By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

LYMAN — Longtime Harrison Central girl’s head basketball coach Nancy Ladner is stepping down.

After 17 seasons at the helm of her alma mater, Ladner has decided to retire. The news was confirmed to SouthMiss6 Sports earlier this week.

Before this past season, the HCHS girls had been to the overall Class 6A state finals at The Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson for four consecutive seasons and played for the state title in 2022. That team won 30 games, including a 19-game win streak to open the season.

The team hasn’t won a state title, however, in almost two decades since 2005 when Ladner was an assistant under Ricky Stone. Harrison Central has won 13 girls state championships, one of the top totals by any team in the state of Mississippi.

Harrison Central finished an impressive 23-6 this past season but was bounced in the opening round of the Class 7A South State playoffs.

Ladner was a standout player for HCHS and was part of the era that defined girls basketball in South Mississippi.

She helped Prep All-American standout Eugenia Conner build a high school basketball dynasty at Harrison Central High School beginning in the late 1970’s. From 1978 through the 1981 season the Red Rebelettes captured four straight Class AA State titles.

In those four championships seasons, the Red Rebelettes piled up 155 wins and only 9 defeats. Ladner was a teammate with Conner.  She was a sophomore when Conner started as a freshman.

That streak went on to reach seven straight at one point, from 1977-1983 and even eight out of nine with yet another title in 1985. The HCHS girls team has played for the state title 17 times overall.

Ladner returned to the HCHS program as an assistant coach, and was elevated to the top spot before the 2007-08 season after serving as an assistant for a while.

She guided Harrison Central to the Big House for the overall Class 6A Final Four in 12 of her 17 years at the helm of the Red Rebelettes. Last season, Harrison Central finished tied for the top seed in Region 4-7A with Biloxi but was the number two seed in the league tournament. St. Martin upset the Red Rebelettes in the tourney semifinals causing HCHS to have to hit the road in the opening round of the first-ever Class 7A South State playoffs. It marked the first win for the Lady Yellow Jackets over HCHS in six seasons.

That resulted in a 42-30 loss at Meridian in round one of the postseason.

Ladner’s move away from the hardwood continues a trend this season of change among prep hoops coaches in the “Southern Six” since the end of this past season. As many as seven openings have occurred among boys and girls head coaching jobs combined.

A search is currently underway for Ladner’ replacement to lead the Harrison Central girls’ program.