New Vicksburg Missy Gators track coach Dedra Robinson will have her first home meet since her senior year on Saturday with the Gator Relays.

Robinson, the daughter of Vicksburg boys basketball coach Dellie C. Robinson, is in her first season as the Missy Gators track coach after replacing Deborah Brown. Robinson said she’s looking forward to the meet, which will draw six boys and girls teams to Memorial Stadium. Field events start at 11 a.m. with the running finals starting at 12:30 p.m.

“I ran track here, but I’ve never coached here,” said Dedra Robinson, who spent the past two years as Yazoo City’s girls track coach. “We were pretty good back when I ran here. We won the district and the region but it was after all those state championship teams.”

Vicksburg won three state team titles from 1986-88. It was the state runner-up three straight years under Brown from 2004-06.

Robinson says a lack of depth has hindered the Missy Gators through the first three early season meets at Southern Miss, Mississippi Valley and McComb.

“We don’t have many girls. We still don’t have anyone in the mile or a two-miler,” Robinson said.

The Vicksburg boys are also under a new coach. Gary Lewis, who played in the NFL with the Oakland Raiders and spent some time as an assistant football coach at Alcorn State, said the key for his team is the distance events.

“We need to get our distance people on track. We’ve had no one in the distance events the first few meets, but William Brokaw did win the 800 meter run at the Valley State meet,” Lewis said.

The Gator relay teams are led by Demond Kelvin, Donnie Hamlin, and Malcolm Butler.

“Our relay teams have been pretty consistent and we’ve got Carlos Williams in the shot. He won state last year in that event and he’s been his old self so far. We’ve got Les Lemons in the triple jump and long jump and Malcolm Butler in the high jump,” Lewis said. “We didn’t score all that well at USM but we were better at Valley, going fourth overall.”

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Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com.