Vicksburg High didn’t have to search far to find its new baseball coach.

Former assistant Ryan Grey, who served as an understudy under previous coaches Jamie Creel and Cody Zumbro, has been promoted to head coach. The Vicksburg Warren School District Board of Trustees voted to approve the change in Grey’s status at Thursday’s meeting.

Grey replaces Zumbro, who returned to Clinton High as an assistant coach after one season at Vicksburg.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to come back and coach the team that I played for,” the 28-year-old Grey said. “It’s a great honor to get this opportunity.”

While one Warren County school found its baseball coach, another will begin its search. Porters Chapel Academy’s Jerry Bourne will move to Vicksburg as Grey’s top assistant. Bourne was the head coach for PCA this past season and most of 2010, after headmaster Doug Branning stepped down to focus on his administrative duties.

“I’ve heard a lot of great things about him,” Grey said of Bourne. “He’s very witty and knowledgeable about the game of baseball. Talking to some of his former players, they had a lot of respect for him and loved playing for him. I think it’ll be a couple of great minds working together. It always takes a lot of the load off the head coach when you have a great assistant coach.”

Grey, a Mississippi State graduate, was endorsed by his former coach Creel, who is now an assistant principal at Vicksburg. Creel saw early on, during Grey’s playing days, that his leadership ability would translate well later as a coach.

“He always thought like a coach,” Creel said of his former catcher. “He showed a lot of signs of things that good coaches do, but as a player. He was always asking questions and was our field general. He’s a Gator and he bleeds green and white. I think he’s going to bring a lot of knowledge to the job.”

Grey has been with the Gators for five years, both as a volunteer and as a para-professional assistant before his promotion. He feels his familiarity with the players, parents and program’s aspirations will eliminate the adjustment period that many new coaches go through.

His hiring will also allow him to jump right into summer ball and build some team chemistry as the Gators build on last year’s 13-15 finish. The summer schedule begins at the Madison Central tournament.

“It’s a great advantage, I know each each of the players personally, their families, where they live and I think it’ll be a smooth transition,” Grey said. “The kids understand me and I understand them. We’re ready to hit the ground running. We’re losing four players off this year’s team and this summer, I’ll be able to find who is going to take those roles.”

Grey intends his team to be running on the basepaths often, as rule changes and new bats with smaller sweet spots will lead to fewer home runs, forcing teams to become better at moving runners into scoring position via hit-and-runs, bunts and steals.

“With all of the new bat changes, I guarantee we’ll be lucky to hit two home runs (as a team) next year),” Grey said. “But you have to play the small ball. We’re a speedy team that’s going to steal a lot of bases. We’ve always had a lot of speed and that’s always been an aspect of Vicksburg High School baseball.”