Meridian’s Ron Norman was named the Premier Preps Boys Basketball Coach of the Year for the third straight year.

The goal was simple: Just get to Jackson.

The Meridian boys basketball team did that and then some, as the Wildcats made it all the way to the MHSAA Class 6A title game for the third year in a row. Ron Norman is now 3-for-3 in state title game appearances since taking over the Meridian boys before the 2016-17 school year, and this year’s squad finished 26-5 and one win short of a championship.

While the previous two Wildcat teams featured Dandy Dozen-type players, this year’s squad didn’t. Because of Meridian’s success without any star players, Norman was named the Premier Preps Boys Basketball Coach of the Year.

“It’s an awesome honor to be bestowed upon myself, but I can’t take the credit,” Norman said. “All the credit goes to the kids. I wouldn’t be getting these accolades without good players.”

While Norman still believed his team had the potential to be good prior to this past season, a so-so performance during summer league in 2018 gave him pause. Eventually, the group began to jell, and the expectations didn’t change: win at least 20 games, win Region 5-6A and give yourself the opportunity to make the play-in game that sends teams to Jackson.

“That’s the goal every year,” Norman said. “We did well at home, but we had one hiccup in not winning the district tournament (an 85-81 overtime loss to Brandon). We had a long route to go to get to the state tournament, which we did.”

That route included a 55-51 win at Biloxi, which many considered the best team in the state, in the third round of the playoffs.

“It was a really emotional game,” Norman recalled. “Probably in my three years here, that was the most focused I’ve seen my kids. They went in with tremendous confidence — and this was a team that had beaten us before, and we had to go on their home court, and they had won 29 in a row.”

Norman once joked during the season that he didn’t have a Dandy Dozen or a “handy dozen,” but he praised his players’ ability to play well together.

“Some of my best teams have been teams without superstars on them,” Norman said. “In years past, it’s been great to have those guys, and we miss those marquee players, but on any given night, it could have been any kid this year leading in scoring. I joked one day that we’re a miniature version of the Spurs because we share the ball. Out of 31 games, we had nine different leading scorers.”

The success the team has had since Norman took over is something he traces back to his players’ willingness to work and belief that they can always been a good team.

“They believe in the Meridian mystique and Meridian way, and I know it sounds cliche, but if you believe it, you can achieve it,” Norman said. “These guys always believe they can be good, even though no one was expecting us to be good. Last year at this time, I said I had a team with no-name kids, but before the season is over, you’ll know their names.”

Like the three years prior, Norman said the goal this coming winter is to get back to Jackson. After winning the Class 6A title in 2017, the Wildcats have fallen just short of a championship the past two seasons, but the key to winning another championship is to keep playing at a high enough level to return to the title game.

“After the disappointment from the last two years, I want to make them really understand that the only way to win a state title is to get to Jackson,” Norman explained. “If we keep doing that, the odds will fall back in our favor.”