By Curtis Rockwell/Sports Director

GULFPORT — West Harrison is searching for a new head baseball coach.
Veteran Hurricane mentor David Marsland recently retired just after the end of the regular season. Marsland just completed his 14th season at the helm of the Hurricanes, and retires as the longest tenured head coach of any program at the school, which first started play in 2009.
“He’s gonna be hard to replace,” Kevin Roberts, Athletics Director for the Harrison County School System said. “He was a long term coach who coached hard until the end. He was totally committed to his kids and would fight for his program. We are very grateful for all he has done for West Harrison baseball.”

A search for the next WHHS head baseball coach is underway and a replacement is expected to be named at the next school board meeting on May 18th.
Marsland led the Hurricanes to right at 170 wins in 13 full seasons, excluding the Covid-shortened 2020 campaign. The best season was a 23-9 mark in 2019, still a program record for wins in a single campaign.
The Hurricanes also went 21-8 in 2016 and 20-11 in 2017, and that four year stretch between 2016-2019 when Marsland’s squads went 80-41 is bay far the best span in school history.
He came to WHHS as just the second head baseball coach ever in program history, replacing Craig Weinberg, who led the first three Hurricane baseball teams.

Marsland, a former standout pitcher at Biloxi High, helped lead the Indians to the state championship as a junior in 1988. He went 12-4 that season, with a 2.31 earned run average.
As a senior, the craft southpaw guided BHS back to the state playoffs while going 9-4 with 109 strikeouts in just 91 innings of work. He then continued his playing career at both Gulf Coast and Mississippi State.
Marsland spent several seasons at St. Martin as an assistant coach before taking his only head coaching post at West Harrison.

West Harrison went 13-15 this season and missed the state playoffs in its first year as a Class 7A program.