Just a year and change after finding a new football coach, Porters Chapel Academy is looking again.

Bill Fleming resigned on Tueseday as head football coach for health reasons after one season. He will stay at PCA as the athletic director and as a teacher.

“He came into my office and he felt that he was unable to give the energy level required of the job and stand on his feet,” PCA headmaster Doug Branning said of the reason for Fleming’s resignation. “He didn’t feel that he could give the job the attention it needed.”

That health concern is Fleming’s left knee, which has a partial anterior cruciate ligament tear and has a painful cyst that causes it to swell up and limit his mobility, Fleming said.

“I thought the kids deserved more than I could give them,” Fleming said. “I just wanted to do what was best for the kids and when I can’t give my best, it isn’t fair to them.”

Fleming replaced the retired Randy Wright and led the Eagles to a 4-9 record and a first-round playoff loss to Sylva-Bay last season.

The job is already advertised on the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Web site and Branning said that he has already received a few resumés.

“We’re not going to put a timetable on this,” Branning said. “We’re going to go through the applications and go from there.”

The job is an attractive one considering PCA’s winning tradition.

The Eagles are losing just five players off last year’s team and will be returning four of their five offensive linemen, their tailback and their fullback.

Fleming will participate actively with Branning in the search for the new coach and he believes one quality is a must.

“We want someone who is going to be wide-open, get after it and get these kids fired up and in shape,” Fleming said. “I think we’ve got a great core coming back and I feel that hiring the right guy will be like throwing gasoline on a fire.”

Contact Steve Wilson at swilson@vicksburgpost.com