Coast football is back. Here are the five biggest stories of the 2025 season
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Freshman and sophomore quarterbacks across the Coast aim to fill open roles
- SEC-bound recruits headline a deep talent pool across multiple Coast programs
- Ocean Springs and Picayune target five-straight regional titles this fall
It’s officially game week.
The lights will come on Friday across the Mississippi Coast for Week 1 of the high school football season.
Two dozen schools dot one of the state’s richest regions for football talent, allowing for athletes to emerge and storylines to unfold.
We take a glance ahead at some of the biggest stories the new season has to offer, from streaks on the line to future stars on the way.
Is a quarterback renaissance coming?
South Mississippi has always produced exciting quarterbacks. Three of the state’s six quarterbacks with over 10,000 career passing yards hail from the Coast. Most recently, Deuce Knight became Mississippi’s first five-star quarterback since Jason Campbell and Silas Corder rewrote every record in Pascagoula’s book.
The new season may not come with the same level of established standouts at the position, but that only means there’s space to be filled. The Coast has a number of players who are getting varsity action early and could develop into prolific playmakers.
Gautier, for instance, has turned to freshman Keon McNeil to run the show. At 6-foot-1 and with an advanced pocket presence, McNeil is a chore to bring down. He’s got the arm to push the ball downfield, too.
Pascagoula’s Jason Glaude terrorized Hancock in his first career varsity start as a freshman last year with over 300 passing yards and four total touchdowns.
Hype is building around St. Martin’s freshman Dawsen Sullivan, who got his first piece of varsity action in the Yellow Jackets’ jamboree.
Sophomore Chalmers Berglind is expected to get a bit deeper in the water at Ocean Springs this season after appearing in spots last year, when he totaled three rushing scores and one passing TD in four games.
Moss Point is hoping the hyper athletic Keelan Harper will be a shot in the arm and Resurrection is heading into year two with starter Cortez King. The latter led the offense as an eighth grader in 2024, adding verticality to the Eagles’ suddenly spread out offense.
Only time will tell how well each of the Coast’s young quarterbacks develop and adapt, but the future of the position is filled with potential.
The Saturday stars of tomorrow are here
The new season will feature one of the deepest lineups of prospects in recent memory. The Coast has always been a factory for next-level talent. That certainly won’t be any different this year with the number of D-I committed athletes who will take the field across the region.
Blue-chip prospects Nolan Wilson and Tylan Wilson of Picayune and Pascagoula, respectively, are the cream of the crop out of the Coast’s 2026 class. The Maroon Tide edge rusher is an Alabama commit while the Panthers’ safety is committed to Texas A&M.
They aren’t the only athletes committed to the SEC. Picayune offensive lineman Mitchell Smith has a pledge to Vanderbilt, while fellow linemen Dalton Toothman of Vancleave and Jayden Ross of Ocean Springs are locked in with Mississippi State, as is D’Iberville linebacker Caleb Triplett.
Gulfport’s bell-cow running back Cooper Crosby is following former Picayune tailback Darrell Smith to Louisiana and St. Martin has a three-star defensive lineman in Jayden Curtis heading to UCF.
Two of West Harrison’s defensive standouts, Jazear Carter and Tre Williams, are Navy commits.
Throw in 2027 four star prospect Ty Keys from Poplarville and you’ll have a difficult time missing a Saturday player on any given Friday night.
Does the Ocean Springs regional dynasty continue?
Winning is hard. Winning back-to-back titles is harder. Winning four in a row has been done just five times by North American professional teams.
Don’t tell that to Ocean Springs, which has had a stranglehold on R4-7A with four consecutive championships. That’s one more than the program had across the first 40 years of Mississippi’s classification era.
The Greyhounds have won 24 consecutive region games dating back to 2021. Blake Pennock’s three seasons at the helm produced a 32-5 record and left a juggernaut in place that he’s been unable to move as Gulfport’s now third-year coach.
Even when Ocean Springs limped into district play a year ago with a 1-4 record, it dismantled every team it faced in its region by double digits. That included a 20-3 win over the Admirals.
