By Robert Wilson
Centreville Academy’s Bill Hurst – the winningest high school football coach in Mississippi history – won a state championship in his second year as a head coach in 1976 and won his last one (his 10th) five decades later last season.
The 76-year-old Hurst announced this week he is stepping down as head coach after 49 seasons, and will stay on as a defensive coordinator for a few years. Defensive coordinator Brian Stutzman, who played for Hurst, has been promoted to head coach for next season.
Stutzman played for Hurst from 1987-90 and won a state title in ’89 and coached with Hurst from ’97-2014 and came back coaching with Hurst after six seasons at head coach at Parklane.
After his 12-1 finish and the MAIS Class 2A, Division I state title in his last season, Hurst has a 446-157 career record, a 74.0 winning percentage, and 10 MAIS state championships. He took two years off from coaching (1994 and ’95) to watch his son Brian play football at Southwest Mississippi Community College.
According to MaxPreps, Hurst has the 12th most wins among active coaches in the country and the 23rd in all-time wins in the country going into this past season.
Although Hurst is stepping down as head coach, he is quick to point out he is not retiring.
“People say I’m retiring, but I’m not,” Hurst said. “I’m just stepping away from my head coaching duties and let Brian take over. I’m still going to be coaching defense. My grandson (Centreville senior wide receiver John Austin Sterling) signed with East Mississippi Community College today and I want to go watch him play and not being the head coach frees me up to go watch him play on Thursdays and Saturdays. Brian will do a great job. I’m getting on up there in age anyway.”
Hurst has had some health problems but is doing fine now. He missed the first five games two years ago after having back surgery and then last year he valve replacement surgery in July prior to the season, but did great during the season. Hurst had a heart surgery to replace a valve in 2012 and had prostate cancer three years ago.
He drives his pickup truck from the community of Felixville, La., close to Clinton, three miles south of the Mississippi-Louisiana line on a 20-minute ride up north across the state line to school to practice and games. Hurst has stepped away from his long-time role as head of school and athletic director at Centreville several years ago and has been focusing on being the football coach.
Hurst and Pat (his wife of 53 years who has never missed a game Hurst has coached), have one son, Brian (who is helping Hurst coach), and two daughters, Kimberly and Kelli and five grandchildren, Lexlea, John Austin, Kynslea, Karson and Luke. Lexlea played on state championship softball and basketball teams at Centreville and is a student at Copiah-Lincoln Community College. John Austin’s father, Adam Sterling, was a 6-5, 300-pound star at Amite School Center. Kynslea (sophomore), Karson (freshman) and Luke (fifth grade) are students at Centreville.
Hurst’s dad (Lea Fulton Hurst, who passed away at age 94 in 2012) was a pulpwood man and cattle farmer. Even when times were tough, Hurst’s dad made sure he fed his family (wife, Hazel, and children, Bill, brothers Cliff and Roger and his sisters Dorothy and Bonnie). Bill Hurst was taught by his dad that you worked hard and worked long to be successful. Hurst graduated from Clinton (La.) High School and played guard on their football team. But he said he wasn’t good enough to play college football. He went to Southwest Mississippi Community College, LSU, Louisiana-Lafayette and graduated from Southeastern Louisiana. After graduating college, he met his Pat on a blind date and they were married in 1971. Hurst got a chance to get a job at Centreville because the school board president, Dr. Bill Craft, knew Hurst’s dad and they hired him as a teacher and assistant coach. Hurst took over as head coach for Mike Mullens two years later.
Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame member and former National Coach of the Year Ricky Black is the only other coach with 400 wins (401) in Mississippi history. Black, who retired four years ago from Jackson Prep, was a head coach for the first time in 1975, like Hurst. They have been friends for a long time. Black called Hurst this summer and they had a good visit.
“We would see each other every spring at track meets,” said Black, who split in two games with Hurst during their coaching careers. Centreville won 20-14 in 1998 and Prep won 24-7 in 1999. “He deserves all the recognition and success he has received. Bill has always been a friend and I admire the job he has done.”
Black, Jim Drewry (346 wins), Joe Bradshaw (336), Mac Barnes (334), Bobby Hall (310) have all retired, but Petal coach Marcus Boyles with a 316-87 record (a 78.4 winning percentage) was second to Hurst in wins among active coaches and now takes over as the winningest active head in Mississippi.
“I’ve been blessed by the Good Lord to coach for many years,” Hurst said. “I have a great wife, great kids and been fortunate to stay healthy. God has been good to me.”
The 53-year-old Stutzman is a Southern Miss graduate. His first coaching job was at Huntington School in Louisiana for one season then he was assistant at Parklane as an assistant then back to Centreville to help Hurst before going to be head coach at Parklane from 2015 to 2022 and then back to Centreville.
“Coach Hurst loves his players and expects the best out of them,” Stutzman said. “He instilled in us that you put God first and family second in your life. Coach Hurst is a great coach and motivator. He was my second dad after mine passed away. I’ve worked with Coach Hurst for 23 years. It’s a honor to be head coach here and follow a legend. It’s some tough shoes to follow and looking forward to the challenge. The main thing Coach Hurst focused was hard work and conditioning. We won a lot of games in the fourth quarter from being in shape. It was no more evident than in last year’s state championship game when we pulled away in the fourth quarter in the championship game. I’m going to follow Coach Hurst’s same format. One of Coach Hurst’s saying is all you need is 11. We had 13 seniors out of 27 kids last year. We should have about 22 or 23 next year.”
