West Harrison hires proven winner with Div. 1 experience to take over basketball program
West Harrison High School has hired Tupelo coach Jeff Norwood to take over the school’s boys basketball program, a spokesperson for Harrison County School District confirmed to the Sun Herald on Tuesday.
Norwood spent the last nine seasons as the head coach at his alma mater of Tupelo, putting together a record of 178-76. He led the Golden Wave to the Class 6A state semifinals on three occasions.
Tupelo finished 14-7 under Norwood during the 2020-21 season.
Norwood also brings with him plenty of experience as a college coach. He has been an assistant at Southern Miss, Mississippi State, Middle Tennessee, Nicholls State and William Carey.
Norwood served as the interim head coach at USM when James Green resigned in March of 2004 with one game remaining on the regular season slate.
He takes over a West Harrison program that’s faced plenty of tumult in recent months.
Prior to the start of the playoffs in February, the Harrison County School District confirmed to the Sun Herald that Tommy Searight was out as the Hurricanes’ head coach.
“It’s a personnel issue,” Harrison County superintendent Roy Gill told the Sun Herald on Feb. 17. “It’s still under investigation. At this time, that is all I am going to say. I’m not at liberty to discuss any of the details. I’m going to leave it at that.”
Gill would not say if Searight was fired or if he stepped down.
The Hurricanes were 10-9 under Searight before the start of the playoffs.
