Coach Jeremy Wilkins has experienced a great deal of success throughout his years of teaching and coaching for Enterprise School District.
His decision to work in the education field first started when he was attending college.
“When I first started out, I went to Jones Junior College to play baseball and kind of entered into my educational career there,” remembered Jeremy. “I started out wanting to be an athletic trainer, and then somewhere through that path, I decided I wanted to be a coach and a school teacher and transferred from Jones to Mississippi State. Once I got to Mississippi State, I really dove into majoring into biology and secondary science and really enjoyed the teaching side of it. I kind of moved from the teaching part into the coaching part of it.”
When he first graduated from college, he started working on a job in Enterprise that eventually allowed him to attain the career he really wanted.
“I got my degree at Mississippi State and came back to Enterprise and actually went to work on a construction crew that was building the softball field here on campus,” continued Jeremy. “Coach Chancelor, who was principal at the time, came by and asked me if I wanted to go to work. That would have been in January of 2000 that I started to work at Enterprise School District and have been here ever since.”
Over the years, he has taught many different age groups and classes and successfully coached multiple sports teams.
“When I first started teaching, I was an assistant baseball coach and actually didn’t even get to teach biology. I had to go back to school and teach computer and career discovery, which is keyboarding,” Jeremy reminisced. “I did that for a couple of years and taught at the middle school for eight to ten years, I believe, before I came over to the high school and actually started teaching biology. I started out coaching baseball. I was an assistant coach for one year and made it through the first spring that baseball season. About midway through that season, Coach Joel Speed told me that I would probably be the next head baseball coach. The very next season I was the head baseball coach and did that for about 13 years. We won a state championship in 2004 with the baseball team and moved over and started coaching football, so I coached football and baseball, I think, for 13 years. Then, I was planning on getting out of the spring sports and just doing football. I got out of that and then ended up on the other side of campus in softball as the assistant coach helping Coach David Dewitt and did that for four or five years until he left. When he left, I became the head softball coach. I did that for three years, and that was during Covid. I got three years in, and we played for the state championship and got beat by Boonville. I got out because I wanted to spend more time with my family, so I was just coaching football. I missed it and got back into coaching softball two years later. I did two more years in softball and made two more trips to state. We won a state championship and then played for another state championship and got beat. I coached football during the fall through all of that, too, and it got me to where I am today. It got me to the end of the 26 and a half years I’m ending with. I also enjoyed the teaching part of my career. I know I talked a lot about the coaching part, but I enjoyed the classroom. I always enjoyed the kids. I enjoy teaching science. I’ve taught everything from seventh and eighth grade science to AP biology to anatomy to genetics to microbiology to marine aquatics. I’ve been through the whole spiel of science classes and have always enjoyed the classroom and the actual teaching part of being a coach and teacher.”
Of course, he has made several great memories over the years in each of his positions in education. With his coaching career, there are moments and players that he will never forget.
“Some of my favorite memories from a coaching standpoint, first and foremost, are obviously winning a state championship in baseball in 2004 and then winning the softball state championship in 2025. Winning those two state championships were definitely big memories in my coaching career,” proclaimed Jeremy. “We played for a south state championship in football, so I was able to do that. I’ve had some great players through the years. I think I’ve coached somewhere in the neighborhood of about 30 collegiate players, either baseball or softball players, so there are a lot of kids that have come through our programs that I’m really proud of where they ended up. Some of the kids that I coached are coaches now, which is also a kind of high point to think about. I coached Coach Weathers who coaches baseball here now, Coach Faith Guy who coaches here now, and Coach Kate Brannan who coaches softball at Clarkdale. There are some others mixed in here and there that I’ve had the pleasure to coach and teach over the years.”
He has also made some great memories in the classroom.
“I have tons of classroom memories from being able to just be there and involved with the kids,” expressed Jeremy. “I think I’ve had thousands of kids that have come through my classroom. I’ll see them now in Walmart or somewhere else, and they always come up and want to talk and know how things are going. They remember everything from the classroom, from whether we were dissecting a frog or a pig, and they bring those memories back. Just being able to see that outside of the actual classroom makes a big impact. The big memories I have are being able to see those kids once they move past the actual classroom.”
Although he has enjoyed teaching all the science subjects over the years, there is one science class that he has enjoyed teaching the most.
“I think anatomy is probably my favorite science because I enjoy the hands-on dissections that we do,” declared Jeremy. “We dissect a pig, dissect the heart, dissect the kidney and the lungs, and I really like that part of science. Throughout my 26 years, I’ve always enjoyed the part of science where you can actually see what’s actually happening. I can remember when I taught seventh and eighth grade science that we used to fill up what was called a solar bag, which is this huge garbage bag that’s like 100 feet long. The sun would heat it up, and it would lift it into the air, and the kids thought it was the neatest thing. We turned it loose one day, and it almost got into the power lines. We almost got in trouble for that, but I enjoyed that hands-on stuff over the years and the kids did too. The younger kids got to do some things that were fun and enjoyed that, but the older kids showed more of an appreciation for the actual stuff like dissections and being able to get in there and see what was going on. That’s why anatomy was one of my favorite classes to teach. Anatomy was probably one of the hardest classes I took in college, and then I ended up enjoying teaching it more than any of the other ones.”
Now, he has decided that the time has come to take the next step in his life and retire.
“I’ve reached that point in my career where I feel like I’ve done just about everything and that I’ve given all I can give to the profession as far as in the classroom and on the athletic field. I’m to the point that if I continue on then they will bury me out on the field because I can’t separate the two; I’m all the way in, or I’m all the way out,” explained Jeremy. “I have to get all the way out and try to make it through the rest of my life without pretty much killing myself out there just from the time and input of energy to try to be successful and impact the kids’ lives. I’m at the point in my life to where I can’t really provide that same level that I used to when I was younger, and it’s just time for somebody younger to move in and provide that for the kids.”
Retirement doesn’t mean he intends to stay still and do nothing, however. He still plans to do something with his time; he just hasn’t decided specifically what he wants to do yet.
“I don’t really know what I’m going to do right now,” continued Jeremy. “I do a little artificial turf stuff on the side, so I’m going to do some of that and just kind of take it easy for a little while and kind of see what I’m going to do for the second half of my life for my second career. I haven’t really made an absolute decision yet, but it probably won’t be in education. I’ll have to find something to do because I don’t sit still. I have a bunch of stuff to do at the house right now that has built up from all those years coaching in the spring and fall and not having much time to do them.”
With the experience he has gained over the years, he sees the need for good teachers and encourages others to take on the profession and has some advice for those who choose to go into education.
“We need more people to get into education. We need more teachers to get in and need more good coaches to be able to get in and mold these kids and be good role models for them. The only thing is that if you plan on getting in, especially now having to be in it for 30 years, you have to like kids and being around kids. You have to like what kids do,” advised Jeremy. “For future generations, if you’re going to get in and want to be a coach, you want to be a mentor, and you want to be a teacher, then you really have to like kids and really have to have a passion for wanting to develop them and be in their lives. That’s been my life for the past 26 years, and I enjoy that. I enjoy the conversations. I enjoy trying to inspire them and trying to direct them in the right direction. I even enjoy the kind of stress and things that go along with that. You have to be able to handle stuff like that if you’re going to get into this profession. We need good people in these kids’ lives to steer them in the right direction.”
