Calvin Triplett—1945-46 Wildcat Football
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   The first time Calvin Triplett carried the football in high school, he scored a touchdown.  The first time he touched the game ball as a PRC Wildcat he went for six points.  The Picayune native played for legendary PRC coach Dobie Holden when Holden was head coach of the Picayune Maroon Tide.  Triplett graduated in 1942 and signed a scholarship to play for the Wildcats, however, after four games, the season was canceled and most of the team headed for duty in World War II.  Triplett was among the volunteers.  He served in Europe, was transferred to the Air Force after suffering frozen feet at the Battle of the Bulge, and ended up stationed in Oklahoma in 1945.  On October 12, 1945, Triplett arrived back at PRC and by Saturday night of the same week he was playing for the Wildcats.

   The next year, Triplett received a scholarship to play for Mississippi Southern College and stayed there one year before going back to Picayune to work in a local sawmill.  After working at the sawmill, he took a job with the Picayune YMCA as physical director.  He stayed there for five years and met and married his wife, Joy.

   Triplett decided that his calling was coaching and decided to return to college.  He received his degree and was immediately offer the junior high school coaching position in Winter Haven, Florida.  By the next year, Triplett was the backfield coach for the high school.  The next year, Triplett accepted the head coach's position at Poplarville High School.

   Triplett's Hornets posted a 9-2 record and won the Desoto Conference Championship.  The next year, Triplett left to coach the McComb Tigers.  By December the Tigers had posted another 9-2 record and won the Big Eight Conference, which is the same as today's state title.  Triplett stayed in McComb for the next seven years.

   In 1963 Triplett took a 1-9 Florida team and posted 10 wins against only one loss.  He posted winning seasons for five years before getting out of coaching for a short time in 1968.  He moved to Nashville to sell insurance, but decided that he was destined to coach and when Fort Pierce offered him a job, he took it.  The first year there, Triplett posted  a 7-3 ledger, but the next year, 1970, his team made it to the Florida championship game.

   The 1971 Fort Pierce team stormed through the season posting a perfect 14-0 ledger and a state crown.  Fort Pierce won 20 straight games and was ranked number one 19 of the 20 weeks.  Triplett returned to Winter Haven in 1973 for another five successful years before he accepted a job in his hometown of Picayune in 1978.

   Triplett ran off nine straight winning seasons, including a 62-31 overall record.  Triplett's 1986 Tide won the Class 5A, district, south, and overall titles.

   Coach Triplett retired after the 1987 season.  The Tripletts who have been married half a century, have three children and live in Hancock County.