Gunner Nichols has been named as volleyball coach for Winona High School. His appointment was approved by the Winona-Montgomery County School Board at its March meeting.
Winona will begin volleyball as a fall sport for girls in the fall to replace slow-pitch softball, which has been discontinued by the Mississippi High School Activities Association due to a shrinking number of participating schools.
“It's a great chance to introduce a new sport,” said Nichols. He is also assistant coach for fast-pitch softball in the spring and had been assistant for slow-pitch.
“I already know a lot of the girls as softball coach and I have a pretty good rapport with them. I felt I could get a lot of them to play for me.”
Nichols had planned to hold tryouts this spring, but that is on hold due to the closing of Mississippi schools. “The whole Corona thing put a damper on it.”
Winona athletic director Charlie Parkerson recommended Nichols to the school board. “Gunner Nichols is a young, energetic coach who is currently on our staff. He has a basic knowledge of volleyball and he gets along exceedingly well with the kids. From Day 1 when volleyball was mentioned he was in the office saying this is the job I want.”
Nichols has never coached volleyball, but often played the sport on an informal basis while a student at Mississippi State.
In its first year, Winona will compete as an independent, but will be eligible to join a region the second year. Nichols said the first year will be something of a “feeling out process.”
Enthusiasm for the sport among students has been high. Nichols had hoped to have some of the players attend a volleyball camp at Mississippi State this year, but that is uncertain due to the pandemic.
Nichols has scheduled 11 matches and hopes to add two or three more. The Lady Tigers will play two matches each with Grenada, Ethel, Riverside, Louisville and Kosciusko and one match with Canton. He attempted to schedule schools that are within an easy driving distance.
Grenada, Ethel and Riverside, like Winona, will be initiating programs in the fall to replace slow-pitch. Louisville, Canton and Kosciusko have established teams.
Nichols, a 2012 MSU graduate, is in his first year at Winona where he teaches, government, psychology, sociology and advanced world geography. He spent the previous two years at McAdams where he coached baseball and softball. Prior to that, he taught at schools in Kosciusko and Moorhead.
