How much do South Mississippi high school football coaches make? See the list
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Seven Coast high school coaches earned over $90K in 2024, up from none in 2017.
- Gulfport's Blake Pennock led the Coast with a $105K salary in the 2024 school year.
- Alabama outpaced Mississippi in coach pay, with an average of $130K across 17 roles.
Investments in football coaches are beginning to increase in many school districts in Mississippi, including several on the Coast.
Salaries for head coaches in South Mississippi had not cracked $90,000 in 2017. Seven years later, there are seven earning salaries above that line, according to data obtained by the Sun Herald and Open the Books.
It’s important to note high school coach salaries are often the sum of two separate salaries, a base teacher’s pay and a coaching supplement. What the amount doesn’t include are any donations earmarked for the head coach from the school’s booster club.
Here are the salaries for high school football coaches on the Coast. All salaries were obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests by the Sun Herald or Open the Books and represent payroll for the school year ending in 2024.
South Mississippi’s top earners
- Blake Pennock, Gulfport: $105,000
Pennock was hired away from district-rival Ocean Springs in 2023 and it came with an increase in pay from $88,740 to a six-figure sum. The Gulfport School District has balanced its coaching spending well over the last few years and has operated with a significant fund balance, but Pennock does represent an increased investment within the role, as former coach John Archie held a $91,490 salary in 2022.
The former Pass Christian coach runs the program from top to bottom, coordinating middle school and youth development on top of his duties over varsity and junior varsity at the high school. Pennock is 13-9 across two seasons as the Admirals’ head man and 53-18 overall as a head coach.
- Lewis Sims, Pascagoula: $102,618
Sims is the Coast’s longest tenured active head coach. He’s heading into his 15th year as the head of the Panthers’ program and 18th as a South Mississippi coach, having led Moss Point for three years prior to Pascagoula.
Sims, like Pennock and the rest of the list, coordinates the football program in its entirety. Sims has 91 wins and two district titles at Pascagoula. His career 122 Mississippi high school wins lead all active head coaches on the Coast. Only Biloxi’s Jamey DuBose has more, with 146 of his 171 wins coming in Alabama.
- John Feaster, Pearl River Central: $101,000
Feaster is the Coast’s only 6A or 7A head football coach who also serves as the school’s athletic director. The county native returned home in 2024 after spending a season in the same dual role at Moss Point. Feaster has won 43 games in nine seasons, seven of which spent at Stone.
- Marc High, Gautier: $97,393
Gautier’s most successful postseason coach is entering year eight as the Gators’ head man. Gautier is coming off its first district title since 2008 and first ever appearance in a state championship game.
The Gators have had two double-digit winning seasons in the last three years after going 22 consecutive years without cracking 10 wins.
- Jay Beech, Poplarville: $96,000
Beech is the Coast’s highest paid lower classification coach. His 119 wins in 11 seasons at Poplarville are the most in school history and his tenure has produced 35 playoff wins for a program that had just two in 33 years prior to Beech.
Poplarville has laid down new turf and remodeled the entrance to its football and baseball stadiums. The Hornets are coming off their first-ever state championship.
Next five
- Jeff Stockstill, Pass Christian: $92,474
- Nekemia Rich, Harrison Central: $92,241
- Jake Bramlett, Ocean Springs: $89,850
- Neil Lollar, Hancock: $89,831*
- Cody Stogner, Picayune: $89,004
*Lollar is no longer the head coach at Hancock.
How the rest of Mississippi compares
While the Lower Six counties have three coaches making six figure salaries, the rest of the state had at least 11 such coaches during 2024.
Not surprisingly, five of those coaches were in the Jackson area, between the Madison County and Rankin County school districts.
Three of the four highest paid coaches in the state are in the MCSD, led by Toby Collums at Madison Central. Collums serves as the athletic director, as well, and topped all public high school coaches in Mississippi with a $129,000 salary in 2024.
Todd McDaniel earned $119,000 at Ridgeland and Bernard Euell was the highest paid lower classification coach with a $115,000 salary at 2A Velma Jackson.
Of the 11 other statewide coaches who earned six figures, 10 of them were paid more than the Coast’s leading salary earner. That includes one of the state’s active leaders in career wins, Lance Mancuso, who made $106,198 at 3A Jefferson Davis County.
Sam Williams, who made $105,091 at 7A Brandon and led the Bulldogs to three state championship games in four years, left his post over the offseason for the same job at 5A Mobile, Alabama, private school UMS-Wright.
Only one other coach in the six-figure group left their job for another. Former Southern Miss assistant John Carr earned $110,953 in one 4-6 season at Clinton and is now at Starkville.
How does Mississippi compare to Alabama?
Between football-rich regions in Birmingham, Huntsville, Auburn and Tuscaloosa, running a top-classification high school football program in Alabama will pay handsomely, compared to its neighbor to the west.
According to reporting by Al.com, the state had at least eight coaches with a higher salary in 2024 than Mississippi’s highest paid coach.
The top six all came from the Birmingham and Auburn areas and several have a base teacher’s pay that is greater than the combined salaries of nearly every South Mississippi coach.
- Mark Freeman, Thompson: $162,054
- Patrick Nix, Central-Auburn: $155,100
- Josh Floyd, Hewitt-Trussville: $151,207
- Keith Etheredge, Auburn: $148, 588
- Robert Evans, Vestavia Hills: $145,341
- Bryan Moore, Opelika: $141,279
At least 17 Alabama coaches earned six figures in 2024, per Al.com. The average salary of that group was $130,530. The average of the 14 known six figure salaries in Mississippi was $109,167. The average salary of the three Coast coaches earning more than $100,000 is $102,873.
This story was originally published July 17, 2025 at 12:05 PM.
