By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

KILN — Former Pearl River Central head baseball coach Neil Walther is expected take the helm at Hancock High Monday afternoon, SouthMiss6 Sports has learned.
The Hancock School Board meets Monday at 5:30 and is expected to approve Walter as the new head baseball coach of the Hawks. Neither Walther nor HHS Athletics Director Jamie Sisco was available for comment Saturday morning.
Walther spent this past season as the pitching coach at Oxford High, helping lead the Chargers into the second round of the Class 7A North State playoffs. Before that, he was one of the most successful head coaches on the diamond in the “Southern Six” for most of the past two decades at PRC.

Walther spent almost 17 seasons in Carriere, and was the most successful head coach in any sport, by far, at Pearl River Central High School. Since the 2008 season, he compiled an impressive 329-169 record while winning seven district titles with 15 straight playoff appearances, three trips to the South State finals and a state title.
Walther led the Blue Devils to the Class 5A state title in 2017, which still stands as the only state championship in a team sport in school history. The Blue Devils, ironically enough, knocked off Oxford in three games in the title series.
Walther was unceremoniously and abruptly relieved of his duties mid-way through in the 2024 regular season after an on field incident during a game in Hattiesburg. No official word from PRC administration was ever released on his departure.

PRC qualified for the playoffs just three times in the history of the school before Walther arrived in Carriere. He has over 500 total wins as a head coach in 26 years. He came to South Mississippi after serving as a head coach in two other stops, one at Springs Valley High in French Lick, Ind., and also at Newburg High in Newburg, Missouri.

He replaces longtime Hancock head coach Anthony DeWitt.

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.