By Stan Caldwell

Steve Hesser’s first season as head boys basketball coach at Gulfport has been somewhat rocky, but he has the pedigree to suggest that he’s got what it takes to guide one of Mississippi’s premier programs.

Hesser was hired earlier this year as the Admirals coach, coming out of retirement after a highly-successful stint as head men’s coach at Drury University in Springfield, Missouri.

“I had been retired for two years and decided to get back into it,” said Hesser. “I had a connection with the AD at Gulfport and went from there.”

Hesser replaces Owen Miller, who moved on to take on the job as men’s coach at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College after 12 seasons at Gulfport. Miller averaged more than 20 wins a season as coach of the Admirals, winning the Class 6A state championship in 2014.

What Miller did not leave was a very experienced roster.

“I inherited one senior who had played varsity basketball,” said Hesser. “So we’re really young and inexperienced. But they’re learning and growing every day. We’ve just got a long way to go.”

Fortunately, the one senior who did have experience is Amir Abdul-Rauf, who has kept the Admirals afloat while the young players get their feet wet in top-level Mississippi high school basketball.

The Admirals are 5-7 overall (1-2 in Region 4-7A) after Tuesday’s tough 57-55 loss at Petal, and face another tough task Friday night at 12-2 Picayune, which returns a significant portion from a team that played for the Class 5A title last season.

Gulfport has lost five of its last six games heading into Friday’s game at Picayune. Despite his team’s struggles of late, Hesser’s background is impressive.

A native of Stillwater, Oklahoma, Hesser played collegiately in the late 1970s at New Mexico Military Institute and Central Oklahoma, then returned to his hometown after his playing career ended and finished his education at Oklahoma State.

He began his coaching career at Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, where he coached four seasons, then served on Billy Tubbs’ staff at Oklahoma for one season while he pursued a master’s degree in education from OU.

In 1985, he returned to the high school ranks at Bartlesville, Oklahoma, where he had a highly-successful seven-season tenure, winning Class 6A state titles in 1989, 1991 and 1992, along with a second-place finish in 1988.

He moved on to his alma mater at Stillwater High in 1993, where he coached six seasons, then took over at Glendale High in Springfield, where he coached another six years before moving across town to take over at Drury.

It was at Glendale that Hesser and Gulfport AD Matt Walters crossed paths as coaching rivals in Missouri. In all, Hesser’s high school coaching record in Oklahoma and Missouri was 359-181, a 66.5 percent winning percentage.

It was at Drury, though, that Hesser made his biggest mark. In 17 seasons, his teams were 354-145 (70.9 percent), a tenure capped winning by the 2013 NCAA Division II national championship. 

He retired in 2021 as the school’s all-time winning coach, and among the top 10 among Division II coaches in wins and winning percentage. 

He is a member of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame and the Missouri Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame.

According to a release by the Gulfport Athletic Department at the time of his hiring, “Hesser’s teams are known for their tenacious defense, and ball movement within the motion offense.”

And there was plenty of both in the game Tuesday against Petal. The Admirals stayed mostly in a man-to-man defense, and their offense bore a strong resemblance to the offenses famously run by fellow OSU grad Bill Self at Kansas.

Although he spent much of his recent career coaching college, he has plenty of high school experience to draw on as he readjusts to the prep game.

“I’ve done it for 40-plus years,” said Hesser. “You know, you’ve got the shot clock and the collisions are more severe (in college), but it’s still basketball. We did the same things at college that we did in high school. It’s basketball.”

After Friday’s game at Picayune, the Admirals will return to the court at Bert Jenkins Gym for the school’s annual Hardwood Club Tournament, where they will play three games.

Once the calendar rolls over into 2024, Gulfport will travel to Hancock on Jan. 2 before getting back into Region 4-7A action Jan. 9 at home against league-leading Ocean Springs.

“We’re getting some lessons, that’s for sure,” said Hesser. “That’s all good at the end. It may not be good in the moment, but lessons are good for growth.”

Although Hesser is in his 60s, he’d like to settle in at Gulfport, if he can get things turned around in a positive direction.

“That’s the plan,” Hesser said. “We’ll see. We’ve got some good young players; we just need to develop them and get to work.”