By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

LYMAN — Officials at Harrison Central High School have announced that they will announce their new head boy’s basketball coach at a press conference Thursday afternoon.
And, if all indications are correct, the Red Rebels will be bringing in a state championship winning mentor to lead the team in it chase for its first Gold Ball in over 20 years.
According to sources close to the situation, SouthMiss6 Sports has learned that veteran Pascagoula head coach Lorenzo Wright has accepted the job and will be the next man up at HCHS to replace recently retired head coach Boo Hardy.

Wright led his Panthers to the first-ever state championship in program history last week, as PHS nipped Terry in the Class 6A title tilt. He just finished his 10th season at the helm of the Panthers, and he led PHS to three straight appearances in the Class 6A overall Final Four in each of the past three seasons.
Pascagoula is 81-11 over the past three campaigns under Wright, who came to the Panthers from the same post at D’Iberville where he spent three seasons leading the Warriors. Inlcuded in that total is an 18-game win streak to finish out this season and a school record 29 game win streak two years ago.
Harrison Central Athletics Director Kevin Roberts, while not confirming Wright’s hire, said this Monday morning about the coaching search for a program that has played for six state championships over the past 45 years and won three.

“We had an impressive field of candidates,” Roberts said. “Very qualified coaches. HCHS is known as a basketball school, so that didn’t surprise us. Replacing a coach with multiple play off appearances and over 300 wins is still a tough thing to do. Replacing a coach that’s leader and developer of young people is even harder. So, we found another Coach with 300 wins, a state championship to his credit and who has guided and shaped the student athletes under his care to success on and off the court. We think he’ll pick up and take HCHS to the next level, and can’t wait to see the success. Basketball at HCHS should be exciting next season. iFf you want to see a game, you better get here early.”

The win for the state crown last week marked Wright’s 314th career victory in his head coaching career.

Hardy stepped down after 19 years leading the Red Rebels and almost 320 total wins during that span.
Ironically enough, both Hardy and Wright are former standout players at Gulfport High, which has long been one of the fircest region rivals for HCHS over many, many years.
Gulfport, Harrison Central and Biloxi have combined for 17 state titles overall as well as 22 total appearances in the championship game.