Pictured are, from left, front row, Alana McMullan and Ethan McMullan; middle row, Stephen McMullan; back row, Doyle McMullan.

When Ethan McMullan was in the first grade, his grandparents, Doyle and Janie McMullan, decided to take their grandson to Mississippi State’s youth basketball camp. 

The three piled into Doyle and Janie’s RV, and trekked to Starkville. Doyle McMullan laughed when he recalled the memory.

“He was a little bitty thing,” Doyle McMullan, 75, said. “That first night, we told Ethan, ‘It’s time to go to bed.’ So he crawled into bed and he had on his basketball shorts — his practice clothes. I said, ‘Ethan, why are you sleeping in your clothes?’ And he said, ‘I don’t want to be late for the camp tomorrow.’ He was that type.”

A decade has passed since the Starkville trip, but Ethan McMullan is still the same. Well, the same once you get past the fact he’s since grown to be 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds. 

Ethan McMullan will graduate from Newton County High School this spring and will leave behind a sparkling academic and athletic legacy that will further add to the McMullan family’s contributions in Decatur. The senior starred on the Cougars’ basketball and football teams and is currently is his final season as a member of Newton County’s tennis team.

While Ethan McMullan is set to close his high school chapter, the McMullan name will remain at Newton County High School for the foreseeable future. His sister, Alana, is a sophomore member of the Lady Cougars basketball and tennis teams.  

Stephen McMullan, Ethan McMullan’s father, graduated from Decatur High School in 1988, before playing football for two seasons at Mississippi State. Ethan McMullan credits his father as being his first coach and for instilling a love for the game of basketball in him. Games of horse and basketball cone drills were nearly daily activities when Ethan McMullan was younger.

“He’d always beat me, and he still could probably beat me playing horse,” Ethan McMullan, 18, said with a laugh. “He has a nice little shot. I wouldn’t tell him that, but he’s got a nice little shot.”

Those early age practices served Ethan McMullan well. He finished his final high school basketball season having served as the team’s captain, was named to the All-District 5-4A team and was selected to play in the East Central Community College Senior All-Star Game.

He said his father’s influence over the years has given him the confidence today that makes him a force on the gridiron, hardwood and tennis court.

“He’s shown me what all to do, he’s always been at every single one of my games telling me what to do and how to do it,” Ethan McMullan said. “And if I mess up, he’s always supportive.”

Although Ethan McMullan has excelled on the basketball court, he signed a football scholarship to play for East Central Community College, where he’ll play tight end and H-back. He played tight end, linebacker, quarterback and was a long snapper for Newton County’s football team.

“Basketball is my first love, but it’s become more football since my body has grown into one more for a football player,” Ethan McMullan said. “It’s my better sport. I like hitting people — I don’t like getting hit. I’d rather be the one hitting.”

A number of colleges recruited Ethan McMullan, but with family being such an important part of his life, he selected East Central because it would give them a chance to see him play. He also, in part, wanted to follow his grandfather’s path, as Doyle McMullan attended East Central before transferring to Mississippi State.

“If I was going to go anywhere, it was going to be East Central Community College,” Ethan McMullan said. “My grandmother said, ‘You better go to East Central so I can come watch you.’”

Doyle McMullan’s name is synonymous with coaching in the state. He graduated from Decatur in 1960, and coached at a number of schools around Mississippi. His first coaching job was at Sebastopol, where he remained for two years. From there, he went to Scott Central and Scott Academy, before returning to the Newton County area in 1977, when he coached junior high basketball and football at Boler Junior High School. When the Decatur girls’ coaching job became available in the spring of 1980, he took it without hesitation. He inherited the boys’ team in 1984. 

“All the other (jobs) prepared me for it,” Doyle McMullan said. “With the girls, the first year we went to the state tournament. I inherited a good team. We had three seniors coming back that year. Then, we were able to go back to the state tournament two other years. In 1986, I coached just the boys.”

If there’s anyone qualified to critique Ethan McMullan’s game, it’s Doyle McMullan. Putting his familial loyalties aside, Doyle McMullan shared a few aspects of his grandson’s game that makes him successful.

“He’s just a great competitor,” he said. “He loves to win. His daddy got him started bouncing the ball when he was a little ol’ bitty thing, so he’s been around sports all his life.”

Ethan McMullan hasn’t only inherited his family’s athletic gifts. Stephen McMullan, an aerospace engineer, said academics has always taken precedence over sports. And the father’s words aren’t just lip service. Ethan McMullan has a 4.0 GPA and scored 30 on the ACT. Like his father, he, too, wants to pursue a degree in aerospace engineering. Being a former athlete, Stephen McMullan said he’s impressed by how his son has balanced his classwork with his athletic load.

“We’re very pleased with Ethan,” Stephen McMullan, 47, said. “It’s a balance. In this day in time, the high school demands a lot more during the summer, and even during the fall and spring sports than what we had when I was growing up. We had weights in the summer, but we didn’t have 7-on-7, and we didn’t have as many basketball games and tennis matches during the summer. We’ve been very pleased with Ethan and with how he’s balanced his academics and athletics.”

Newton County blood courses through Ethan McMullan’s veins, as well as most of the McMullan family’s. He said the ending to his prep career is bittersweet because of that fact, but he’s excited to begin a new chapter in life.

“I’ll miss everything,” he said. “I’ll miss seeing the people all of the time, I’ll miss my teachers. I’ll miss my physics class — it’s my most challenging one, and it’s the one I have the most fun in. I like school; I really don’t want to graduate. But then again, I’m ready to go play football next year.”

Ethan McMullan is also the son of Eileen McMullan.