This week has been a busy one on the coaching front in prep football circles across the “Southern Six”
One new head coach has been named as well as a pair of new coordinators for a new head coach that has just been on the job for a few weeks.
On Thursday, Stone High announced that Jacob Aycock has been named as the new head coach of the Tomcats. Aycock comes to Wiggins from Poplarville, where he most recently served as the defensive coordinator for the Hornets under Jay Beech.
During his stint at perennial Class 4A South State power Poplarville, Aycock guided one of the more effective defensive units in the “Southern Six” over the past few seasons. In 2021, he was named the annual Luther Kuykendall Assistant Coach of the Year award which honors the top assistant coach in South Mississippi for that particular season.
The Hornets allowed an average of just over 10 points per game over the past two seasons. In fact, the most points Poplarville allowed under his time at the helm of the Hornets’ defense came in the Class 4A South State semifinals last season when home-standing Stone upset Poplarvile 32-28.
Aycock replaces John Feaster at the helm of the Tomcats, after Feaster left to take the top job at Moss Point High. Feaster guided Stone to its best season in some 30 years last season as the Tomcats went 9-3 and won the Region 8-4A title and made it to the South State championship game for the first time since 1991.
Aycock also spent time in the past on the staff at previously Greene County and Purvis.
Stone will move up from Class 4A into Class 5A next season when the Mississippi High School Activities Association implements a seventh classification for the first time ever. Stone will compete in its new Region 8-5A with East Central, Vancleave, Gautier, Laurel and Wayne County.
Ironically enough, Poplarville replaces Stone in the new Region 8-4A mix and joins Moss Point, Bay High, Pass Christian and Greene County in that league.
Meanwhile in Ocean Springs, recently crowned new Greyhound head coach Jake Bramlett has replaced himself as offensive coordinator and also brought aboard a familiar face in the “Southern Six” as the new OSHS defensive coordinator as well.
Chase Carmody will now lead the Greyhounds’ defensive unit the OSHS athletic department announced Monday. Carmody moves west down the Mississippi Gulf Coast after serving several seasons as the head coach at Pass Christian High.
And replacing Bramlett atop the OSHS offensive troops will be Tracy Lampley, who has served the past few seasons as an assistant on the offensive side of the ball at OSHS. Lampley, known during his playing days as “Pound”, was a four-year letterman as a running back for the University of Southern Mississippi at one point.
