This year’s HEADWAE honorees include an American hero and a longtime coach and instructor at Northwest. HEADWAE stands for “Higher Education Appreciation Day Working for Academic Excellence. The Appreciation Day was established by the Mississippi Legislative Resolution #88 in 1987, to annually honor the academically talented students and faculty members of Mississippi’s higher education institutions who have made outstanding contributions in promoting academic excellence.
There are not many instructors at Northwest who have touched as many lives as Lawrence “Bud” Young, this year’s HEADWAE Instructor of the Year.

Young’s contact with students has been in the classroom as well as in the arena. This year marks his 35th as a member of the college faculty. He joined the Northwest family in 1973 as an instructor in livestock management technology.
He started the college’s first rodeo team that year. His 35 years as the college’s rodeo coach makes him the coach with the longest tenure at Northwest.

“Every year Bud teaches more than a full load,” said Jerry Nichols, dean of Career and Technical Education on the Senatobia campus. “When we look at the students’ evaluations of him as a faculty member, they are outstanding. Bud has been influential to the student who needed to learn skills to take back to the family farm as well as to the student who wanted to continue his or her education at a four-year college or university.”

One of the students who was influenced by Young was Spencer Robertson of Blue Springs.  Robertson, who attended Northwest from 1990-1992 and briefly in 1994, says the practices he uses today in taking care of his cattle he learned in “Mr. Bud’s” class.
“The things Mr. Bud taught us, I put into practice every day. I learned feeding techniques and veterinary practices. I hardly ever have to call a vet, and that saves me money. He was a great teacher. He took time to write everything on the board, and if you took notes and paid attention, you’d learn what you needed. If you didn’t, it was your fault.”

Robertson maintains a heard of bucking bulls that are used in the rodeo industry as well as working as an electrical products salesman for NESCO in Oxford.

Another former student, Lori Baggett of Tupelo, echoed those same feelings. Baggett, who was one of Young’s majors at Northwest, went on to Mississippi State to earn a bachelor’s degree in Animal and Dairy Science.  She now teaches seventh grade at Shannon Middle School near Tupelo.
“Besides using what I learned from Mr. Bud on the cows and horses I own, I still stay in touch with him. He is really good about keeping up with his former students and being supportive of them,” she said.

Last summer Baggett was one of the organizers of the Aaron German Memorial Team Roping, which produced funds used to endow a scholarship honoring German through the Northwest Foundation. “Mr. Bud was there at the event, helping out, as he always does,” she said.

Under Young’s leadership the Northwest team has traditionally earned awards in local, regional and national competition. In the Ozark Region, rodeo team members have won championships in bareback riding, bull riding, barrel racing, steer wrestling and in the All-Around category.

Young was inducted into the college’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2005 as a tribute to his success with the rodeo program and for his support of the sport of rodeo at a national level. He has also been honored with a Northwest Foundation Endowed Scholarship established in his name.

After attending Northwest and Mississippi Delta Junior College, he received B.S. and master’s degrees from Mississippi State University, where he also has completed advanced study. Before completing his master’s degree, he served from 1969-1971 in the medical corps with the U.S. Army.

Young served for 16 years as regional director of the Ozark Region of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association and for two years as national faculty president of that organization.
A member of the International Pro Rodeo Association, Young works with high school students in the area by conducting workshops and seminars for private groups as well as for members of the Little Britches Rodeo Association. He serves as a judge for rodeo events and is an instructor for Lyle Sankey Rodeo Clinics.

Young has a son, Shawn, and a grandson, Chase. He resides in Independence.

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