By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

BILOXI — St. Patrick has in name a new head coach this season, but the new Fighting Irish mentor is an old and familiar face to followers on the diamond in the “Southern Six”.
Kevin Burdine has taken over the top seat in the dugout after serving as an assistant at SPHS over the past few seasons. And he’s gotten his Fighting Irish off to a solid start as it stands 3-1 overall after the first week and change of the current campaign.

Before coming to St. Patrick, Burdine was a mainstay at Biloxi High for many years.
“I think he will do an excellent job as our new head baseball coach,” Athletic Director Keith Robinson said, upon elevating Burdine to the top slot before the season started. “He has decades of experience in coaching and will be able to share his talents with our players.”
Burdine left BHS in 2015 after he guided the Indians to the Class 6A South State Championship finals and lost to Oak Grove in three games two games to one in a best-of-three playoff series. Biloxi ended the season at 22-13.
In 13 seasons under Burdine, the Biloxi Indians piled up 263 victories, won five district titles and were runners-up in the South State Finals twice.
St. Patrick started their season off with three straight wins, including two over Bay High and one over Long Beach before dropping its first game under his leadership to perennial state power Pearl River Central Tuesday.
The Fighting Irish and Blue Devils face off again in Carriere Friday night.

Friday matinee affair
Vancleave will host St. Martin Friday afternoon in the annual matinee affair designed especially for the student body.
The Yellow Jackets and Bulldogs will clash at 2 p.m., at “The Landing”.
The Bulldogs come in at 1-1 on the young campaign and are coming off a big 13-3 road win over St. Stanislaus Tuesday night. Martin Shaw had a pair of doubles to lead VHS at the plate, while Tyler West and Hunter Harper each had a double as well. Both Harper and West drove in a pair of runs apiece in the winning effort.
Hunter Parker picked up the pitching win.
Tate Murphy smacked a solo home run for the Rock-A-Chaws, while Parker Saucier drove in two runs for SSC.
St. Martin comes into the game 1-2.

French lands with Admirals
Former Biloxi High head football coach Katlan French is joining Blake Pennock’s staff at Gulfport High School.
French told SouthMiss6 Sports recently that he accepted the job as the new safeties coach and Special Teams Coordinator post.
French indicated that he was offered was offered the Defensive Coordinator job at D’Iberville, Tupelo and Murphy High in Mobile, Ala., as well as a few other assistant coaching positions in addition to getting an offer from a 3A school to be the head coach before deciding to head to Gulfport.
He stepped down from the top spot at Biloxi after his Indians qualified for the playoffs in their first season in the expanded Class 7A, before falling to eventual state champion and perennial state power Oak Grove in the first round of the Class 7A South State playoffs on the road 55-13.
Biloxi made the playoffs four out of the six seasons under French’s tutelage, including four of the past five seasons. He finished his time with the Indians with an overall winning mark at 34-31, but BHS went 0-4 in the postseason including losing to OGHS on the road in the last three trips in 2020, 2022 and 2023.
The Indians finished 6-6 overall last season and wound up third in Region 4-7A after finishing in the third spot as well in Region 4-6A the year before.