When spring practice begins this week, Poplarville will have a new football coach in place.

Chris Teal accepted the job on Friday, and was introduced to the Hornet team on Monday.

Teal was an assistant coach at Pearl River Central last season, his first year in Mississippi after several years in the Georgia prep ranks.

“He is a young, energetic coach and he comes with a lot of good credentials,” Poplarville athletics director John Miller, who led the search committee, said. “We felt lucky that he was already around here and wanted the job. Everyone we talked to had nothing but good things to say about him as both a coach and a teacher.”

Teal was the running backs coach under  head coach Jeremy Weir for the Blue Devils last season.

He is a former standout quarterback at the University of West Georgia.

Teal replaces Lance Mancuso, who resigned last month. Mancuso guided the Hornets to the state playoffs in two of his three years at the helm, including winning Poplarville’s first ever Class 4A state playoff game two years ago.

The Hornets missed the postseason last year.

Teal’s hiring still has to be approved by the Poplarville School Board over the next few weeks, but Miller said he will be allowed to go ahead and begin spring drills as the Hornets prepare for next season.

 “We think the commitee really did their homework and were able to come up with the best possible choice to lead our football program,” MIller added.

Miller said that when the Hornet team met Teal for the first time on Monday,”they gave him a standing ovation.”

Miller also said that Teal had met with the Hornets assistant coaches over the weekend in preparation for the opening of spring practice this week.

Miller said that 24 coaches applied for the position in the two weeks that the search commitee had the opening posted. He also said that coaches from across the south applied for the job.

Poplarville is slated to open its season on the road against West Jones in late August, ironically the same place that the Hornets’ baseball team saw its season come to an end on Monday.