By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

HATTIESBURG — Presbyterian Christian will compete in Region 8-3A next season when the school enters the Mississippi High School Activities Association.

And the Bobcats will be coming in hot when they align with both St. Stanislaus and St. Patrick in that newly realigned league next school year in all sports.

PCS captured its first-ever MAIS Class 6A state baseball title over the weekend with a 9-4 win over Hartfield Academy to wrap up that title tilt. The Bobcats will now try and become the first program in history to win an MAIS state championship in baseball one season and a capture a state title on the diamond in the MHSAA the next.

“This has been a long time coming and the guys just continued to buy into what we’re doing and continued to get better,” PCS head coach Jarrett Hoffpauir said. He just finished his seventh season at the helm of the Bobcats.

PCS will now join St. Stanislaus, St. Patrick, Tylertown, and West Marion to comprise Region 8-3A.

The Bobcats state championship win ended a seven-year state title reign in MAIS Class 6A by perennial state power Jackson Prep.

When PCS hits the diamond to face new region foe SSC next season, the Rock-A-Chaws will have a new skipper on board.

Irby Dossett, a 2014 graduate of Saint Stanislaus, has been appointed the new head baseball coach, succeeding Brad Corley, who stepped down to pursue a business career recently.

Dossett has been a member of the Saint Stanislaus coaching staff since 2020, serving as assistant varsity coach for the past five years. He was a part of Corley’s staff that helped guide the Rock-A-Chaws to the 2023 Class 3A State Championship round.

As a student at Saint Stanislaus, Dossett was a standout in both baseball and basketball, earning three varsity letters in each sport. He contributed to the 2010 state championship baseball team and collected All-District honors in baseball (2013, 2014) and basketball (2012, 2013). Dossett was also part of three district championship baseball teams and a district championship basketball team.

He played baseball under former SSC head coach Mark Logan before he moved on to play at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College earning All-State honors as a sophomore pitcher.