By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

Six new head coaches will dot the “Southern Six” landscape when a new prep basketball season tips off Tuesday all across the state of Mississippi.
There are four new mentors on the boy’s side of the court and two new bosses on the girl’s sidelines.

And all four new boys head coaches will make their debuts at home.
Gulfport’s Brian Butler is one of the more noteworthy newcomers, as he will become the first-ever African-American head coach of the boy’s basketball team at GHS in the 100-pus year history of the program.
Both the Gulfport boys and girls host Petal Tuesday night to begin the season.

Also on the boy’s side of the ledger, Eric Vianney takes over for Robin Skikes in D’Iberville.
Vianney comes to the Warriors after spending a successful six season run at the helm in Picayune, his alma mater. Vianney led Picayune to two straight trips to Jackson for the overall Class 5A state Final Four before just coming up short on a return trip to The Big House last season. The Maroon Tide are coming off of four straight 20 win seasons, and played for the 2023 state title falling to Hattiesburg. Picayune finished 23-9 last season.

The DHS boys and girls host St. Patrick to tip off the season Tuesday night.
There was an open spot at DHS because Sikes headed south down the coast to take over at Pass Christian after the retirement of the legendary Buddy Kennedy.
Sikes is coming off a 10-18 campaign with the Warriors, and DHS missed the Class 7A South State playoffs.
Prior to that however, Sikes guided the Warriors to winning records and state playoff appearances in back-to-back seasons in 20223 and 2022 as well as a solid 17-8 mark in 2021. One of the biggest highlights for Sikes during his tenure at D’Iberville was guiding the Warriors to back-to-back tournament championships in the prestigious Admiral Hardwood Club Holiday Classic in Gulfport in 2021 and 2022.

The Pirates open the season hosting their annual Tip-Off Classic Tournament beginning Tuesday night.
In Picayune, Run Bowen is returning to Pearl River County for his third stop as a head hoops coach. Bowen was approved as the new Maroon Tide head coach recently.

Bowen has been an assistant coach under veteran Biloxi head coach Seber Windham for the past three seasons. Before that, he served as the head boys coach at Poplarville High for four seasons from 2017-2021. He also was the boy’s head coach at Pearl River Central before that for a few seasons.
Bowen also served in similar roles at Vancleave, Ocean Springs, Long Beach and Perry Central over the past 15 years or so.

The Maroon Tide host St. Stanislaus Tuesday night to begin the new campaign.