talented coach, but he has always gone far beyond teaching baseball fundamentals,” said Ennis Proctor, executive director of the Mississippi High School Activities Association in a prepared statement.
“I am pleased to see this fine individual recognized on the national level for his contribution to high school athletics.”
The honor recognizes Breland’s 37 years as the head baseball coach at Oak Grove High School, where he started the current program and built it into one of the state’s elite.
Along the way, Breland’s teams won 824 games and nine state championships at every level in the school’s growth from a small country school into the large suburban school it is today.
“It’s a proud moment, not only for him and his family, but also for our school, our school district and, really, for the entire state of Mississippi,” said Oak Grove Attendance Center principal Wayne Folkes. “He’s very deserving of this honor.”
Breland always seemed to be in the right place at the right time for his career, going back to his first job interview.
“I went into the interview at John Jefferson High School (in Purvis), and the principal there was Thomas Todd, who was the brother of one of my high school teammates,” Breland said.
Breland was hired as an assistant football and assistant basketball coach at the all-Black school, but quickly moved into the job as head basketball coach.
“The man who was the head basketball coach, his wife drowned in an accident and he decided to leave the state,” Breland said. “So, for the next four years, I was assistant football coach and head basketball coach.”
When Lamar County integrated its schools in 1970, Breland moved to Oak Grove as an assistant basketball coach, and he eventually moved into the head coaching position.
But his destiny lay elsewhere. Breland was asked to restart the Warrior baseball team that had been dormant for several years.
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