By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

PASCAGOULA — Pascagoula head football coach Lewis Sims is entering his 14th year at the helm of the Panthers, making him the longest-tenured gridiron mentor in Panther program history.
The all-time winningest coach is looking to guide his squad into the South State playoffs for the 10th time this coming season.
“God has blessed me with the gift of longevity, which is an unheard of commodity in today’s world of athletics,” Sims said. “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 in his 17 seasons as a head coach in Jackson County.

“I have been blessed with an incredible staff that works diligently to study, prepare, teach, and motivate our players,” Sims added. “Five of our varsity coaches have matriculated through our program as middle school coaches or players. Our job is to do the very best we can with what we have been entrusted with on a daily basis.”
Pascagoula is coming off of a solid 8-4 season last year that included an opening road upset win over Hattiesburg to start the Class 6A South State playoffs. Half of the Panthers’ loss total came at the hands of perennial state power and Region 4-6A rival Picayune, including a season-ending shutout loss in the second round of the playoffs.
Sims has some standouts returning on both sides of the ball coming into the upcoming campaign, including quarterback Silas Corder and linebacker Jaylon Parnell.
A Southern Miss commit, Corder set the program record for career touchdown passes last season when he tossed 23 scoring strikes and finished the season with 1,981 yards through the air during his junior campaign. He registered a career-high five touchdown passes in a Region 4-6A win over West Harrison. He needs just over 100 yards in the air to become Pascagoula’s all-time leader in passing yards this season.

Corder helped provide Pascagoula with its only points in that postseason 7-6 win over the Tigers when he hooked up with wide-out Chris Campbell on the first possession of the game for an 8o-yard touchdown toss to give PHS a lead it would never relinquish.
Campbell also returns at wide out after being one. of Corder’s favorite targets last season.
Parnell is a three-star recruit and a Louisiana Tech commitment who had 99 tackles, four sacks, seven tackles for loss and two interceptions for 130 return yards last season as a junior. Parnell also received interest from Auburn, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Southern Miss and Missouri among others after earning First Team All Region 4-6A honors and Second Team Class 6A All-State honors.

He’ll team with junior defensive back Tylan Wilson to anchor the Panther defensive unit. Wilson, a four-star recruit, is the No. 8 overall prospect in the state, He had 69 total tackles, 34 solo, and five interceptions. Wilson has offers from Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Memphis, Miami, Arkansas and Texas Tech.
“We have some key players coming back,” Sims continued. “But we have to keep working to get better every day. Discipline is not a negative thing. Most of the time in high school football the most disciplined team wins the game.”

Sims and his squad won’t have to travel outside of the “Southern Six” throughout the upcoming season as the furthest trip will be the 80-mile trek to Picayune to kick off Region 4-6A play on Friday, Oct. 11th. All of the other nine regular season games will be contested in Jackson, Harrison or Hancock Counties.
“That was absolutely by design,” Sims concluded. “Once there was an expansion to seven classifications, we realized there’s way too many quality teams down here on the Coast that we could schedule that wouldn’t be in our region. That included Biloxi and D’Iberville, who we have had long running rivalries with over the years, as well as our traditional arch-rivals in Moss Point and Gautier.”

PASCAGOULA
	Coach: Lewis Sims
A. 30	Moss Point
S. 6	East Central
S. 13	at Gautier
S. 20	D’Iberville
S. 27	Biloxi
O. 4	open
O. 11	at Picayune
O. 18	Long Beach
O. 25	at Hancock
N. 1	West Harrison
N. 7	at George County