For coaches, changing jobs is simply a part of life.

In a brutally tough profession, the only way up the career ladder is often to move on from their current surroundings. A handful of Warren County coaches had defied that rule — until this year.

Four coaches, who together had more than a century of experience, either moved on or moved out of Warren County’s coaching fraternity this year. The seemingly constant turmoil at some of the city’s most successful programs was the biggest sports story of the year in Vicksburg.

The changes started in May, when Donny Fuller ended a 23-year run as Warren Central’s girls basketball coach to take the same job at Gulfport. He led WC to a division championship and the first round of the North State tournament in his final season.

Two weeks later, longtime Porters Chapel football and baseball coach Randy Wright announced his retirement. Wright led the Eagles to three Mississippi Private School Association Class A baseball championships in seven seasons and won 301 games overall in 15 years at the school. He had also spent five years as PCA’s football coach, leading them to the MAIS semifinals three times.

Things settled down until early December, when longtime Vicksburg girls soccer coach Kevin Manton abruptly retired. Manton won five MHSAA Class 5A championships between 1996 and 2002, and led the Missy Gators to the Class 4A semifinals in February.

Less than 10 days after Manton retired, Warren Central football coach Curtis Brewer did the same. Brewer had spent 40 years at WC in various capacities, including the last six seasons as its head football coach.

The coaching carousel didn’t spin just for coaches in the city. Coaches from Vicksburg moved onward and upward as well — and not always by choice:

• Louisiana Tech women’s basketball coach Chris Long, a Vicksburg native and former Vicksburg High coach, was fired in February after 3 1/2 seasons at the helm.

• Tallulah Academy football and baseball coach Doug Branning left that job to return to Vicksburg as headmaster at Porters Chapel. Branning had spent more than two decades as an assistant coach and principal at Vicksburg and Warren Central. After Wright’s retirement, Branning accepted the job as PCA’s baseball coach for the 2010 season.

Branning was replaced as Tallulah’s football coach by his top assistant, John Weaver — himself a Vicksburg native and Warren Central graduate.

• Clint Wilkerson, who led St. Aloysius to the 2009 MHSAA Class 1A baseball championship, in July interviewed for and was offered the job as head coach at Class 4A New Hope. Wilkerson ultimately decided to stay at St. Al.

Caples arrested for robbery

For four years, Warren Central’s Sha’Kayla Caples dominated opponents on the basketball court. She was the first player to win four consecutive Vicksburg Post player of the year awards and signed to play Louisiana Tech and, later, Florida Gulf Coast Community College.

On May 14, that all went away.

Caples, 18, was one of four Vicksburg teenagers arrested and charged in a string of armed robberies in the city. Gulf Coast pulled Caples’ scholarship less than a week later.

In November, the charges against Caples were continued until the January 2010 term of the Warren County Grand Jury. District Attorney Ricky Smith said at the time that officials were awaiting additional evidence in her case.

St. Al, PCA win baseball crowns

One reason Wilkerson decided to stay at St. Al was the success he’s had — and figures to have in 2010.

In May, the Flashes won their first state title in baseball since 1976 with a roster that included only three seniors. Behind all-state players Stephen Evans — the Vicksburg Post’s co-player of the year, along with Porters Chapel’s Montana McDaniel — Ryno Martin-Nez, Pierson Waring and Sean Weaver, the Flashes bulldozed their way to the trophy. They only lost one game in the playoffs and capped off their run with a two-game sweep of West Union in the finals at Trustmark Park.

St. Al outscored West Union 19-2 in the championship series, didn’t commit an error and only allowed eight hits.

While St. Al was winning its title, Porters Chapel was staking its claim as the team of the decade in the MPSA Class A ranks. After a mediocre start to the season, PCA found its groove midway through and rolled to its third championship in seven seasons.

PCA went 8-0 in the playoffs and won 19 of its last 22 games overall. It finished things off by scoring five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to beat Bayou Academy 5-1 in Game 2 of the championship series.

The next day, St. Al finished off West Union to give Vicksburg two state champions in baseball for the first time. It was only the third time two of the city’s teams had played for a title in the same season.

Vikings go up, Gators go down

Warren Central and Vicksburg took very different paths during football season.

WC got off to a fast start, winning four of its first six games and ultimately making its first playoff appearance since 2005. Vicksburg, meanwhile, struggled with a young roster and a tough schedule and finished 1-10 — its worst record since 1969. The one win, though, nearly salvaged the Gators’ nightmare season. On Nov. 1, they went into Viking Stadium and beat Warren Central for the fourth time in five seasons, 13-7 in double overtime. The victory allowed the Gators to avoid the program’s first winless season since Carr Central went 0-10 in 1952.

Slocum, Henry enjoy pro success

While high school sports, as always, dominated the headlines in Vicksburg, a couple of the city’s former athletes enjoyed success on the professional level this year.

Golfer Heath Slocum, who grew up in Vicksburg before moving to Florida as a teenager, sneaked into the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs as the next to last qualifier. In the first playoff event, The Barclays, he outlasted three former major champions — including Tiger Woods — to win by one stroke.

Slocum earned $1.35 million for his victory. Ranked 124th out of 125 golfers entering The Barclays, he finished eighth in the final FedEx Cup standings.

Slocum’s success was sudden, but Jordan Henry’s was steady.

The former Vicksburg High baseball player helped Ole Miss reach the NCAA super regionals in May, was a seventh round pick of the Cleveland Indians in June’s Major League Baseball draft, and was selected to play in the New York-Penn League All-Star Game in August.

Henry was an All-Southeastern Conference outfielder for Ole Miss during the college season. Then in his first season of pro ball, he hit .286 with 22 stolen bases and 48 runs scored in 67 games for the Mahoning Valley Scrappers.

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Contact Ernest Bowker at ebowker@vicksburgpost.com