Kingdom Builder

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Eric Watkins

For many years, I knew darkness very well. I was raised in a Christian home and enjoyed a comfortable life. I made ungodly choices that led to me living a life of reckless behavior at a very young age. But, one day after experiencing God’s grace in my life after He had spared my life on multiple occasions from disaster, I looked in the mirror and told myself that I didn’t like the person that I saw.
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In short, God made me a new man through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. God delivered me from a bad sinful habit and He healed me from a painful past, I still have daily struggles but, I know that God’s grace is sufficient in my life. I have enjoyed the pleasure of entrepreneurship and of serving on staff in local churches in both missions and Christian education. Through all of my life experiences – God has placed a passion in me to see those that have been marginalized, neglected and ignored come to know the love, hope, joy and peace that can only be found through faith in Jesus Christ.

By God’s grace and for His glory, I was blessed to attain a BA in Finance from Morehouse College in 1990 and a Master of Christian Education from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in 2009. I am unworthy to be married to such a loving wife, Claudia, and to have three great children by marriage.

Head Sports Coach

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Elijah Gibson

Elijah Gibson is a proud graduate of Mitchell High School's class of 2003. Growing up, I remember how my friends all played football and I knew from watching them practice that I wanted to play. One day I just joined one of their practices. The coach saw me and said, "Son, you can play, but you have to get permission first." I said, ok, but I knew my grandmother didn't want me to play football out of fear of getting hurt. I took the paper home as I was instructed to do and thought about it that whole night. I wanted to play football so badly that I decided that would shape the rest of my future - I signed the papers myself. It wasn't until three weeks later that I finally confessed everything to my grandmother. It took some convincing, but she ultimately decided to let me play.

​From that day forward, I was on the field every year. In my senior year of high school, I was an all-state football player with several college offers from the University of Arkansas, University of Miami, University of Georgia, and Lane College; however, my college dreams abruptly ended due to my sports injuries. After recovering from my injuries, I tried out for a professional arena football team - The Batesville Stars in Batesville, MS. In their inaugural season, I was the #3 pick, but the season was cut short soon after due to a lack of funding. I decided to hang up my cleats at that moment, but my passion for the game still burned in my soul. 

In 2021, Mr. Eric Watkins came to me to arrange a sit-down for us to discuss the possibility of me coming onto the team. We met that following day and that meeting led to me accepting a position as the Head Coach of the Athletics Department. From that meeting, we hit the ground running to start and build the Athletics Department that year. We began Red Door's first official baseball (Dodgers) and football (Stars) team. Today Elijah Gibson is the Head Coach for our Boys Youth Baseball, Flag Football, and Basketball teams.