By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

In the past eight months, there have been 12 openings total of head coaching jobs in football and baseball in the “Southern Six”.
That number counted six each in each sport.
Now, only two remain vacant, both on the baseball diamond. However, that number may well be reduced to just one by early next week.
Only Gulfport and Hancock remain without a head coach, as the new school year quickly approaches. But, the Hawks may have a new top bird in place as early as Monday.

The Hancock County School Board has a meeting slated for Monday night, and if all indications are correct a new head baseball coach will be approved during that session.
Sources close to the situation have indicated that a former successful head baseball coach in South Mississippi has been the top target of the HHS search committee and is favored to get the job.
The new mentor will replace former veteran Hancock head coach Anthony DeWitt, who departed after 18 seasons at the helm of the Hawks.

DeWitt took over as head coach at Hancock before the 2008 season. He guided the Hawks to almost 190 wins since then, but Hancock hasn’t had a winning record since 2015.
Hancock finished this past season at 12-14 overall, and in fifth place in Region 4-6A, and did not qualify for the state playoffs. The Hawks lost their final four regular season games, including the last three to defending Class 6A state champion George County, to drop out of state playoff contention.
In Gulfport, applications are expected to be accepted until Wednesday for the open head slot with the Admirals program. That post opened up last week when Justin Edwards officially stepped down.
Edwards began his first year at the helm of the Admirals in February but in mid-March he took a leave of absence for personal reasons. He was replaced by assistant coach Kelly Weems, who finished out the season.
At that time, as well as thereafter, no details surrounding Edward’s departure were made official.

Edwards came to GHS after six seasons as head coach at Vancleave after he guided the Bulldogs to the Class 5A state championship two seasons ago.
Weems stepped in to fill the role upon Edward’s departure mid-season after serving as the pitching coach for the Admirals for the prior two seasons. Prior to that, he filled the same role for 13 seasons at Harrison Central under both current Red Rebel head coach Neil Frederic as well as longtime mentor Pat Olmi.
Weems went on to guide Gulfport to an 18-10 overall mark and to the second seed in Region 4-7A and home-field advantage in the opening round of the Class 7A South State playoffs.

Elsewhere, head coaching positions have been filled on the baseball diamond at Stone, Harrison Central, Bay High and St. Stanislaus.