Natchez basketball coach Martin’s future uncertain

Published 12:05 am Tuesday, April 28, 2015

NATCHEZ — The future of Natchez High School’s only boys basketball coach may be in peril.

An ad, which surfaced on the official Mississippi High School Athletics Association website Monday morning, stated Natchez was actively seeking a head basketball coach for the 2015-16 season.

However, the ad was later removed from the website.

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A source close to the situation later confirmed head coach Mike Martin’s contract will not be renewed in 2015.

The Natchez-Adams School District said because the issue at hand was a personnel matter, details couldn’t be discussed.

“He is still an employee. Dr. (Frederick) Hill said he will leave it as that,” said district public relations coordinator Steven Richardson. “Any action taken followed all laws and procedures.”

Richardson said that in a meeting with Hill, the superintendent didn’t want to go into any further detail regarding personnel matters.

Richardson said the official Natchez-Adams website has no vacancies listed for the coaching job at Natchez High.

“There are no official spots available based on our official human resources list,” Richardson said. “HR updates it every day or every other day and this is the most recent list.”

Martin began coaching at South Natchez in 1980, then when North and South Natchez merged in 1989, Martin became the head coach of Natchez High School. Under Martin, the Bulldogs won a state championship in 1994.

Calls to Martin went unanswered, while other members of the district declined to speak with the media about the matter.