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Northwest Rankin, coached by K.K. Aldridge, is in the hunt for the 2022 6A State Championship. The Cougars, 28-2, play round three of the playoffs beginning Thursday, May 5th at Wesley Scarborough Field at Jeff McClaskey Stadium in Brandon against the winner of the Gulfport-Petal series. Northwest, runner-up to Madison Central in last year’s championship series fell a game short, but are hot and loaded again this year and have won 18 games in a row, while pitching 5 shutouts in their last 6 games. And with scent of a second state championship in school history in the air, I thought it would be a great time to go back to 2005 and remember the guy who got all of this started, Jeff McClaskey.
Adapted from a Story by Todd Kelly, The Clarion-Ledger, June 2005.
Jeff McClaskey has spent 16 years feverishly building one of Mississippi’s best high school baseball programs, a process that culminated with Northwest Rankin’ first state championship two weeks ago.
Yet despite the hundreds of congratulatory visits, letters and phone calls McClaskey receives, he refuses to take his foot off the gas. And as he’s done each summer since arriving at the suburban Jackson school in 1990, McClaskey is tirelessly spearheading a fund-raising drive. He plans to collect more than $50,000 to construct a player’s lounge adjacent to Northwest’s immaculate Scarbrough Field (now at Jeff McClaskey Stadium). It’s a luxury most prep programs can only dream of enjoying.
“We could be complacent right now,” said McClaskey, the Coach of the Year on The Clarion-Ledger All-State team. “We’ve got everything we need, but once again it goes back to our former players and supporters. They had to work harder now than anyone who’s coming through the program in order to build these facilities. We don’t just want to give these players something. We want them to make sure they’re building a piece of this program.”
That work-first attitude has been McClaskey’s way even before he was a 15 year-old assistant custodian at Magnolia Academy in west Jackson. Already bitten by the baseball bug, McClaskey decided to attend the private school to play under the guidance of Rick Clarke.
“I’d clean up classrooms and bathrooms and pick up trash after class,” McClaskey said. “The school paid me an hourly wage, which went toward my tuition. It was something I wanted to do. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up, but my daddy worked very hard at what he did.”
As a hard playing, and gritty center fielder, McClaskey made a name for himself as a player at Magnolia Academy (which closed in 1987). In his three seasons, his team won 98 games, including 40 wins in 1981, becoming the first Mississippi high school baseball team to win 40 games in a season and three consecutive state championships. As a senior, Jeff played an errorless centerfield and was the perfect leadoff hitter, batting a team leading .446, reached base 113 times, scored 77 runs, had 58 hits, 5 home runs, walked 40 times and stole 36 bases.
His success continued at Hinds Community College, and Delta State, where he ended one victory short of the Division II World Series in 1985. He credits his coaches at those schools – Clarke, Bill Marchant at Hinds and Boo Ferriss at DSU – for shaping approach on the diamond. “Coach Clarke instilled hard work and passion, which I’ve tried to instill in our kids about Northwest Rankin baseball,” McClaskey said. “Coach Marchant taught me the X’s and O’s of the game. Coach Ferriss taught us how to be a good person. He instilled a gentleman’s attitude. It took me a long time to understand you can be a father figure and nice guy and still coach the sport.”
Ferriss, 83, wasn’t surprised to see McClaskey add his name to the long list of former Statesmen who’ve won high school championships in baseball when Northwest swept Gulfport in the 5A finals.
“Jeff knew he would have to pay the price to reach his goals,” said Ferriss, who retired from DSU in 1988. “He knew what work was and he wasn’t scared of it.” I felt eventually it (a championship) would come. We were just so happy for him this year.”
McClaskey, 42 (now 59), acknowledges he heard repeated criticism that Northwest “couldn’t win the big one,” especially after Oak Grove beat the Cougars in the 5A championship series in 2003 and again in ’04. Northwest lost a heartbreaker to George County in the 4A finals in 1997, surrendering an eight-run lead in the decisive Game 3. But in 2005 they did win it all!
“There are people who don’t think your program’s very good until you win the championship,” McClaskey said. “That hurts when you work as hard as we do. Now hopefully our doubters will realize we’re up there with the better programs in the state.”
“But having people continue to support the program year after year is the biggest reward for me. That means we’ve had an influence on their lives. That’s by far more important than wins and losses.”
Rick Clarke's Diary of a Mad Baseball Coach 