In the eight-plus months since St. Aloysius joined the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools, athletic director Mike Jones said a number of differences have become apparent between the MAIS and the Mississippi High School Activities Association.

The school is hoping to take advantage of one of them to improve its basketball program.

Jones said St. Al is hoping to begin an elementary school program to create a better feeder system for the middle school and high school teams, and will look for someone capable of doing it as the search for its next varsity head coach begins.

“The direction is somebody that can come in and take our program and start it in elementary and go up,” Jones said. “That’s what we’re seeing in the MAIS, and to follow suit that’s what we’re going to do. We’ve talked to people to see if there’s interest out there, but we’re working on getting that.”

St. Al is looking for a new coach for its varsity girls and boys teams after Delvin Thompson resigned late in the 2015-16 season.

Thompson said in an email interview that he stepped away because of the demands of his full-time job as a mental health therapist. The former Alcorn State star had been St. Al’s coach since 2010.

He led St. Al to the MHSAA Class 1A state tournament in the 2014-15 season. The boys’ team struggled during a rebuilding year in 2015-16, and both it and the girls’ team lost in the first round of the MAIS District 3-AAA tournament this season.

Thompson indicated that he planned to coach again.

“Well, toward the end of the season the boys and girls both were progressing well and I felt they had a chance to make the playoffs and be successful,” Thompson said in an email. “My job is very demanding so after much thought and after talking with my family about it, I decided to resign. I am getting things organized so that I can excel in my coaching career.”

Thompson was coaching, but not teaching at St. Al. He was on a part-time para-professional contract. That contributed to the breakup between coach and school, Jones said.

Between the demands placed on Thompson by his full- and part-time jobs, and some budget constraints faced by the school, it eventually reached a point where both sides decided to go in a different direction.

“Delvin was not working on campus, and there was a lot of things he was not able to do because of that. Not any fault of his at all. He did a great job coaching our young athletes,” Jones said.

Although Thompson resigned abruptly and just before the District 3-AAA tournament, there didn’t appear to be any animosity between he and the school’s administration.

Thompson thanked St. Al for the opportunity to be a head coach, and Jones was complimentary of what Thompson accomplished during his tenure.

“We have had much basketball success at St. Al. We made the playoffs with the boys five out of the last six years and made the playoffs with the girls one of the last two years. I thank St. Al for giving me the opportunity to get my coaching career started and giving me a chance to show them that I could turn the basketball program around,” Thompson said. “I notified St. Al administration that I would not mind helping them with the hiring of the next varsity girls and boys head coach. The student athletes at St. Al are special and I would want someone that is going to step in and keep the program going in the right direction.”

The search to find Thompson’s replacement has not officially begun, Jones said St. Al’s administration and a search committee have put out feelers, but the position has not yet been advertised. Jones wasn’t sure if one coach or two would be hired to oversee both varsity teams.

The biggest requirement, Jones said, was finding a coach who can also fill a classroom teaching position.

“We hope to do that. In our school, you hire a teacher that can coach and hopefully coach well and teach well,” Jones said. “You have to do that to compete salary-wise. You can’t just go out and get a coach. It’s hard to do that. We’ve got to fill in positions, and you have to see what’s available with teaching slots.”

The other major item on the wish list is a coach that can build up the elementary school programs. Many MAIS members have elementary teams, but St. Al never did since the MHSAA system starts with seventh-grade students.

“Most of the MAIS schools have the elementary program on campus. They are afforded the luxury of doing that in the MAIS system, which we can do the same thing,” Jones said. “We’re just looking for somebody that’s enthusiastic in wanting to get our program involved in the elementary up, and go from there.”