STARKVILLE — Starkville Academy Athletics Director Glenn Schmidt said finding quality candidates to fill the school”s two head coach vacancies has been the easy part of the process.
The school hasn”t done much searching to replace boys basketball coach Chris Lyle and softball coach Jessica Dickens because many of its leading candidates have come to them.
“We”ve interviewed for both positions and made an offer to a boys basketball coach,” Schmidt said Tuesday. “We hope to end this process soon.”
Schmidt said Saturday the school “hopes to make an announcement early this week” about its new coaches.
Lyle, who coached the Volunteers to a 9-20 mark in his only season at the school, resigned recently to tend to family matters in Florida.
Dickens, who coached junior high basketball and served in her first head coach role with the softball team last season, recently accepted the job as girls basketball coach at Winston Academy.
Dickens led the softball team to an 18-11 record last season and guided the school”s junior high basketball program to a conference championship.
Schmidt said the boys basketball position will be easier to fill. She said the school is looking for someone who will be able to replace Dickens as coach of the junior high basketball and softball teams and as an assistant coach to Schmidt, the varsity girls basketball coach.
Schmidt said the experience of the new coaches won”t be as important as the knowledge and the work ethic those individuals will bring to their jobs.
To Schmidt, the coaching landscape in Mississippi Association of Independent Schools makes finding a veteran coach looking to settle into an area — a la herself and football coach Jeff Terrill — a challenge.
Schmidt said she would prefer a coach who wants to live in the Golden Triangle/Starkville area, but athletics resources, teaching load, and overall responsibility in the athletic department are factors new candidates must consider. Younger coaches are more likely to embrace those roles.
“We”ve interviewed young men who have never coached in a lead role to coaches with 20-year records,” Schmidt said. “We”ve got a wide-variety of candidates, but I don”t mind giving a young coach a shot if I know they can handle it.”
Schmidt has done just that with many of her recent hires, including baseball coaches Justin Brewer and Neal Henry, Dickens, and Lyle.
Those hires have resulted in turnarounds and/or continued success, and the quality of their work has helped the likes of Brewer and Dickens move on to jobs at a higher level or closer to their career goals.
Even former coaches Ronnie White, an Army veteran now working at a military-related job at Mississippi State, and Clay Stringer, principal at Hillcrest Christian School, have moved on to jobs to further their careers.
But does the high frequency of coaching changes in MAIS have a long-term effect on programs?
In his seventh year as Oak Hill Academy”s athletics director, Leroy Gregg acknowledges a stark contrast in coaching changes between public and private school leagues.
Continuity, he said, is at a premium.
“Usually, it is what it is,” said Gregg, who won”t return next season to coach Oak Hill Academy”s football team. “When you look at our conference schools, it”s no different from Carroll (Academy), Winston, or Manchester Academy. Same with Starkville Academy and Heritage. We”re going to have our fourth football coach in eight years, and that”s a lot of coaches for young men to have to go through or adjust to, whatever sport it is.
“But with young coaches, success breeds success, and, as a result, they get chances to get to a bigger school.”
While Schmidt has been the constant among the coaches at Starkville Academy, Gregg feels fortunate to have veterans Marion Bratton (baseball and softball) and Stan Hughey (basketball) on staff at Oak Hill Academy.
Gregg and Schmidt agree stability is crucial in building a program into a long-term winner.
“The programs that win have consistency in leadership,” Schmidt said. “You have to have great talent across the board to win and change coaches every year — junior high to D I.
“Young people (student-athletes) are very resilient, more so than what people give them credit for. You can use those excuses, or say we”re going to do our best anyway.”
Schmidt hopes Starkville Academy”s move to Class AAA”s South Division 2 from AAA-2 in the North will level the competition for all of the school”s sports teams. Part of the move, which Starkville Academy requested in the final week before realignment work began, was based on enrollment. The other part was based on the school”s desire to play competition closer to its level. The move to the South also balances the AAA conferences. The North and South each will have seven teams.
It”s unclear if any other AAA schools requested a division switch.
Messages left for the MAIS office weren”t returned.
Starkville Academy”s new division mates are Copiah Academy, Hillcrest Christian and East Rankin.
For Schmidt, the move signifies a chance to immediately contend for a division title in girls basketball. The Lady Volunteers defeated East Rankin and Hillcrest this season. She expects other sports to see an immediate change in the level of competition.
“This really isn”t a drastic move for us,” Schmidt said. “We”ve beat Parklane and Hillcrest in football, and we plan to play many of the schools we”ve already played in the North. The travel may seem like a lot more, but it”s only 109 miles total difference from the schools in the North to the South. We”re excited about the switch.”
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