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Senate honors championship teams, recognizes volunteers and staff during session
Summary
The Mississippi Senate recognized several school athletic teams and other guests, and a senator publicly thanked a large list of Senate and Capitol staff for their service during the session.
The Mississippi Senate used part of its floor time to recognize championship teams, visiting students and guests, and to publicly thank Senate and Capitol staff for their support during the session.
Senator Rhodes led a resolution honoring the East Rankin Academy boys soccer team for winning the MAIS Division II state championship and invited coach Reid Westover to address the chamber. “It was definitely an underdog story for everybody else,” Westover said, adding he was grateful to the team and the support they received.
Senator Barnett and others presented recognitions for Tupelo High School teams on the floor: the football team (Class 7A/8A champions), the girls basketball team (state champions for the 2023–24 season), and the girls cross-country team (state champions for 2024–25). Coach Ty Harden, Coach Tanisha Boyd and Coach Matt Justice each addressed the Senate in brief remarks; Boyd said the team was “elated to be here” and Justice thanked the chamber for recognizing the players’ accomplishments.
Members also introduced guests including Mike Jackson and James Richardson of Delta Utilities and representatives of Bernini law firm during an introduction noting Delta Utilities’ recent acquisition of CenterPoint Energy’s natural gas systems in Mississippi; the presenter said that Delta Utilities now provides natural gas across Mississippi through 135,000 meters and has about 150 employees with offices in Pearl, Gulfport and Oxford.
Later in the session a senator took time to name and thank dozens of staff across Senate offices and related agencies, calling out committee assistants, pages, clerical and IT staff, Capitol Police and others by name and asking the chamber to applaud the staff’s work for the session. Those staff acknowledgements included a long list of employees in the Secretary of the Senate office, the comptroller, legislative services, IT, visitor services, and other support divisions.
The invocation and Pledge of Allegiance opened the session; Tom Washburn, senior adult pastor at First Baptist Church (guest of Senator Kirby), delivered the invocation. Dr. Gloria Raham was introduced as the doctor of the day.
The recognitions and staff acknowledgements were ceremonial and did not effectuate policy changes or budgetary actions recorded in the transcript excerpt.
