(This is an analysis)

By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

PASCAGOULA — Where does the Pascagoula baseball program go from here?

That’s the question many prep baseball observers across the “Southern Six” and the state are asking as a new week of school dawns on Monday and the Panthers don’t have a head coach.

On Thursday night, baseball coach Colton Caver turned in his resignation at a meeting with school district officials. The move came eight days after Caver, who was prepping for his fourth season at the helm of the Panthers, was placed on administrative leave with pay on July 22 — one day before school was set to start.

No other details of the situation have been revealed.

The Panthers finished 7-21 overall last season and missed the Class 6A South State playoffs for the second time in Caver’s three seasons in charge. Caver was 28-56 overall as the head coach at PHS.

The current opening of a head baseball coach as school basically gets underway is rare. In fact, some research has revealed that the last time a situation like this occurred in the “Southern Six” was 28 years ago, when Craig Bragg suddenly stepped down as head coach at Vancleave in mid-October of 1998.

At that point, with less than three months before pre-season practice was set to begin, an assistant was named interim and remained in that post through the rest of the school year.

However, the case with PHS is completely different. Even though — unlike 28 years ago — prep baseball is a year-round activity these days, this opening comes just as the calendar has flipped to August. PHS Athletics Director John Archie has plenty of time, if he chooses to do so, to actually open up a head coaching search in the first two weeks of school being in session.

The Panthers could easily wait until Labor Day to name a new head coach, and never miss a beat.

So, let’s dive into the possibilities:

First, there are three current PHS assistant coaches standing by. All three are PHS grads and one, Daniel Murphy, was named the interim head coach, according to sources, just after Caver’s suspension.

Murphy, along with fellow assistant coaches Matt Peden and Alden Davis, will be running the off-season program until a new leader is named. So, PHS could just give one the job on an interim basis, roll the dice this season, and see where they land in the spring.

None of the three have any past experience as a head coach. Murphy has been a high school assistant for just the past two years.

In addition, if the powers that be were to open up a full coaching search with this much time to go before actual pre-season baseball practice starts, most of the individuals interested, both current head coaches and assistants at other schools, are already under contract at their respective schools for this season.

Three familiar names that fit in that category are Deion Ulmer, Neil Frederic and Leon Farmer.

Ulmer is currently the head coach at Gautier High, and has made huge strides with the Gator program over the past few seasons. He is already under contract to the Pascagoula-Gautier School District and with just a stroke of the pen his coaching duties could be reassigned to PHS.

Frederic is a former Pascagoula standout player and assistant coach, who was previously the head coach at both Harrison Central and Center Hill. After leaving Lyman, he spent last season as the Gulfport Middle School head coach last year but has since been moved up to an assistant role with Gulfport High under head coach Myles Gentry.

Farmer is a longtime assistant in Harrison County, most recently at West Harrison High for 17 years, and now at North Gulfport Middle School. He was interviewed for head coach openings just this past year at both WHHS and Pass Christian, as well as the opening last year at GHS that went to Gentry.

Also, while these two men are currently “under contract,” the head coaching job at Pascagoula is considered a promotion. Thus, both could possibly get out of those contracts to pursue promotions.

Then, there are several names that are not currently under contract.

One that is not is former Stone High head coach Sean Miller. Miller spent last season as an assistant coach at Biloxi, but recently retired. He is certainly a viable candidate if PHS is looking for a mentor with plenty of period head coaching experience to come in and settle the ship for a season or so.

Also, veteran and former West Harrison head coach David Marsland just retired after last season.

And, Greg Williams, the former head coach at St. Martin who served as a longtime assistant under Marsland with the Hurricanes, left that program when Marsland did. Williams lives in St. Martin.

Other former successful head coaches fitting this category are Justin Edwards, who won a state championship at Vancleave two years ago and was named new Gulfport head coach before stepping away from the game for personal reasons and taking last year off.

He was replaced last summer by Gentry.

Also, Tommy Walker just retired as head coach at Spanish Fort (Ala.) High. An Ocean Springs native, Walker left as head coach at Ocean Springs High three years ago to take that post at SPHS. He lives just across the state line from Pascagoula.

In addition, a former prep head coach currently residing in Pascagoula with deep ties to PHS is Graham Odom. Odom led Tri County Academy to the private school state championship round in 2018, and guided that program for five years.

Odom, who is now in private business in Pascagoula, is also a former PHS player and played at the University of South Alabama. He was an assistant coach at East Mississippi Community College before heading to Tri-County.

Pascagoula, for many years, was considered a perennial state power on the diamond. However, since playing for the Class 5A state championship in 2021, the Panthers have not won a state playoff game and have missed the state playoffs three times in the past five seasons.

The decision made, perhaps as soon as this week, by the current PHS administration may have rippling effects for years to come on whether or not the Panthers return to baseball relevancy state-wide.

(This is an analysis by SouthMiss6 Sports Director Curtis Rockwell)