Coach Sank Powe was a legendary championship baseball coach at Cleveland and East Side High. Born in Elizabeth, Sank grew up in Mound Bayou where he graduated high school in 1960 as a multi-sport athlete. Coach Powe was an All-SWAC catcher in 1963 at Jackson State where he played from 1960 to 1964. Considered to be a prospect by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1964, an injury forced him out of pro baseball and he began his 30-year coaching career at Mound Bayou in 1966. After one season in 1967, Sank started coaching and teaching at East Side High, but, in 1970, he was assigned by the school district to teach and serve as head baseball coach and assistant football coach at newly integrated Cleveland High. Coach Powe developed the Wildcats into a baseball powerhouse and won the Class A State Championship in just two seasons in 1972. Sank guided Cleveland to 8 division titles, 6 conference championships, 5 state runner-up finishes, and the 1972 state crown. Overall, Coach Powe paced his baseball teams at Cleveland and East Side to an overall record of 518 wins and 83 losses. He was also the first ever softball coach at Cleveland in 1989 and led the team to several district titles and playoff appearances with an overall mark of 157 wins and 43 losses. Coach Powe received numerous coaching honors including Bolivar County and MAC Coach of the Year in 1977. Sank also received the Easton Sports Master Coach Award. He served as an All-Star coach in the Crossroads Diamond Club All-Star game in 1977. Off the diamond, Sank was a true community leader who served on several boards through the years including the Bolivar County Library Board and the Community Action Board. He formed a mentoring program and the Sank Powe Community Foundation for Youth and helped conduct numerous baseball clinics and pro tryout sessions for players. Sank also helped to form Pony League and Semi-Pro leagues in the area and he worked for the Cleveland Park Commission as a youth mentor and groundskeeper. In 1990 the school named the baseball field in his honor and erected a special monument celebrating his life in 2013. He is memorialized in a book entitled Grit, Guts, & Baseball. In addition to MAC Hall of Fame Honors, Coach Powe was inducted into the Jackson State Athletic Hall of Fame in 1991 and was selected as a charter member in 1999 into the Crossroads Diamond Club Hall of Fame. Sank passed away on January 20, 2013.