NATCHEZ — The Beesley Dynasty at Cathedral High School started when Ken Beesley was a recent Mississippi State graduate, serving in the National Guard.

Hurricane Camille struck the Gulf Coast in 1969, and Beesley was dispatched to help the cleanup effort. It was while he was there he said he got a call from Cathedral to teach math and coach junior high football.

“It was unusual the way I got here,” Beesley said. “I was going to go back to school and further my education, but when Camille hit on the coast I was sent down there, and the principal (at Cathedral) called me to offer me a job.”

Since then, at least one Beesley has been at Cathedral in some capacity. In 2003, Beesley’s son Craig Beesley took over the baseball program his father started in 1972. Beesley’s grandchildren Taylor and Andrew Beesley have graduated from Cathedral.

Today, the Beesley family — in addition to former administrators and players — will be at the Hilton Hotel in Jackson as Beesley is inducted into the Mississippi Association of Coaches Hall of Fame.

During his time at Cathedral, Beesley coached football, baseball and even boys and girls basketball for a brief stint.

“I’ve coached it all,” Beesley said.

He won 203 games as the head coach of the Cathedral football team and 401 games at the helm of the baseball program. Having never played football, Beesley said he took over the team with little indication of where to begin, but his accomplishments include seven district titles, one Capital Athletic Conference title and one South State title.

Before his 18 baseball district titles, three South State titles and two state championships, Beesley dealt with the franticness of founding a high school baseball program.

“The hardest part was finding a schedule,” Beesley said. “That was before everyone was divided into regions. You had to basically go out and find your own schedule. For us being a small school, we had to play a lot of big schools to start with.”

During his time in Natchez, the Cathedral campus grew and the staff changed. He said he also saw the community pitch in to help make Cathedral’s facilities look the way they do today.

“I’ve seen the lights put up (at D’Evereux Field),” Beesley said. “Everything you see done on this field — the school might have bought the material — but the families did the labor.”

Beesley said the tight-knit community and emphasis on tradition is why he valued his nearly four decades at Cathedral.

In 2003, Beesley handed the baseball head-coaching job to his son Craig. He said, for approximately four years, he served as his son’s assistant coach.

“I tried to let him coach.,” Beesley said. “If he asked for advice, I’d give it to him. I tried not to coach, but I did enjoy coaching with him.”

Beesley said his coaching career didn’t stop after his retirement. While teaching at Cathedral, he coached his granddaughter Taylor’s junior high basketball team. The hall-of-fame coach said Cathedral might have had a more difficult time convincing him to coach the team if it weren’t for the chance to coach his granddaughter.

“She was the main reason, I’ll put it that way,” Beesley said. “But that was a good group of girls and I enjoyed coaching them.”

The Green Wave lifer said he valued his career as a high school math teacher as much as a coach. The 8-time Star Teacher award winner continued to teach after retiring as a coach, which he remarked is sometimes unusual for high school coaches, who feel like coaches first. He said teaching mirrors coaching.

“I feel like I my teaching you have to think outside the box to motivate kids and that’s the way it was with coaching,” Beesley said. “Each year I saw talent they had and I tried to fit my philosophy to what they were best at.”

Most recently, Beesley overcame some personal hardship. After being diagnosed with large B-cell lymphoma, doctors told Beesley he was in remission in 2015. Beesley said he has been feeling healthy and full of energy, and his biannual checkups indicate the cancer is staying away.

Beesley has an older son, Ken, Jr., and wife, Sue. Ken, Sr., is one of five coaches to be inducted as the MAC Hall of Fame class of 2016.