Justin Hunter is well aware of how passionate Kosciusko fans are about their high school football. Shortly after being officially presented as the new Kosciusko High School head football coach Monday night, the 33-year-old said he was ready to embrace that atmosphere.
“I grew up (in Sebastopol) where the biggest thing going on was football on Friday nights. Football was the biggest ticket in town,” said Hunter, who has served the last six years as an assistant coach at Pearl High School, where he served as offensive coordinator for former KHS head coach John Perry.
While Hunter himself has never coached at Kosciusko, he has served under two men who have. Perry was head coach at KHS from 2003-2007, where he posted three nine-win seasons and an overall mark of 40-21 before leaving for Pearl, his alma mater.
Hunter has also served as an assistant coach for Tyler Peterson at Noxapater, before Peterson moved to Kosciusko as head coach. Before Peterson arrived, the Whippets had been 0-11. He led them to a 4-8 record the first year, and 7-6 the next before taking the head coaching job at Class 6A Northwest Rankin.
Hunter candidly admits that the experiences those two men had at Kosciusko led to his desire to be the head coach of the Whippets.
“Both of them speak really highly of the place,” he said of Perry and Peterson. “I value the opinion of both of them an awful lot. Talking to John (Perry), I know how much it means to the community and how much they love Friday nights. They want it (success) so badly.”
Hunter himself has two years of head coaching experience, although it came at a very young age. When Peterson left Noxapater for Kosciusko, Hunter was named the head coach of the Tigers at the age of 25.
“At 25, you think you know everything, but you learn a lot very quickly,” he said. Hunter led the Tigers to records of 10-3 and 8-4 for a two-year mark of 18-7 before taking a job with Perry at Pearl.
Although he was still in college, Hunter began his coaching career as a volunteer assistant at Louisville High School for head coach Brad Peterson during the Wildcats state championship years of 2007 and 2008.
“That was a great experience,” he said.
When he graduated from Mississippi State, he joined Tyler Peterson at Noxapater as an assistant before becoming the Tigers’ head man. It was then he moved to Pearl.
Hunter says he sees great potential at Kosciusko and fully understands that expectations are high.
Most fans are curious about what type of offense the Whippets may run this coming year. Hunter said that has not been decided.
“We have to adapt to what kind of players we have. We have had years (at Pearl) where we had wide receivers and other years where we have had bigger kids and we threw an extra tight end in the game. We will build around what we have,” he said. “I’m not going to go in with things set in stone. Whatever works for our kids and what we have is what we will do.”
Hunter said that despite the Whippets’s combined 10-34 record on the football field the last four years, he believes a return to glory can be achieved.
“I think everybody — the players, the coaches, the community, the administration — want to the see the football team succeed,” he said. “We just need everybody to get into the boat and pull in the same direction, working together.”
Hunter said he is excited to meet and visit with the current coaches on staff, as well as the players.
“I’m really excited to introduce myself and learn more about them,” he said.
Hunter’s official start time at Kosciusko High School remains unclear, with those details still being worked out with both Kosy and Pearl. He hopes it is soon and says he most definitely intends to be on campus before spring training begins.
In addition to his head coaching responsibilities, Hunter will serve as the district’s assistant athletic director and will teach at Kosciusko High School, in a role yet to be determined.
According to Kosciusko administrators, there were 40 applicants for the head football coaching position, with six garnering interviews.
Hunter and his wife, Casey, have two children — 5-year-old Marley and 2-year-old Cooper.
