Coach Leslie Peters was a distinguished championship football coach and athletic director at Columbia, Marion Central, Marion County, and East Marion. Coach Peters is a native of Columbia who was an All-Conference football player at John Jefferson High and was an All-SWAC football performer at Jackson State. His coaching and athletic director career spans 37 years and his football teams have compiled a record of 233-92-5 out of 330 games played. He guided East Marion to the Class 3A state championship in 1991 and he became the first African American coach in Mississippi high school history to win a state title. Leslie coached East Marion to 8 district or division titles from 1986 to 2002 with two runner-up finishes and the 1991 South State crown. He was named District Coach of the Year an amazing 8 times and served as assistant and head coach in the Bernard Blackwell All-Star Classic and as an assistant in the MS/AL All-Star game. He is a longtime MAC member who also served as President. He is a 30-year member of the MS Association of Educators and the NEA and was inducted in the Jackson State Athletic Hall of Fame in 1991.