JACKSON – Guiding the Rangers to their third straight conference championship game and 8-2 overall record, Northwest second-year head football coach Benjy Parker has been named the MACJC's North Division Coach of the Year. 

Northwest finished 5-1 in the north, highlighted by a 61-38 thumping of No. 1 East Mississippi and 33-13 win over then-No. 3 Holmes, and claimed the school's 13th division championship back in October.

Parker, who's 17-5 in two seasons, led the Rangers to seven straight wins after a 27-24 setback at Itawamba in week two and helped Northwest climb as high as No. 4 in the NJCAA poll.

Northwest took EMCC to the brink in the MACJC Championship game last weekend, falling 67-66 on a two-point conversion in double overtime. The loss snapped the Rangers' 16-game home winning streak.

Northwest received an invitation to play in The Graphic Edge Bowl on Sunday, Dec. 3 in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and will play host and third-ranked Iowa Western (10-1) at 3 p.m. in the Feature Game.