As a graduate of the school, Chris Mixon was thrilled that his first coaching job came at Porters Chapel Academy. That also made it even more difficult to leave it behind.

Mixon, PCA’s head baseball coach, resigned earlier this week to take an assistant coaching and teaching position at Central Hinds Academy.

Mixon will coach football and baseball at Central Hinds. He was also an assistant football coach with PCA.

“They made me an offer and it was a situation that would better our family and our situation,” Mixon said. “It was harder than I could’ve imagined, because I believe in Porters Chapel and the bonds I’d made there. I can’t say enough positive things about the administration and the support I received.”

Mixon said Central Hinds first contacted him about two weeks ago, after two of its assistant coaches left the school. Brandon Denton, CHA’s baseball coach, took a job with a junior college in Texas, and another assistant left for family reasons.

Mixon turned in his resignation and told PCA’s players Wednesday morning, after the first of PCA’s two football practices that day. He then headed to Raymond to work with his new team in the afternoon.

“I tried to make it as positive as I could. It was emotional. It was hard,” Mixon said of his address to the team. “It was a whirlwind, going from practicing with Porters Chapel one morning to practicing with Central Hinds that afternoon.”

Mixon was a standout football and baseball player for PCA in high school. He rushed for 2,333 yards in two seasons, set a single-season school record with 20 rushing touchdowns in 2005 — a record that was broken by Peter Harris in 2012 — and helped the Eagles win district championships in 2004 and 2005.

In baseball, Mixon was an outfielder for PCA’s 2006 MAIS Class A championship team.

He was hired as a coach at PCA in 2013 and led the baseball team to a 17-11 record and the District 4-A title in his only season at the helm.

His departure leaves Wayne Lynch and Adam Day as the only paid full-time coaches on the staff.

Porters Chapel athletic director Wade Patrick said the school hopes to find a replacement for Mixon in the next week or two.

Although the timing of Mixon’s decision was awkward — football practice had already begun and the school year starts Monday — Patrick added that there were no hard feelings.

“I wish him nothing but the best. There’s no hard feelings on my part at all. It’s more of a timing thing. That is what it is. You can’t fault him for trying to better himself or his family,” Patrick said. “We’d have loved to have kept him, but it didn’t work out that way.”