With high school football getting fully started on Friday as MHSAA programs around the state begin their regular season, here’s a look at the three most recent head coaching hires in the area. Two of them, Johnny Ball at West Lincoln and BJ Smithhart at Bogue Chitto, will coach their first regular season games on Friday. Ryan Ross and Brookhaven Academy have played two games thus far and are looking for their first win on Friday at Centreville Academy.

 

West Lincoln should embrace what Ball’s selling

You can almost see new West Lincoln head football coach Johnny Ball as a tent revival preacher. From day one of getting the job, Ball has been preaching a message of positivity, of growth, and of fun as he seeks to put his stamp on West Lincoln football.

Ball is fully aware of the challenges that he faces as the program went through two-straight winless seasons from 2021-2022.

An optimist that crackles with energy, Ball isn’t looking through the tiny rear-view mirror, but through the larger front windshield of the West Lincoln football bus that he’s now driving.

You can tell that Ball has made a connection with the kids because he can see himself in them. He was an undersized defensive lineman at Parklane Academy who made plays with his effort and grit.

A big influence on Ball is former Mississippi College head coach Norm Joseph, who was the leader in Clinton when Ball was playing for the Choctaws. Joseph is known for being a wise sage of positivity during his long coaching career.

Why come to work if you don’t love every moment of being there? That’s the vibe that Ball gives off and that’s the attitude he wants his players to have too.

He talks about how important time with his family is for himself and the coaches on his staff. He wants practice to be tightly run in a 90-minute block. He wants his team to move around with energy and effort, but with purpose too.

Like many former assistant coaches, Ball has been preparing to lead his own program by keeping a running log of the things he’s seen and loved and the things he’s seen and disliked from others during his career.

He’ll tell you that he’s got a head full of ideas and that right now, he can talk about them in theory because they’ve not been tested yet.

What he’s ready to do is put them and his players to the test to see what works and what doesn’t and then recalibrate from there.

He has a lively personality and is a guy who is relishing his chance to lead.

Get on the Ball Bus, West Lincoln fans, it should be a fun ride.

 

Brookhaven Academy found a great fit when it hired Ross

Last year was a tough debut season in the MAIS 5A ranks for Brookhaven Academy football as the school won just twice, after previously having back-to-back 8-win seasons when it was led by former head coach Anthony Hart.

Hart had been a good fit at the time he was hired as he replaced former coach Ron Rushing, who’d done some heavy lifting in getting BA football back on solid footing before departing for a job at Parklane Academy.

A longtime head coach in the MHSAA ranks, Hart left BA to go back to Lafayette High outside Oxford, a place where he previously won two state titles while leading the Commodores. He was replaced for one season by Reggie Lea, who’d previously worked as the head coach for the Cougars during a period 20 years ago.

The formula of finding a former MHSAA head man that has retired from the public school system is one that worked out again for the Cougars when they hired Ryan Ross in the spring to replace Lea.

Ross has a resume that’s uniquely fit to be the head football coach for the Cougars. He played at both Brookhaven Academy and Brookhaven High when he was growing up.

He cut his teeth as an assistant coach at Brookhaven High, working on the staff for the Panthers on three separate occasions. He was an assistant coach at Southwest Mississippi CC and hungry for his first head coaching job, he took over at Loyd Star for a stint, as the 2009 team went 10-2 in his final season.

Ross spent nine years as the head coach at Ocean Springs, one of the top public high schools in the state. He went 61-44 at OS while seeing his own kids grow up there.

After retiring from the public-school ranks following a two-year stint at Long Beach, Ross was looking for what would come next in his career.

It turned out that coming home to Brookhaven would be his next move and it’s a perfect fit for Ross in both his personal life and for BA football as a program.

When you hear Ross talk about the future of Brookhaven Academy football, he talks about the type of team he’d like to build over the next few years.

A veteran coach that’s focused on the present with an eye on the future has Brookhaven Academy in a good spot moving forward as Ross has settled in quickly at his new, old home.

 

Smithhart knows what it’ll take to compete at BC

New Bogue Chitto head football coach BJ Smithhart is a guy that’s qualified to understand what it takes to be competitive in Mississippi small school football.

Smithhart has been a head coach for 16 seasons already in his career, beginning with a nine-year stint at St. Aloysius in his home city of Vicksburg.

In the final year for the Flashes to play in the MHSAA ranks, Smithhart took St. Al to the 1A state championship game.

In his first year at West Lincoln, his debut squad finished 5-6 and hosted the first playoff game in program history. His most recent stop was five seasons at Franklin County.

A laid-back, affable type of personality, Smithhart knows that no one is going to come in at Bogue Chitto and be another Gareth Sartin.

Sartin spent 22 years as the head coach of the Bobcats. He eventually coached the sons of the players that he led early in his career. He led his team with a sometimes fiery and often passionate style of coaching.

There was a time period when the Bobcats were in state title discussions every year, going a combined 31-7 from 2011-2013.

Brandon Wells, Brock Roberts, Germie Martin, James Blackwell … Bogue Chitto fans can probably close their eyes and see those guys on Troy Smith Field like it was yesterday, even though more than a decade has passed.

That’s the past though, and maybe one day the Bobcats will be back on that level, but 2024 will be more of a rebuilding year for Smithhart in his inaugural season.

When I think of Smithhart’s time at West Lincoln, I can see him on the sideline with a play call sheet in his hands as the Bears played in front of large crowds on Perry Miller Field.

The 2017 West Lincoln team lost 34-26 to Amite County in its first region game. They then beat Enterprise, Bogue Chitto and Loyd Star to finish second in Region 7-2A.

The community at West Lincoln was fully behind the team and the coach as they made history by hosting Bay Springs in the MHSAA 2A playoffs. 

The same type of support could very likely produce similar results for Smithhart as he settles into what will hopefully be a long run as a Bogue Chitto Bobcat.

 

Sports Editor Cliff Furr can be reached at sports@dailyleader.com.