Jake Bramlett has much of that team back on the field this year, including his elusive star quarterback Sharroid “Chop” Whitehead.
The region schedule grows to six contests this fall with the addition of West Harrison. Ocean Springs is taking a similar approach as last year and preparing itself through a grueling opening schedule that includes road trips to Pascagoula and Picayune.
Gulfport hopes its new starting quarterback can help close the gap. D’Iberville is trending up under Josh Ladner and his dynamic two-way standout Jordan Walley. At Biloxi, Jamey DuBose believes his team is more physical and more mentally prepared going into his second year.
Not to be overlooked, West Harrison has nine starters returning on defense and an offense designed to limit possessions. Quincy Patrick has what is arguably the most talented team in the school’s history and will be a nuisance to anyone overlooking the new kids on Ocean Springs’ block.
Is it now or never for Pascagoula?
Matching the Greyhounds title-for-title is Picayune. Cody Stogner’s team has spent four straight years on the R4-6A throne. The program has won the region five times in the last six years and won back-to-back state championships during that run.
Picayune turned back Kaden Irving’s electric Gautier team in 2022, breezed past the highest-scoring Hancock offense in school history in 2023 and successfully defended itself a year ago from Deuce Knight’s high-flying George County Rebels and Pascagoula’s best offense since 1935 during what has grown into a 24-game win streak within the region.
But the Panthers are lurking. Lewis Sims’ team has improved its overall and district record three years in a row. It had a halftime lead on Picayune in their last matchup before the Tide outscored ‘Goula 24-7 down the stretch.
Though Picayune graduated its do-everything star Darrell Smith and his primary spell Triston Cooper, the Maroon Tide have earned the benefit of the doubt.
It’s Pascagoula that must earn its place. With eight starters returning on both offense and defense, it’s not far-fetched for the Panthers to be in position to end the Reign of Stogner.
Sophomore quarterback Glaude is surrounded by running back Amarie Jackson (1,136 rush yards), receiver Darius Carter (609 receiving yards) and receiver DJ Nunnery (543 receiving yards). It will help to also have four starters back on the offensive line.
There is no other team in the state that comes equipped with the tools Pascagoula has in its secondary, either. Tylan Wilson is a four star recruit at safety while the other safety, Tomareo Johnson, is a Mississippi State commit.
Kaden Street was a top corner on the Coast last fall and the backer duo of Jarrad Loper and Jonathan Shelby bring over 300 career tackles.
If there were ever a year for the Panthers to pounce, this would be an awfully good opportunity. They’ll have a chance to strike early. Pascagoula and Picayune meet in their district openers on Oct. 10.
Could this be the year Pass Christian finally breaks through?
The classification era in Mississippi began in 1981. Pass Christian has spent the 44 years since wandering in the wilderness in search of a district championship.
The Pirates are in the midst of their best stretch in that span. They’ve earned a program-best four consecutive playoff trips, but missed on the elusive region title by one game in both 2019 and 2023.
Jeff Stockstill heads into year three with a unit poised to take a big step forward. Former corner Paris Trivillion received on-the-fly quarterback training last year when the Pirates had to pivot from their injured expected starter.
The result? Trivillion is the Coast’s leading returning passer after accumulating over 2,000 yards and 19 touchdowns. Now he has a year of experience at the position and benefits from the return of one of his top targets in Amarie Jackson.
Pass Christian is deep at linebacker and the group features a rising sophomore turning heads. Mario Burks recorded 52 tackles and eight tackles for loss as a freshman. Returning starters Keegan Nix and Jayden Allen give the Pirates a front seven that will be hard to beat in R8-4A.
Poplarville has moved out of the region. Greene County is replacing its head coach and the quarterback behind the Wildcats’ points-piling offense.
The intrigue lies with Forrest County AHS, whose former coach Larry Dolan is now at Greene County, and at Bay High under new leadership from former Biloxi coach Katlan French.
This region will quietly be every bit as competitive as the upper classes.
