Choctaw select team captures a national title

By By Carver Rayburn / staff writer
Jan. 17, 2003
CHOCTAW When the average Mississippian thinks of Neshoba County and the Philadelphia area, a few things should automatically pop into his or her head: the home of the Neshoba County Fair, the accomplishments of Chief Phillip Martin and the Choctaw Indian Tribe and even the home town of Ole Miss football legend Archie Manning's wife, Olivia.
It may be time to add one more 'known for' to the list.
Former Choctaw Central girls basketball coach Willis Tullos and his staff of five, recently guided a special select team of 13-year-old boys to a national championship in winter league baseball.
The East Central Mississippi Braves are a 13-and-under baseball team of selected players from the Philadelphia and Choctaw area. Their five month winter league tournament traveling squad ended its season in Phoenix two weeks ago with the ultimate reward, a 20-2 record and a national title.
The team played in only three of six scheduled tournaments including the Super Series National Championship due to rain-outs in November and December.
"We played at West Point, Dallas and then Phoenix," Tullos said. "We ended up having to rent time to practice at Performance Sports Academy in Jackson so we could practice for about two months."
After the ECM Braves won their qualifying tournament in Dallas over Arkansas, the team went two months before playing another game. There was no time for excuses. This team had a date in Phoenix and a mission to accomplish.
In the opening round, ECM fell to the Tucson Indians 3-2. After scrubbing their bats and gloves of two months worth of rust, the Braves got it together and won their next six games on route to the national championship. ECM didn't squeak by the competition either, the scores of the next six games speak for themselves: 4-1, 6-1, 10-3, 6-3, 14-2, and 9-4 in the final. For anyone counting, that's an incredible 51-17 run advantage in the entire Super Series National Championship.
Tullos' son Michael, is a member of the team and shared the honor of co-MVP with his friend and teammate, Allen Johnson. Michael pitched 12 innings during the national tournament, striking out 16, allowing no hits and no runs. Michael also boasted a team high .591 batting average and batted in eight runs. Allen contributed his share to the batting order with a .500 average and 10 RBIs.
Johnson pitched the majority of the tournament, including the final game, leaving Arizona with 38 strikeouts and a 1.54 earned run average.
"That final game was real stressful," Johnson said. "I talked to my dad a lot and prayed a whole lot."
Although the statistics would tend to make one think otherwise, Michael Tullos said that he felt the pressure of playing for a national title as well.
"It was a real tough and hard thing to try and do," Michael Tullos said. "I felt a lot of pressure representing the state of Mississippi, our county and the tribe. The coaches were there to pull me up when I would get down on myself for making a mistake. They told me to talk positive and think positive."
Talking positive and thinking positive was good advice for these young national champions. Eight of the the 12 members of the team made the all-tournament team.
Hats off to the players: Michael Tullos, Allen Johnson, Donnie Tabb, Justin Willis, Nigel Gibson, Carlus Stephens, Colton Wilson, LaQuinn Stokes, Kendall Steve, Bass Price, Jordan Tullor and Logan Copeland; and managers and coaches: Kaiser Cotton, Shaun Anderson, Edwin Copeland, Andreal Tabb, Carl Pace and Willis Tullos.
The Braves will attempt to defend their title as national champs when the spring and summer league begins on March 21.
The Braves will also host the ECMB Invitational in Choctaw on March 28th through the 30th at Choctaw Central High School.