By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

GULFPORT — The last time that Brian Butler was involved with the prestigious Admiral Hardwood Club Holiday Classic, he was a senior at St. Stanislaus and host Gulfport won the tournament title.

Now, 23 years later, Butler hopes that same result repeats itself.

Butler, in his first year as the head coach at Gulfport High, leads his unbeaten Admirals into their annual three day post Christmas affair beginning Thursday night. Gulfport stands a perfect 14-0 as it welcomes visiting Daphne (Ala.) Bayshore Academy in to Bert Jenkins Gym to tip things off on day one.

“As a high school player, we loved the atmosphere of the Holiday Classic,” Butler said, Wednesday afternoon. “It was the most intense tournament around; talented players, great teams, and always some excitement on the floor. Now… coaching in it… and hosting it at that, is an awesome full-circle experience! It’s almost surreal. And I feel honored to follow in the footsteps of some amazing coaches who’ve participated in this prestigious event.”

In the fifth place game in the 2001 event, St. Stanislaus beat East Central 64-41 as Darius Acker scored 19 points for the Rock-A-Chaws and his senior teammate Butler added 10 points to the winning effort.

On Thursday, Butler returns to the event for the first time since that contest as the first-ever African-American head coach in the long and storied history of the Gulfport boys basketball program.

In addition, he has immediately made a huge impact with the Admirals in just a short time. In contrast to their 14-0 mark this season, the Admirals were just 6-7 headed into this event last season.

Then, under then first year head coach Steve Hesser, the Admirals went 0-3 in their own tourney and finished the season with an embarrassing 9-21 overall record. Hesser was out of a job at the end of the year, leaving Gulfport after recording the least amount of wins and the most amount of losses in his lone single season in at least the past 90 years in program history. It marked the first time in over 80 years that a Gulfport head boys basketball coach lasted just one season on the job.

“This is a dream job for me,” Butler added. “It’s one of the premiere coaching positions in the state of Mississippi, and probably the only one I would have left Columbia for. Being here was something I always thought about when I was a player in high school.”

In addition to Bayshore, Gulfport welcomes in two more teams from Alabama to the Holiday Classic in both Mobile Davidson and Oxford High.

The Admirals are also one of three “Southern Six” squads involved, in addition to Ocean Springs and Pass Christian.

Rounding out the field are two more teams from the Magnolia State in Madison Central and Starkville in what is one of the last three round true “tournament” style events left in the regular season in the state of Mississippi where winners play winners and losers face losers.

There will be four games each day beginning at 3 p.m.