When Warren Central girls basketball coach Jackie Martin-Glass evaluated her options after being offered the Callaway High School job, one thing stood out to her.

She still had unfinished business in her hometown.

The first-year coach this week spurned an offer from Callaway and decided to stay at Warren Central.

“At Warren Central, I’ve got history and tradition,” Martin-Glass said. “I know that my work wasn’t done here. I would have been chasing something while leaving something unfulfilled here. I love Warren Central.”

In one year, the first-year coach led the Lady Vikes back to the Class 6A playoffs despite losing the top two scorers, Sha’Kayla Caples and Karnina Bunch, from last year’s squad. Her late hiring meant she didn’t have a summer to play in any tournaments, work with her team, learn their strengths and weaknesses or install her offensive and defensive sets.

She was the school’s choice to succeed long-time coach Donny Fuller, who spent 22 years coaching there and she felt the sting of criticism that the school was unable to secure an experienced head coach. But she felt that the job offer by one of the state’s better programs was definite proof that she had silenced the doubters.

She was offered the job at Callaway on April 26 after a successful interview, but she felt that she couldn’t leave the program that gave her the helm as a head coach for the first time. And she feels bolstered confidence-wise by the interest shown by Callaway.

“I know that I wasn’t the first choice. I know the circumstances,” Martin-Glass said. “But I feel like we’ve shown that we can win here and we’ve won some respect. It’s good to be valued like that.”

Now she intends to complete the job and get the Lady Vikes back to their perch as one of the state’s premier girls’ basketball powers.

The Lady Vikes will have replace their two leading scorers, Ricille Davis and DeShaundra Eatmon, again. But now that Martin-Glass will have a summer to work with her charges, she said that she feels she will put another winning team on the floor again.

“We’ve really got to teach the basics,” Martin-Glass said. “We’re going to try to have a team camp and bring in the guards one day and forwards the next and drill in fundamentals. We’re going to to play some summer games and evaluate what we need to work on.”

Contact Steve Wilson at swilson@vicksburgpost.com