St. Al tabs longtime assistant Jay Harper as next baseball head coach

Published 4:05 pm Thursday, June 8, 2023

: St. Aloysius baseball coach Jay Harper, left, stands alongside his wife Miranda. Harper has been hired as St. Al's next head coach, the school announced Thursday. (Submitted to The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius will have a familiar face in a new position with its baseball program next season.

The school announced Thursday that head coach Sid Naron has left the program, and he will be succeeded by longtime assistant Jay Harper.

Naron is leaving to focus on a job in private business. The Vicksburg Post baseball Coach of the Year in 2018 and 2021 compiled a 94-82 record over eight seasons.

Harper has been on Naron’s staff since 2017. He is also the superintendent of Sports Force Parks and previously worked in the city of Vicksburg’s Parks and Recreation Department. Harper graduated from Warren Central and played baseball at Hinds Community College.

“I am so excited to have Coach Harper at the helm of our baseball program,” St. Al athletic director Bubba Nettles said in a statement. “He has dedicated himself to our student athletes and our storied baseball program over the past six years as an assistant coach and he now has the reins to build this program in his way.”

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post's sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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