By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

BILOXI — It has been 13 years since the Biloxi High football team won a state playoff game. And the Indians have won just two postseason games in the past 23 years and have lost their last seven playoff contests.
New Biloxi head coach Jamey Dubose hopes to snap that streak this season.
Dubose. has a championship pedigree. He comes to Mississippi after many years in the Alabama prep football ranks, where he led Prattville to a pair of state titles as head coach in both 2008 and 2011, and he guided Central-Phenix City to the 2018 Class 7A state title.
This is his first coaching job in Mississippi.
“I was fortunate enough in Alabama to surround myself with some excellent players and coaches,” Dubose said, in a recent interview. “I feel like what we do as a program will fit in here at Biloxi. It’s similar to some of my previous stops.”

Dubose replaced Katlan French at the helm of the Indians at the end of last season, after French spent six seasons in the same post. French ended his span at the helm of the Indians with a 34-31 overall mark and playoff appearances in four out of the five past seasons. The Indians finished 6-6 overall last year after an opening-round loss to eventual state champion Oak Grove in the first round of the Class 7A South State playoffs.
Dubose becomes the 11th head football coach of the Indians program in the past 40 years since the implementation of a state-wide playoff system. He comes to the Indians from Orange Beach High School, where he spent the past two seasons.
“It’s not just a coach coming in,” Dubose said. “It’s going to take a community, it’s going to take a school, it’s going to take players, it’s going to take a training staff. Everywhere I have been success has followed because of the buy-in. We are taking it one day at a time, you know, our motto is 1% better every day. Our guys have really accepted that and bought into what we are doing and what is going on. I think they are really excited as to what is coming next and that is what I am excited about also.”

Dubose is counting on quarterback Wyatt Pyron, also a pitcher on the Indians’ baseball team, to replace the departed Zach Marlin behind center after the two-year starter Marlin threw for just over 1,300 yards and 13 touchdowns last season. Pyron saw action in seven games and tossed three scoring strikes.
Also in the backfield, junior running back Jaylan Johnson returns after leading the Indians in rushing last season with just over 500 yards on the ground and six scores.
The receiving department is in good hands, as Pyron can look to senior wide out Tristan Haynes and his classmate Jaln Anderson as well. Haynes led BHS in catches with 36 for well over 600 yards and nine touchdowns last year while the versatile and speedy Anderson had 19 catches for three scores and he also led the Indians defensively in interceptions with four half of which he returned for touchdowns.
Joining Anderson on defense will be middle linebacker Coleman Gazzo, who returns after leading the Indians with 110 total tackles last season.

“I hope we can get this program to the level that we were able to in other places,” Dubose added. “That’s our mission, that’s our goal.”
Not only have the Indians lost seven straight playoff games, but besides a run to the South state championship game two years ago the Mississippi Gulf Coast hasn’t been very successful overall in the postseason in the past 12 years or so.
Dubose plans on changing that as well.
“We want to change the mentality of Coast football in the state playoffs,” he concluded. “You have to be physical, you have to win up front. That’s what we want to do.”