Ladies Learn Football Strategies, Socialize with Players at Ladies’ Football Forum 2015

Lindsey Gallaher and her friends are proud to be in the SEC nation.

Imagine spending all day with the Ole Miss football team — that’s a great daydream for this summer, isn’t it? Last Saturday, many Rebel fans lived this dream at the Ole Miss Ladies’ Forum. Here are their stories.

Many of these ladies are tied to Ole Miss football, a sport some of them learned to adore from their loved ones who are die-hard Rebel fans. Midge Bagwell is one such lady. Her husband, Mike Bagwell, played for Coach Johnny Vaught and they have five boys.

The Bagwell family

The Bagwells retired to a house on a golf course in Holly Springs, “a short jaunt to campus.” She said, “(My husband) always said he would love to live near Oxford when he retired so we could attend all the sporting events. We are a sports-oriented family. With five boys, I really had no choice.”

The couple plays golf and attends football, baseball and basketball and softball games. “It’s so much fun,” Bagwell said. “Sure, we make our contributions and give to Ole Miss, but it gives back to us in so many wonderful ways.”

Midge Bagwell and Coach Hugh Freeze

The Ladies’ Forum was a welcoming gift from Ole Miss to her and hundreds other ladies.

Bagwell said, “I had a friend who went last year and told me what a great experience it had been for she and her daughter. So since I am all about anything and everything Ole Miss I signed on. I’m not sure how many attended last year, but this year Megan McCurdy said there were 490 in attendance!”

Lauren Poole is another dedicated Ole Miss fan who got to attend the Ladies’ Forum as a gift from her father who was a football coach.

“I go to all of the home games and love to tailgate,” said Poole, 11th-grade English teacher and a cheer coach at Nettleton High School. “I’ve been married for two years and we are expecting our first child, due November 7 which is incidentally a Saturday during football season! Uh oh!”

Lauren Poole got to meet Coach Freeze, whose Q&A session was her favorite part of the forum.

She added that her husband is an Alabama fan with a bless his heart thrown in, a true Rebel thing to say.

Michelle Flessas is an Ole Miss alum, class of 1981, and she had played in the Pride of the South. Eve though she lives in Conyers, Georgia she is a season ticket holder for five years now. This year’s Ladies’ Forum was her first time attending.

She said, “I had seen pictures from last year’s forum and it looked like a lot of fun. I had heard about it before, but always seemed to miss the deadline. This year a friend of mine was watching for it and we registered the day it opened up. We weren’t going to miss it again and I’m so glad we went. We’ll be going back as long as our legs and finances hold out!”

Hunter Spiers, a second-grade teacher from Natchez, is a 10-plus years’ attendee of the Ladies’ Forum.

“I have been going to the Ladies’ Forum for 10-plus years, mostly to get close and personal with the coaches and players while learning a littler more about football,” said Spiel. “Having been an avid Ole Miss fanatic, this event makes it even more special.”

Sandra Murray (left) soak in the afterglow of 2014 season with these trophies.

Sandra Murray joins Hunter Spiel as a veteran of the Ladies’ Forum. She first heard about the Ladies Forum 12 years ago, and this year’s forum is her 11th.

“I’ve enjoyed them all,” she said. “The first time I heard about the forum, I understood we would learn something about the game, players and coaches. Also, we were told we would be able to explore the ‘IPF’ as it was called then and it was new. I wanted to see and experience this and I have not been disappointed. I met a lot of ladies and through the years and two of those ladies meet me each year to share the day.”

And then there are ladies like Katherine Puckett, an instructional Design Coordinator and adjunct instructor at Hinds Community College, who fell in love with the Ole Miss team after meeting them at the last year’s forum. She wasn’t a big sports person then even though she comes from a Rebel-loving family and she enjoyed watching her daughters play soccer and swim. When her oldest daughter transferred to Ole Miss, Puckett’s mother eventually dragged her to the forum.

Katherine Puckett and her daughter found Chad Kelly’s locker!

Puckett said, “My Mom went to the forum in the past and really wanted me to enjoy SEC football season more. She knows I get more involved when I know the players better. She dragged me to it last year. That was all it took. I met Evan (Engram) and Devante (Kincade) and Laquon (Treadwell) and Deterrian (Shackleford) and so on. I was hooked! I just love Hugh Freeze and all that he stands for. He has created this football family that I am so proud and happy to be a part of.”

These ladies, among hundreds, began their one-day camp with the football team by checking in as early as 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. They learned more than they expected.

“I knew I would get an opportunity to see the facilities and meet some of the team and coaches,” said Bagwell. “I had no idea, however, that I would learn as much as I did about Coach Freeze and his leadership and expectations of these young men and their complete and total ‘all in’ attitude.”

