Sports Column: Former Alcorn coach wants to get Vicksburg’s kids moving

Jenna Wallace described her latest project, which includes children’s games like red light-green light and lots of running around, then laughed a bit at the suggestion that it sounded like a souped-up gym class.

It’s a bit more involved than that, of course, but it hardly means it can’t be fun.

Wallace, the former women’s soccer head coach at Alcorn State, has started a program to get Vicksburg’s children moving. She is leading introductory fitness classes for kids ages 4-11 every Friday at 5 p.m. at the Sherman Avenue Elementary School athletic field.

The hour-long classes are designed to teach them basic exercises and how to move, more than in-depth sport-specific instruction. There is a nominal $10 fee per person for each session. For information or to register, email [email protected].

Right now the classes are planned for April, but if turnout is good and things go well Wallace said it could become an ongoing event.

“The goal is getting kids active. It’s really like a fitness class for kids,” Wallace said. “My motive behind it and what I want the kids to get out of it, is can we build motor skills, coordination, athleticism. Kind of the fundamentals for any sport that they go into.”

Wallace played college soccer at Delaware State, and coached the sport for five years at the college level. She left Alcorn State when the program was shut down in 2024 and started a side business, Groundwork Soccer, as a personal and group physical trainer.

The Friday classes for kids — operating under the name of G3 Sports — came about when she met Grant Worsley, a fellow New Jersey native and Mississippi resident who has several sports-related businesses and non-profit ventures here.

“We were brainstorming back and forth about how there are so many kids in Vicksburg and it doesn’t seem like there’s an overwhelming amount of organized things that aren’t basketball, football, baseball,” Wallace said. “I had left the college level within the last year and I have a side business to do individual and group training, and even navigate kids through the college process. Doing this, it was like, ‘Let’s do something for the community. Can we get people out and active?’”

Wallace incorporates drills from her college soccer experience into the Friday classes, although they are adapted for young children. So in addition to basic movements, there are games to keep their attention.

“Running is not the funnest thing for kids, so I have it set up where we can do gym class style games. Even red light-green light, where it’s stop-go and we can keep them engaged and it’s a little bit fun,” she said. “It’s an intro to fitness and gym style games.”

Wallace added that while all are welcome, the primary target are kids who aren’t already involved in organized sports. The goal is to get them moving and interested, and prepare them for what to expect when they show up for a team workout if they join a middle or high school team.

“I have it set up to where we’re going to do your regular movements,” Wallace said. “A little bit of speed and agility, but more of just a jog or shuffle. Can you get your body really warm? Can you make sure we know how to shuffle, we know how to backpedal? Those types of things where, if you go into a sports practice, if you’ve never heard those words before you might not know what you’re doing.”

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Ernest Bowker is the sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at [email protected]

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post’s sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post’s sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper’s 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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