PineBelter

https://www.wtok.com/2025/11/14/meridian-high-school-football-coach-resigns/

Why do they not play at Newell anymore? I didn't realize they shut that down. South Jackson and Hughes look like good stadiums with turf fields. North Jackson looks horrible. Unless it was a structural issue, keeping North Jackson open while shutting down Newell doesn't make a lot of sense.

According to this article, he is an assistant at Gulfport. This article is from this past summer. I assume he is there but cannot confirm. https://southmiss6.com/2025/06/08/prep-basketball-former-bay-high-head-coach-thompson-joining-butlers-staff-at-gulfport/

Depends on the size of the school and how much time the coaches get to work with the kids. Many smaller schools share their HS coaches with the middle school, so the middle school may only be practicing for 50-60 minutes during the day. Schools with their own dedicated JH programs that don't share coaches are probably better organized and have more time with their players.

No one is suggesting FCAHS combine with Hattiesburg High. They are suggesting FCAHS be part of the Forrest County School District. The school would remain open. Much like the example you gave where Oak Grove, Purvis, and Sumrall are all part of Lamar County School District.

There has already been a bond issue passed for a new high school in Sumrall and Purvis, both with a capacity for 1000 students. Don't know when they break ground, but the bond issue has officially passed. I feel Lamar County will continue to see growth in those two areas as Oak Grove is basically maxed out and some people are even moving out of Oak Grove now to go to Sumrall and Purvis. The county demographics and growth projections were all presented at the meetings.

This. Anyone that says anything different is not being realistic. Brandon, Hattiesburg, and Starkville are all top teams in the state with a bunch of talent. Houston HS out of Germantown won the TN state title in '23 and was runner up last year. Neville is always a power in Louisiana. Since 2021, they have gone 11-2, 8-3, 8-2, 11-2 and were ranked #6 overall in Louisiana last season. In reality, OG is playing 5 different teams that are capable of being their state champion next year in their respective classes.

Can speak for the others, but odds are if he was at PCS and is going to Oak Grove, he probably was already living in Oak Grove's boundary zone.

As far as the job goes, you are never going to lack talent and it pays extremely well. For most part, from what I know, Admin lets the coach coach and requires little more of them in terms of classroom and school responsibilities. As far as the city, I don't know where you are from but Hattiesburg is an excellent place to live. Crime is contained to very distinct areas of town for most part. Many great neighborhoods inside the city, but as far as I know, you are not required to live inside the city limits. Oak Grove and Petal are excellent places to live as well. Hburg's schools have made tremendous growth and strides to becoming better. Hattiesburg has a ton going for it in the positive direction. Saying Hattiesburg is a terrible place to live is quite the opinion.

Agree. Im fully aware how message boards work and that they are not up to the standards of regular journalism. But wow, this insinuation is quite the post. He was let go because he was 42-47 and didn't have post seasons success. The AD said good things about him on his way out and simply said there needed to be a change in direction after his 9 years. I get it could all be for show and simply the public stance, but without anything concrete and public, this is quite the rumor to put out there that there was something nefarious about his exit. Would think that if what he did was so indefensible and unethical that it would be a career killer, usually the MDE and maybe even law enforcement are involved. And that kind of stuff usually makes its way into the news or at least public knowledge.