MC Graduate Keith May Leads Mt. Salus Christian School

Mississippi College graduate Keith  May recently returned home as headmaster and head football coach at Mt. Salus Christian School in Clinton.

A 1984 Clinton High graduate with a bachelor’s degree in psychology  from Mississippi College in 1988, May takes the top administrative post at a private school celebrating its 40^th birthday this fall. Mt. Salus  enrolls about 150 students in K-12.

“I’m delighted to be back at Mt. Salus,” says May, who previously served as a coach and educator at the Clinton school from 2005-2007. “Clinton is home.” During the last three years, the Clintonian worked as headmaster at  Calvary Christian School in Meridian.

During his first tenure at Mt. Salus, May helped build the Eagles football program. Last year, the team finished with an 8-4 record and advanced to the post-season  Mississippi Private School Association playoffs for the first time in school history.

 May  enjoys paying attention to administrative details, but also loves getting out of the office and building character on athletic fields.  On Tuesday morning, May worked up a sweat in the Central Mississippi summer heat as he ran pre-season football practices for the 16 players on the Eagles squad. Just miles from campus, Mt. Salus plays its Friday night home games at Mississippi College’s Robinson-Hale Stadium. “That’s an awesome blessing to us,” he said of the football games at his alma mater. May will also serve as head baseball coach at Mt. Salus  in the spring.

MC roots run deep in  the May family.  His wife, the former Bethany Pickett, is an MC nursing graduate who’s now working as a registered nurse in Meridian. The couple has three children, Hudson, 10, Alexis, 8, and Mauri Joy, 2, who could become future MC Choctaws. The headmaster’s father, Carl May, is a Mississippi College alumnus.

Keith May has other ties to the Clinton-Jackson area.  A graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth with a degree in religious education in 1991, May has  worked as a teacher, coach and chaplain at Hillcrest Christian School.  Today, both  of his parents, Carl and Bettie May, are Clinton residents. In addition, Keith May has spent two decades as a youth minister at Clinton churches.

His new position is at a Christian school that trumpets Clinton’s original name. The city in Hinds County was founded in 1823 as Mount Salus or Latin for mountain of health. The city’s name was changed  in 1828 in honor of Dewitt Clinton, the former New York  governor. The independent, non-denominational school seeks to prepare young men and women academically and spiritually to serve Jesus Christ in their career choices and at institutions of higher learning.