After Newton stormed back from a 25-point deficit in the second quarter to beat Forest in overtime Dec. 6, Lady Tigers head basketball coach Perry Fletcher joked that he “owed God one.”

Fletcher’s comment, while tongue-in-cheek, held a bit of merit.

When Fletcher’s not coaching the Newton girls’ basketball program, he’s tending to his flock at Greater New Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Brandon. Fletcher, 39, has served as the church’s pastor for four years.

“My father was a quartet singer; my mother was always in church; my older brother, he pastors a church in Forest, Mississippi,” Fletcher said. “I was brought up in the church, so I was always around it. In ministry, through some type of singing… While I was young, my mother always had me in church.”

One could say Fletcher’s life has always revolved around two themes: religion and basketball. As an assistant at Alcorn State University, Fletcher found a way to meld both worlds. Fletcher graduated from Morton High School and Jackson State University, and after obtaining his master’s degree at Alcorn State, his heart led him to seminary.

“I always knew God had a calling on my life, I just never understood what it was until I got to Alcorn and He made it crystal clear,” said Fletcher, who is also Newton’s assistant principal. “Basketball saved my life — I always tell my kids that — because my dad died when I was 10, so I didn’t have a father. Through basketball, I was able to have a coach who kind of filled that role as a father. I was my mother’s only child, so basketball gave me brothers.”

Basketball not only provided Fletcher with siblings, but it also afforded him a basketball scholarship at Jackson State. But even as a player, and as a graduate assistant at Alcorn State, Fletcher said he knew he was called to something bigger.

“I felt like I wanted to do more than teach the game of basketball,” he said. “So I started using basketball to teach about life, and just with the calling that God was pressing upon me, I knew He was calling me to a higher calling. I believe basketball is my ministry, too, as well as preaching on Sundays. I kind of get the best of both worlds.”

Fletcher took his first high school coaching job at his alma mater in 2005, and he’s never strayed that far from home. He’s coached at Forest and Murrah, locations all too familiar to the Scott County native.

“Me being home is sort of like what my pastor said to me when I was in high school,” Fletcher said. “I was being recruited by the University of Texas-San Antonio, a couple junior colleges and Jackson State. I kind of wanted to go to USM when I was in high school, and it was getting close to signing and I didn’t really know where I wanted to play ball… (My pastor) said, ‘You don’t have to go far off. You can go to Jackson State. HBCU’s need your mind, too. We need your mind here in Mississippi, as well.’”

Much like his pastors and coaches did for him, Fletcher hopes to use his position of leadership to show his players the avenues and opportunities basketball can provide.

“I wanted to pour into my kids in our area,” Fletcher said. “ I wanted to be an influence, and I wanted to see if I could impact their lives, as well, because I grew up in a small school at Morton and I know how hard it is when you’re at a small school and you’re away from the media. You don’t get a lot of publicity, and I wanted to go and bring light to student-athletes in these smaller areas. I wanted to prepare them to be able to compete with anybody in the state.”

Fletcher is in his 12th year as a pastor. He shepherded the Pleasant Gift Missionary Baptist Church in Morton for eight years before taking over at Greater New Friendship.

While Fletcher’s accumulated more than 250 wins at the high school level, it’s his impact from the pulpit that gives him the most fulfillment. More specifically, when he sees familiar faces seated in his church’s pews.

“Several of my players who I have coached in the past at Forest, at Morton, they all attend,” Fletcher said. “They’re older now — they come. And a lot of the coaches who I’ve been in the circle with have joined the church. Coach Dawson at Morton; Coach Tangela Banks (Hinds Community College); Coach Anthony Carlyle at Yazoo, he’s a member; Coach Davidson at Ridgeland comes and visits; Coach Randy Bolden, he’s not a member, but he comes and visits; Coach Fairley at Pelahatchie; Coach Kennedy, who’s coaching Pearl right now. By me being in that area, I’ve been able to reach out, and I’m grateful for that.”

So far, the Fletcher-Newton union has greatly benefitted both parties. The Lady Tigers are off to one of their strongest starts in recent memory, and Fletcher is not only coaching the sport he loves, he’s now even closer to home.

Balancing both professions is a skill that he’s perfected over time, and Fletcher said two share more similarities than differences.

“Coaching and pastoring, you’re trying to lead a group of people who believe in you to a higher destiny,” Fletcher said. “You’re trying to lead them to something that’s greater than where they are now. And in order to get to that place, it takes discipline, it takes faith, it takes a strong work ethic and it takes teamwork. In the same sense, they both are really similar. And as a pastor, you’re always concerned about your sheep. And as a coach, you’re always concerned about your players.”