For St. Aloysius, finding new soccer and basketball coaches is fast becoming an annual summer pasttime.

Soccer coach Will Vollor has opted to focus on his duties as an assistant football coach, leaving a vacancy atop the boys’ program. Keiko Booth, an assistant to Vollor last year, will take over the girls’ program on a full-time basis next season.

And Gary Miller, who spent the past 1 1/2 seasons as coach of the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams, opted not to come back because of school budget cuts that would have cut his pay and his duties as a physical education teacher. The Clinton resident said that, combined with a 30-minute commute, made it difficult to stay at St. Al.

“I just didn’t feel like it was financially feasible for me,” Miller said. “It’s just a situation where there have to be some cutbacks made. I understand it. There’s no hard feelings.”

St. Al is now searching for its sixth basketball coach since 2006 school year. Booth and the new boys’ soccer coach will be the fourth and fifth new coaches in that program since 2007.

“It’s really not something you want to have to deal with during the summer, and it certainly doesn’t contribute to trying to build a program,” St. Al athletic director Jim Taylor said of the constant turnover. “I think it’s had a detrimental effect on the basketball program the last three years.”

Taylor said part of the reason for the turnover is that, as a small private school, St. Al has a difficult time offering salaries that are competitive with what larger schools can pay. The lower wages generally attract either young coaches trying to break in or older coaches who also draw state retirement benefits.

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Contact Ernest Bowker at ebowker@vicksburgpost.com