The coaching drama continues at St. Aloysius.

After spending all summer and part of the fall looking for basketball and soccer coaches, then having to go through another frantic search for a girls’ soccer coach just a few weeks before the season, the school is undergoing yet another search after two coaches resigned earlier this week.

Boys soccer coach Brian Gray and girls’ basketball coach Carla Koestler both stepped down, citing personal reasons. Gray resigned after Tuesday’s season-opener against Brookhaven. St. Al athletic director Jim Taylor said Gray told him he was leaving “for personal reasons,” but Gray did not elaborate.

Gray did not return a call for comment.

Girls coach Will Vollor — who himself was a last-minute replacement when Kristin Gough resigned in September — will take over the boys’ program. Vollor started the school year as a first-year teacher and assistant soccer coach. Now, he’s in charge of the entire program.

“It’s quite a turn of events,” Vollor said with a laugh. “It’s not too bad. I enjoy the kids.”

Vollor said he, too, was not given any indication that Gray was thinking of stepping down.

“We had a game, we were doing well, laughing it up on the sideline. Then the next day, boom. Nothing. He alluded to it was going to get in the way of his business,” Vollor said.

Koestler’s resignation, meanwhile, was a lot less sudden.

Her daughter, Katie, suffered a brain hemorrhage this summer and has been undergoing regular treatment at a Jackson hospital.

One of Katie’s biggest passions is basketball, and Carla took the coaching job to help the school and her daughter’s friends. Eventually, though, caring for Katie and trying to run a basketball team became too difficult to juggle.

Choking back tears, Carla Koestler said another reason for coaching was to hang on to something that meant so much to her daughter.

“She’s had so many things taken away from her that that was one thing I didn’t want to go, too,” she said. “She’s ready to move on. But at first she wanted me to do it for them.”

Several different people, including former Delta State coach and Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer Lloyd Clark, have led practice in Koestler’s absence. Other part-time coaches have included former Porters Chapel star Brady Willis and her brother, former PCA coach Mitchell Willis. Koestler said both were just fill-ins, and neither was a candidate for the full-time job.

Koestler said she plans to stay on as coach until a replacement can be found. Taylor interviewed one candidate on Wednesday, and Koestler was hopeful a new coach could be found within a couple weeks.

Koestler also was thankful for the patience St. Al’s administration showed in dealing with a difficult situation.

“The administration bent over backward to help me, and I want to thank them,” she said. “They’ve been supportive and helped us, and I can’t thank them enough.”