By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

HURLEY — A member of the Long family has been the head baseball coach at East Central High School for the past 48 seasons.

Now, after the recent retirement of veteran Hornet mentor Bo Long, it appears that almost five decade long tradition will come to an end.

Or will it?

A new head coach is expected to be named next week according to ECHS Athletics Director Donnie Wallace, and several names have surfaced throughout prep baseball circles in South Mississippi and beyond concerning who will take over what is considered by many as one of the top 10 or so head coaching positions on the diamond in the state.

Replacing Bo Long won’t be an easy task. After all, in 12 full seasons he produced what was one of the most impressive spans in prep baseball ever in the “Southern Six” leading the Hornets to six south state championship appearances as well as back-to-back Class 5A state championships in 2022 and 2023. He won almost 250 games in 13 years on the job, and even guided ECHS back to the South State title tilt last year.

Two names immediately surfaced upon the announcement of the vacancy, one a current member of the Hornets staff and yet another who is also a successful head coach in South Mississippi with deep ties to the ECHS program.

And his name, oh by the way, is also Long.

Current Ocean Springs head coach Ryne Long has led the Greyhounds to a pair of Region 4-7A titles in his two years as a head coach and also to the Class 7A South State semifinals the past two seasons.

Ryne Long is a former Hornet standout player, and is the nephew of Bo Long, the son of former Hornet head baseball coach and Athletics Director Gary Long and the cousin of ex-ECHS AD and baseball head coach Rocky Long.

While it is not known at this point if the younger Long has any interest in replacing his uncle and returning to Hurley/Wade to direct his alma mater, his recent success at OSHS when combined with the long history of success his family has produced at ECHS certainly indicates that Ryne should get a “Long”, hard look during the search process.

Current Hornet pitching coach Stephen Garrard is also a candidate who immediately surfaced. And, in reality, he may just be the favorite to land the job.

Garrard served Bo Long in that capacity throughout his tenure and has been on the ECHS staff for about 15 years. He is well respected for his work by both fellow assistants and head coaches throughout the “Southern Six” and has earned a reputation as a solid baseball coach.

Also, yet another current name on the ECHS staff to watch is another longtime assistant in Brian Knight. Knight has been the longtime first base coach for two decades for the Hornets and has recently gotten head coaching experience on the hardwood with the Hornet basketball teams.

In addition to Ryne Long, yet another former Hornet player Bray Miles has been mentioned as a possible candidate as well.

Miles is currently an assistant coach at Pascagoula High. His was a name that also surfaced as a possible successor as the head coach for the Panthers if Colton Caver had gotten the recent opening at Gulfport High, and Miles also interviewed at Hancock for the open Hawks post recently that went to Neil Walthers.

Of note, as of late Thursday afternoon, the job opening was not listed on either the Mississippi High School Activities website or the Jackson County School Board website.