By CURTIS ROCKWELL

BAY ST. LOUIS — After just one successful season, St. Stanislaus head football coach Tim Lala surprisingly stepped down from his post Saturday.
Lala announced his decision on social media, saying, in part, that he was leaving due the fact that his wife had recently given birth to their second son and that the toll of commuting from one end of the Mississippi Gulf Coast to the other end every day was too much from him to continue to do with two small children.
Lala still made his home in Pascagoula, where he was a part of the staff at Pascagoula High for several years before taking the job in Bay St. Louis at SSC earlier this year.
“I’ve been telling anyone that’s willing to listen that SSC and Tim Lala are a match made in heaven and I believe that to my core,” Lala said in his social media post. “About a year ago, when I heard from a former player that the head coaching job was open, I felt the holy spirit put on my heart that this was exactly where I was supposed to be. A year later, it is easy to see that I have been blessed with so many memories and relationships that will last me a lifetime.

“A lot has changed over the course of that year, though. My wonderful wife and I have welcomed yet another beautiful baby boy into our family, and his birth had helped me gain fresh perspective about the toll that the distance between our home and the amazing place that is St. Stanislaus College was taking on my family. In order to set the example for the young men in my care for what a husband and father should be, it was necessary for me to make the unbelievably difficult decision to leave the institution that has given me so much in my career.”

Lala was in his second stint as part of the SSC football program after serving one year as an assistant for the Rock-A-Chaws in 2014.
“It’s impossible for me to believe that I have only spent two years at St. Stanislaus and that those two years were separated by nearly a decade,” he also stated. “From the bottom of my heart, thank you to the administration at SSC for trusting me to run the Rock-A-Chaw football program with integrity, and I truly hope I have left the program better that I found it. I love you St. Stanislaus, and Go Rocks!”

In his lone season at the helm of the Rocks, Lala guided SSC to a solid 9-2 record including an 8-1 regular season mark and a second place finish in Region 8-3A. The Rocks advanced to the second round of thee Class 3A South State Playoffs before seeing their season come to an end at the hands of an old nemesis in Noxubee County with a 49-14 loss. Noxubee went on to win the South State title before falling in the state finals to Winona.
Lala came to SSC after spending three seasons as the special teams coordinator, defensive backs coach ans strength coach on the Pascagoula Panther staff under veteran head coach Lewis Sims.
The 2014 team, that Lala was also a part of, went 11-4 overall and lost to Noxubee County in the Class 4A state championship game.
St. Stanislaus is now looking for its eighth head football coach in 23 years. The Rocks went 7-5 in 2022 under Nate Encrapera before he stepped down and Lala took over improving the Rocks’ win total by two games.