Wes Thigpen begins his third season at the helm of the Jones College baseball program in 2024.
Ranked as high as No. 7 in the NJCAA in late-April, the Bobcats went 33-17 and qualified for postseason play last season.
Thigpen guided the Bobcats to a 32-17 record and region semifinal appearance in his return to Ellisville in 2022 where Jones' .972 fielding percentage was the best in the nation.
Thigpen spent the previous two seasons as the head coach at rival Mississippi Gulf Coast.
He is 91-61 overall as a head coach in the MACCC.
The Luling, Louisiana, native has an impressive track record as a pitching coach and recruiter following a playing career that reached the professional level.
In his first stint in 2017-19 as the Bobcats' pitching coach and recruiting coordinator, Jones was 127-21 (.818) with an MACCC title and two regular-season runner-up finishes. His staff finished all three seasons in the Top 10 in ERA in NJCAA Division II, including the 2017 squad which finished second with an eye-popping 2.74 ERA.
Under Thigpen's guidance, two pitchers have earned NJCAA All-American honors. Will Freeman, who signed with Alabama, was picked by the San Diego Padres in the 2018 MLB Draft.
Thigpen spent the 2016 season as the pitching coach at Hinds, where all four sophomore pitchers signed to play NCAA Division I.
Thigpen was introduced to the MACCC in 2008 as a catcher at Meridian Community College. He started in 99 career games for the Eagles, helping them to a conference title as a freshman and region championship and NJCAA World Series berth as a sophomore.
After two all-conference seasons and an all-region sophomore campaign, Thigpen became a two-year starter at Mississippi State where he was a member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll and helped the Bulldogs to a Super Regional appearance as a senior in 2011.
While at Mississippi State as a graduate assistant in 2014-15, he was also able to work closely with widely respected pitching coach Butch Thompson, now the head coach at Auburn University. Thigpen was also able to catch or coach numerous professional and eventual MLB pitchers between his time in the SEC and in pro ball.
Thigpen would then enter the professional playing ranks with the Detroit Tigers organization in June 2011. He advanced all the way to the Double-A level in just his second season in 2012 before ending his playing career at the end of the 2012 summer to complete his education.
He is married to the former Holly Head of Vicksburg. They have a five-year-old son, Maddox, and a daughter, Emrie.
Former Bobcat and national champion Jonathan Parker returned to his alma mater as an assistant coach on Wes Thigpen's staff prior to the 2022 season.
Parker spent the past two seasons at Mississippi Gulf Coast to start his coaching career.
The New Orleans native was a two-year team captain and catcher at Jones during the 2016-17 seasons, helping the Bobcats to a combined 100-13 record, their first NJCAA Division II National Championship (2016) and an MACCC Championship (2017).
Parker was named team MVP as a freshman and was also an all-tournament team nod at the national championship after going 9-for-19 with a pair of RBIs and seven runs scored.
He hit .310 as a freshman with 10 doubles, a home run and 31 RBIs and .384 as a sophomore with 11 doubles, three home runs and 40 RBIs to earn second team all-conference honors.
Parker went on to start 16 games at Louisiana Tech as a junior before ending his career at Southeastern Louisiana. He graduated with a bachelor's in general studies with a minor in business and marketing.
Parker is a graduate of Brother Martin High School, where he was a four-year letterman and two-year team captain on the baseball team. He also earned three letters on the football team, where he was also twice a team captain. Parker earned all-district honors twice and won The Clarion-Herald Linebacker Award in the New Orleans Catholic League.
Athletes run in the Parker family. His sister, Kristen, played collegiate volleyball at LSU, uncle Johnny Morreale played in the Milwaukee Brewers system and grandfather Junior Morreale played in the Boston Red Sox organization.
Fresh off a successful career as a utility player, former Collegiate Baseball All-American Shemar Page begins his first season as an assistant coach with the Bobcats.
Page will work primarily with hitters/infielders and will also assist with pitchers.
The Raleigh native spent last season as a volunteer assistant at his alma mater Pearl River, where he previously led the Wildcats to a conference championship as a freshman and the 2019 NJCAA Division II World Series as a sophomore.
Page was 17-3 on the mound in 28 appearances with a 2.75 ERA and 166 strikeouts and helped PRCC to a combined 79 wins in two seasons. He was also a .310 career hitter with 19 doubles, eight home runs and 46 RBIs. He was selected to play for the 2018 NJCAA National Baseball Team in the 84th annual National Baseball Congress (NBC) World Series.
He'd go on to play two seasons at Louisiana Tech as a pitcher/infielder before closing out his career as a graduate student at Grambling State.
Page was named the 2022 Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Pitcher of the Year after finishing the season 8-5 with five complete games, a 2.60 ERA and was No. 2 in the nation with 143 strikeouts. He was also one of the leaders at the plate with the second-highest batting average of the roster (.351), driving in 28 runs and scoring 31 runs on 40 hits. He participated in the 2022 Minority Baseball Prospects HBCU All-Star Game held at Truist Park, home of the Atlanta Braves.
The highlight of Page’s final season of collegiate baseball came on April 22, 2022, when he threw just the 34th perfect game in NCAA Division I history versus Alcorn State, collecting a season and career-high 13 strikeouts in the process.
The Collegiate Baseball and D1 Baseball All-American played professionally with the Washington Wild Things of the Frontier League and was with the Trenton Thunder in the MLB Draft League in the summer of 2022.
Page graduated from Louisiana Tech in 2021 with a bachelor's in sociology.