By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

GULFPORT — Gulfport High School has fielded a boy’s basketball team for over 100 years.
But Tuesday night, when the Admirals take the court at Bert Jenkins gym in their season-opener against visiting Petal, history will be made in South Mississippi.
That’s because when Brian Butler makes his debut as the new Gulfport head coach, he will become the first-ever African-American mentor for the boy’s team at GHS in school history.

“It’s an honor to be the first African-American Head Coach here,” Butler said, in an exclusive interview with SouthMiss6 Sports. “I’m beyond grateful that I was chosen to be the first. Gulfport Basketball is steeped in history, so to enter into the Gulfport history books from day one is extremely special. However, I must mention the fact that I’m coming after several great basketball coaches…true legends in our game. And that within itself is an honor as well.”
Butler’s hire comes after one of the most maligned seasons ever in Gulfport history on the hardwood and in the long and storied history of the program as the Admirals finished with a paltry 9-21 overall record last year that wrapped up on the road in Meridian with a 64-41 loss to the eventual Class 7A state champion Wildcats in the opening round of the Class 7A South State playoffs.

Two days later, first-year head coach Steve Hesser was gone. He stepped down almost immediately after the season ended, and he left the once-proud Admiral program after recording the least amount of wins and the most amount of losses in a single season in at least nine decades.
While the Admirals were able to qualify for the first-ever Class 7A South State playoffs thanks to a win to open the Region 4-7A Tournament, Gulfport followed that up with three straight losses to end the season.
The Admirals, at one point during January, lost seven consecutive games. It was the first such streak for GHS in over 40 years. This past season also marked just the second time in the past 30 years that the Admirals lost three games each to longtime rivals Biloxi and Harrison Central in the same season.

It marked the first time in over 80 years that a Gulfport head boys basketball coach lasted just one season on the job. Butler becomes the third head coach in three seasons at GHS for the first time in over 90 years
Butler comes to Gulfport from Columbia High, where he served in the same capacity for the Wildcats the past several seasons. He has been a head coach at several stops in South Mississippi for the past 12 years. He is a Mississippi Gulf Coast native, who played for current University of Southern Mississippi head coach Jay Ladner at St. Stanislaus in the early 2000’s.
“Brian is a class individual,” Ladner said. “He has always left every program in better shape when he left that job than it was before he got there. He projects a great image. He’s a great role model for those young men and he’s an outstanding coach. He is one of the outstanding young coaches in our state.”

Butler also interviewed for the job last year before Hesser got it.
“It’s a great opportunity for me, and I’m really looking forward to the challenge,” Butler added. “I felt much more comfortable during the interview process this time. This is a dream job for me. We had an incredible preseason. Our guys were able to grow, not just as players, but as young men as well and as leaders and as warriors going into battle. We put them through an “Admiral Bootcamp” where they were made to earn the right to wear the Admiral uniform. It’s an honor to put on the Orange and Blue.”