Published: July 09, 2008 05:40 pm         

No coach as of yet for the Tide

PICAYUNE — Administrators at Picayune High hoped that a two week search for a head boys basketball coach would end Tuesday night when the school board convened.

It didn’t.

Biloxi ninth grade head coach Jason Kennedy had been offered the job, and he accepted contingent upon whether or not he could get released from his contract with the Biloxi School System.

That board informed him Tuesday morning that it would not release him from that pact, and so he was not recommended by Picayune Superintendent Dean Shaw to his governing body Tuesday night.

“It is disappointing, because we thought he would be a good fit for us,” Shaw, the very successful and longtime head hoops coach of the Maroon Tide, said. “Releasing someone from a contract is usually common place, especially if they are making a move that is considered a promotion. We do it all the time.”

Shaw said that unless any unforeseen circumstances occur before the end of this week, that the search commitee would start anew again on Monday.

“We would at that point be back to ground zero so to speak and begin the interview process again,” he added.

The Maroon Tide are in the process of replacing Daniel Kennedy, who resigned just over two weeks ago and took a similar post at Albany, La., High School.

Daniel Kennedy, a former Maroon Tide standout, took over from his mentor Shaw two seasons ago and went on to compile an overall record of 63-11.

Both of his teams fell to eventual state champions in the overall state tournament in Jackson.

Last season, the Maroon Tide went 33-5 and lost in overtime to New Hope in the state finals, coming up just seconds short of the school’s first ever state title on the hardwood after Picayune led the Trojans with just over a minute to play in regulation. The Tide, though lost the top six players from that squad and returns almost no one with any varsity experience.

Jason Kennedy’s wife, Lacey, was the head girls’ basketball coach at the new St. Patrick’s High School on the coast last year but left her post last month.

It was expected that if Jason Kennedy took over as head coach of the Maroon Tide, that his wife would also land a coaching job somewhere in the Picayune School System.