If you bring up Clarkdale senior Alec McIlwain to Jason Soules, good luck getting Soules to stop singing his praises.

Soules was Clarkdale’s football coach from 2018 to 2021, and before that, he was the offensive line coach at Enterprise. So when a player can earn playing time at center as an underclassman, it’s easy to understand why Soules would be impressed.

“In 22 years of coaching I’ve never coached a kid who cared as much or worked as hard as Alec McIlwain,” Soules said. “He was the rock who held our offensive line together since he started as a sophomore, and I couldn’t be more proud to be his coach.”

That burning desire for greatness extends to all aspects of McIlwain’s life, and it recently earned him statewide recognition. Last Friday, Clarkdale hosted a surprise assembly and informed McIlwain he was his geographical district’s male recipient of the Lindy Callahan Scholar-Athlete Award, which the Mississippi High School Activities Association annually awards to 16 seniors — eight boys and eight girls — “for their academic accomplishments as well as their participation in high school athletics and extracurricular activities.”

At first, McIlwain didn’t know why the assembly was called, but he remembered he had been up for the award, which includes a $1,500 college scholarship. Once the assembly began, it began to dawn on McIlwain he had been named a Lindy Callahan recipient.

“It’s very hard to get because you’re going against the whole state, so it means a lot knowing I was one of the few,” McIlwain said.

The news was no surprise to Soules, who said it didn’t matter what McIlwain was doing, he was going to give 100% every time.

“I think he had a drive to succeed that bred through the whole team,” Soules said. “He knew someone had to step up (this past season), and he was more than willing to do it. We asked a lot of him, and he never let us down.”

McIlwain’s philosophy is simple: Don’t do anything half-heartedly.

“My dad always told me if you’re going to do something, do it to your fullest extent,” McIlwain explained.

It’s one of the reasons he began starting as center for the Bulldogs when he was just a sophomore, a position he locked down for three seasons.

“With his drive and work ethic, it was undeniable — you couldn’t keep him off the field,” Soules said. “He would get us in the right spots, and we were very blessed to have him start at center for us for three years.”

That doesn’t mean McIlwain wasn’t nervous at first, especially when he was having to learn the center position.

“It was very intimidating being a young person starting,” McIlwain recalled. “I had played guard the year before, but center has a lot more that goes into it than people might realize. You have to snap, step and block basically all at once. It’s a much harder position to learn than guard.”

The Bulldogs had their most successful season in a long time this past fall, finishing 8-4 with a playoff berth. The foundation for that success had been laid previous seasons, McIlwain said, and the team felt like 2021 was the year they would finally put it all together.

“We’d been working hard for a few years and thought that this was the year to really do something,” McIlwain said. “We all decided to work our tails off.”

McIlwain said he’s grateful he got to experience such a success season his senior year, and he’s now looking toward the future. McIlwain plans to attend Ole Miss and major in biomedical engineering and then attend medical school to one day become a pediatrician.

“It’s something I’ve felt called to do,” McIlwain said.

No matter what McIlwain ends up doing, though, Soules said he has no doubt McIlwain will be very good at it.

“Alec is a great example of what hard work, dedication, drive and will can do,” Soules said. “There’s not a doubt in my mind he’ll be a success in everything he does.”