By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

When classes convened Tuesday morning to begin yet another school year at Pascagoula High School, veteran Panther head football coach was fairly familiar with the first day of school process.
That’s because Sims is entering his 14th year at the helm of the Panthers and his 17th season as a head coach in Jackson County, which makes him by far the dean of prep football coaches in the “Southern Six”.
Sims is the longest tenured football head coach ever at PHS an also is the all-time winningest coach on the gridiron for the Panthers.
“Time flies when you are having fun!,” Sims said, on the eve of beginning yet another school year. “God has blessed me with the gift of longevity, which is an unheard of commodity in today’s world of athletics. I thank the players, coaches, teachers, and administrators for entrusting the Panther football program to me for all these years. Players who are seniors have only known one head coach of the Panthers since pre-k, and that is not an easy feat.”

Sims is 88-68 at Pascagoula after crossing over Jefferson Street just before the 2011 season. Prior to that, he guided his alma mater Moss Point for three seasons going 25-11 and beating the Panthers all three years. His overall record is 113-79.
“While the road has not always been smooth, I think that the foundation of work, attitude, respect, family, accountability, character, and enthusiasm (WARFACE) that our program is built upon has resonated with the stakeholders of Pascagoula,” Sims added. “I have been blessed with an incredible staff that works diligently to study, prepare, teach, and motivate our players. Five of our varsity coaches have matriculated through our program as middle school coaches or players. Other programs have seen the value our coaches can bring to their programs as evidenced by three former assistants becoming head coaches as well with two former coaches on one of their staffs.  All that to say that we approach football from a position of shared leadership. Each assistant coach has been entrusted with autonomy to coach and teach their players with equal voice is scheme and overall execution. We model that for our players and that has been the cornerstone of our longevity. So at the end of it all, I feel extremely blessed and grateful for the opportunity to coach at one school for this long.”
Sims and his Panthers will hit the practice field on Aug. 5th to continue preparations for yet another season under his guidance. He hasn’t yet decided how many more years he’ll be on the sidelines at War Memorial Stadium.

“I’m just taking it one year at a time,” Sims continued. “The Good Lord opens and closes doors for each of us. Our job is to do the very best we can with what we have been entrusted with on a daily basis. Our gift to him is what we do with his gifts to us. So, I still love to coach, teach, and inspire young people and I’m not sure I’m ready to give that up.”
The Panthers will once again open the season with the annual “Battle of the ‘Cats” against Sims’ former team and arch-rival Moss Point in War Memorial Stadium on Friday, Aug. 30th. Sims as a standout linebacker during his days at MPHS.
Since leaving Dantzler Street, Sims has become the winningest head coach in PHS history and the Tigers are now on their sixth head coach in 14 seasons since Sims’ departure. Moss Point has had just three winning seasons over that time span as well.

“In 2011, my wife and I were building our house in Pascagoula and one of my mentors, Scott Sisson, called and asked if I was interested in an opportunity to apply at Pascagoula because he was retiring and he thought I would be a good fit,” Sims concluded. “Other friends began talking to me about ‘Crossing Jefferson’, and I was intrigued by the chance to get back to my English teaching roots while being a head coach. Not really sure how that would work out, I interviewed and was handed the keys to the program by Ms. Cindy Jackson, much to the chagrin of other mentors and close friends. One even told me that it was a monumental mistake and I would regret the move.
“So when I started this job, my goal was for this to be home till I decided to stop coaching. As far as becoming the winningest coach in PHS history, the credit for that belongs to all those players who have donned the red, white, and blue, as well as all the assistant coaches who made this possible. Without them, I probably would be out of the game by now. Thank you to all of them.”