Flessas said, “I was hoping to learn a little bit more about formations, play calling, and general team dynamics. While I’m a little clearer on offensive formations, the defense is still a mystery. Not sure I’ll be able to tell a run play from a pass play, but I do know I will be looking at the offense in a whole new light.”

Catherine (left) and Hunter (right) Spiers got to run out of the tunnel with Jill Freeze!

After the warm-ups, Poole said the ladies enjoyed a Q&A session with Coach Freeze and a guest speaker, D.T. Shackleford and later another Q&A session with defensive and offensive coaches after the lunch break. After the fun chat with Coach Freeze that morning, the ladies locked the Vault with Jill Freeze and then ran through the tunnel with her!

Flessas quipped that the word ‘run’ is subjective. She said, “(If) you were toward the back, it really was a walk as everyone wanted to get their pictures made with Chucky.”

Michelle Flessas and a fiend pose with Chucky Mullins at Ladies’ Football Forum.

After having fun on the football field, they split into groups led by football players.

In group rotations, they listened to Ryan Buchanan and Evan Engram with their mothers. They learned how coaches use film to study plays and players to strategize. They also got a peek in a day in the life of a new Rebel football player: how his day is planned, how each has a schedule that has to be kept close and how hard the athletes work every day. Laquon Treadwell showed them the x-rays of his injury and recounted the experience to them.

Murray said, “I really enjoyed rushing the field and locking the Vaught! We learned about weight training, preventing injuries and working with the players to help them overcome an injury.”

Katherine Puckett (center) and her group members found Laquon Treadwell’s locker!

The ladies enjoyed a lunch at The Grill at 1810 and touring the football players’ locker room where they heard some of Coach Freeze’s pre-game speeches.

As a veteran of the forum, Murray recounts the past forums: “One year, we heard from the coaches wives about their roles. Players have returned to speak to us: Eli Manning, Michael Oher, Chris Spencer, Duce McAlister and others. We even had a special program about Chuckie Mullins. Up until this year, we were shown a video of great plays set to music while sitting in the film room.”

Spiers said, “This year was even more special because the guys wre our group leaders instead of the women. They were so nice and wonderful! Getting to hang out with Coach Freeze and Jill was extra exciting!”

Many echoed Spiers in recounting their favorite parts of the Ladies’ Forum.

Murray said, “This year, my favorite part of the day was (the all day feature) because the players were leading our groups, talking with us, eating lunch with us—really enjoyed being with such sweet guys! They treated us with respect and friendship.”

Lauren Poole is all smiles with Evan Engram!

Bagwell said, “I really enjoyed learning learning about formations and positions, but I think my favorite part of the forum was running through the tunnel and interacting with the players as we went. I truly think that they had as much fun as we did. They never acted like it was a chore to put up with a bunch of women. These guys recognized us as their biggest fans, and treated us with such kindness and appreciation.”

Flessas said, ” I don’t know that I had a favorite part. The whole day was just so much fun. I did like the tour of the locker room and joking around with the players. I think that may have been my favorite part and it wasn’t even a planned activity. Seeing the players and how they interacted with not only each other, but 500 women was just phenomenal. They were having as much fun with us as we were with them and they were having as much fun with each other. At the same time, the players were always very respectful.”

The Moore twins and Hunter Spiel had fun at the Ladies’ Forum!

She added a story of how Christian Russell helped an elderly lady using a walker in her group. During the passing drill, she said Christian Russell, Tee Shepard, DeVante Kincade and Woodrow Hamilton all stood around this lady to ensure she was steady on her feet as she threw the football into the net.

“Those types of things just showed me that the coaches truly are having a big impact on this team in the way the conduct themselves outside the football arena,” said Flessas.

Puckett echoed Flessas in her admiration of the football team after mingling with the players. She said, “We got to talk to our player leaders one on one. We got to hear all about the life of a player from the time they get recruited to when school starts to When the season starts. We get to hear from coaches and players about plays and strategies. This forum gives us a taste of what is to come for the season! I have learned so much from the two forums I have attended. My whole football season is so much more exciting.”

Sandra Murray and Justin Bell

These ladies enjoyed their time at the Ladies’ Forum so much they might rival the men in their football dedication! After all, Murray said that she has the 2015 football schedule tacked up on the wall at her office in Columbus for her to look up to every now and then as she typed on her computer.

She said, “I’m so happy to have found the Ladies’ Football Forum – makes me feel closer to the University of Mississippi!”

Callie Daniels is a staff writer and reporter for HottyToddy.com. She can be reached at callie.daniels@hottytoddy.com.