By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

KILN — Hancock head football coach Neil Lollar has stepped down from his post with the Hawks.
The job opening was posted late Wednesday on the Mississippi High School Association web site and HHS Athletics Director Jamie Sisco confirmed the news to SouthMiss6 Sports early Thursday afternoon.

“I am thankful for Coach Lollar and all he has done for Hancock Football,” Sisco told SouthMiss6 Sports in an exclusive interview Thursday afternoon. “He and his staff worked tirelessly to ensure our football program was ran the right way. We have already began the process of accepting applications for our next Head Football Coach, and I feel confident in what our school district has to offer.

Lollar just finished his eighth season at the helm of the Hawks last week. Hancock finished 3-9 overall including a 48-14 loss to home-standing Hattiesburg Friday in the opening round of the Class 6A South State playoffs after the Hawks finished as the fourth seed in Region 4-6A for the second straight season. The latest trip to the postseason marked the fourth overall for HHS during Lollar’s tenure and their third straight trip. He ended up 42-49 overall including 1-4 in the state playoffs that included perhaps the biggest football win in school history over the past four decades in a 30-27 win over perennial state power Brandon in Lollar’s first year in the Kiln in 2017 to open the Class 6A South State playoffs that season.

Before his arrival as head coach at Hancock, the Hawks had qualified for the playoffs just five other times in the first 31 years of a state-wide playoff system. Lollar and legendary Hawks mentor Irvin Favre are the only HHS football head coaches to ever win a playoff game in the history of the program.
Lollar was approved in early January of 2017 to replace Rocky Gaudin as the head coach of the Hawks. Lollar was promoted to the top spot after several seasons as an assistant under Gaudin, who retired after the 2016 season following 40 years of coaching along the Coast.

Lollar was actually a baseball player growing up in Booneville, later playing for Northeast Mississippi Community College and Ole Miss before moving to South Mississippi in 2000. In 2009, Lollar started his football coaching career at Stone, leading the receivers and defensive backs. In 2013 Lollar joined Gaudin’s staff as defensive backs coach and was serving as defensive coordinator when he was promoted to replace Gaudin.

In addition to that big win over Brandon to open the 2017 state playoffs, Lollar will be remembered for an historic start to the 2023 season for the Hawks as he guided his team to a 7-0 start to begin that campaign which was the best start to a season for the Hawks in 23 years since the 2000 HHS squad started off at 8-0.
However, the Hawks proceeded to drop four out of their final five games last season and finished at 8-4 after clinching the fourth and final playoff spot in Region 4-6A and falling to eventual Class 6A state champion West Jones on the road in Soso 48-20 to open the state playoffs.

That stretch continued over into this season, as Hawks lost five out of their first six games in non league play bringing the streak to nine losses in the past 11 games. The Hawks then went 2-3 in the region race to again qualify for the state playoffs as the fourth seed before ending the season in the Hub City with a loss to the undefeated tigers in what turned out to be Lollar’s last stand at HHS.