Southern Miss hired a new women’s basketball coach on Sunday that has tons of experience in winning basketball games in Hattiesburg.

The school announced that Missy Bilderback, an alum and most recently the head coach at Louisiana-Monroe, has been tabbed to replace longtime leader Joye Lee-McNelis.

Bilderback’s first coaching job was at Presbyterian Christian School in Hattiesburg, a place she coached for 16 seasons, leading the Bobcats to six state championships and where she finished with a combined record of 482-117. Twice Bilderback coached her team to a first-place finish in the MAIS Overall Tournament (2008, 2014).

From there, she was hired to coach at Jones College in Ellisville, where she led the Bobcats to a combined record of 198-33 over eight seasons. She took Jones to the NJCAA National tournament in seven-straight years to end her time in Ellisville with the 2022 team making the national semifinals.

Bilderback was hired by ULM and quickly filled the roster with transfers who’d played for her at Jones.

Her first team finished 21-14 and reached the quarterfinals of the WNIT with a win over Southern Miss in the round of 16.

Bilderback’s husband Chip won a state championship while coaching at Columbia High. Chip Bilderback just finished his first season coaching at a Monroe area high school. The Columbia High head football coach job also just came open this week with Lance Pogue leaving the school to take the head job at Brandon High.