By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

LYMAN — As the calendar flips to the first full week of the third month of the year, Harrison Central will continue its “March” across South Mississippi to the various home fields of its opposition.

The Red Rebels are set to play their 10th consecutive road game to start the current campaign Wednesday night in Hurley. Harrison Central, under the direction of sixth-year head coach Neil Frederic, has been on the road all season and will continue to be on that path for at least a couple of more weeks if not longer.

“Initially we had three games scheduled at home early in the 2024 season, but we had to move them all since our field was being worked on,” Frederic said, in an exclusive interview Monday with SouthMiss6 Sports. “The process started behind the scenes in September for repairs and upgrades and work started mid-October. I wanted to be proactive so I started sharing updates and pictures of our facility in November to those who planned to play at Harrison Central in 2024.”

On-going issues with the Red Rebels home field have caused all games on the young campaign to be played on the road. Frederic didn’t have but a few home games on the original schedule through the first few weeks of the season in the month of February, but he had hope that Tuesday his Red Rebels would be able to step on their own diamond for the first time this season.

Instead, they’ll play yet another road game on Wednesday night in their fourth different county in South Mississippi as well as St.Tammany Parish in Louisiana.

Frederic is now hopeful that HCHS will be able to play most of if not all of its home games in upcoming Region 4-7A action actually at home. The first league game is scheduled against St. Martin two weeks from Tuesday, on March 19th.

Until then, counting the next game against East Central, Harrison Central will play at least five more road games including games at both West Harrison and Biloxi in the annual Battle of the Beach.

“On January 22nd, we decided it was unplayable and needed to take the next step,” Frederic continued. “Those updates are still taking place today but more optimistic now that Premier Turf came in as they were subcontracted out to get our field in playing condition early February. Not only did we have to move those February games, but we had to move some more games at our place that were scheduled for the annual Battle at the Beach. Premier Turf and their crew worked diligently for us to get games in this season for our team especially our seniors.”

The Red Rebels are coming off a three-game set in Mandeville, La., over the weekend. Harrison Central began play in the Jesuit Invitational with a 7-6 win in eight innings over Nolan Catholic from Fort Worth, Texas on Friday before dropping a pair of games on Saturday to the host school Jesuit High out of New Orleans 3-0 and to the home squad Mandeville High 4-1.

The Red Rebels stand 5-4 overall heading to Hurley this week.

“Our current plans are to play our first home district game scheduled for March 19th against St Martin,” Frederic added. “To say it’s been hard is an understatement. We have only been on a baseball field 13 times this season thanks to our nine games and some help from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, D’Iberville High and the people at the Rusty Quave Complex. Our team has done whatever we have asked of them whether it’s in the parking lot, our field house that we share with three other squads, the football field, the outfield at times, our bullpens, etc. There have been many trying times over the last six months but I have leaned on our team, our staff, our Diamond Club, our administration, my family, Chris McCormick, Shawn Whitney and all my coaching buddies. They have all been a great help and extremely blessed for their support.”

Frederic understands that this is not the ideal situation for his squad, but he hopes they can make the best of it.

” I accept my role as our team’s head coach and leader with whatever is thrown at us daily,” he concluded, “Our kids at Harrison Central don’t deserve this and I just want to make them happy by getting the opportunity to play on their home field. I promise we will do everything in our power to make that happen.”