Mississippi H.S. Can’t Keep A Head Football Coach, 2nd Resigns In 2 Months

June 9, 2011 / Football

For the second time in two months and the third time in less than two years, St. Martin High School is searching for a new football coach.

Kelly Causey resigned over the weekend from his second stint with the Yellow Jackets without coaching a game, and is expected to be introduced this week as football coach at Cleveland High School, his alma mater.

St. Martin athletic director Greg Williams, who picked Causey for the job left open when David Parker resigned in April, said he was stunned.

“It’s tremendously disappointing,” Williams said. “We were going to help Kelly move (into his new house in Ocean Springs) on Sunday, and he called me Saturday (and resigned). He was pretty tore up about it. Kelly wanted to be here, but his parents are up there and he’s got his family to think about. Things happen for a reason, and sometimes we don’t understand why.”

Williams said he met with St. Martin assistant superintendent Michael Van Winkle on Wednesday afternoon, and the two put together a plan to find Causey’s replacement. The job has already been posted on the Jackson County School District website, and Williams said the school hoped to have a new coach in place later this month.

Assistant coaches are running offseason workouts in the interim. Williams said he feels worst for the players, who continue to experience instability in a program that hasn’t finished with a winning record since 2003 and will carry a 15-game losing streak into next season, when it moves up to Class 6A.

“I just hate it for our kids,” said Williams, who doubles as the Yellow Jackets’ baseball coach. “Enough is enough. We’ve got to get somebody in here who’s going to stay. That’s what I’ve said the last two times, and it hasn’t worked out that way.”

Causey was hired April 21 to replace Parker, who left after just one season (0-11). Ironically, Parker took Causey’s old job as defensive coordinator at Grenada High School, leaving Causey without a coaching spot until St. Martin hired him.

Causey went 9-23 in three years in his previous tenure at St. Martin, leaving the Yellow Jackets following the 2001 season to coach on the staff at the University of North Alabama. He coached at Pass Christian and Mobile’s Mary Montgomery High, returning to St. Martin after a decade’s absence following three years in Grenada.

 
 “When I made the decision to go down there, it was where I wanted to go,” Causey said. “But Cleveland is home for me and it’s where I played ball. And that’s all the decision was based on, so that I could be close to my family and close to home. St. Martin was like a second home to me, but the key word is ’second.’ (Cleveland) is home to me.

“It’s absolutely no (reflection) on St. Martin, the kids that are there or the administration, because it is a great place to coach. I wish them the best and I hope they get somebody good. It was a very, very hard decision on me.”

 Under MHSAA rules, high school football teams can begin practice in late July. The 2011 season begins on Aug. 19.


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