It’s back to the drawing board for Meridian High.

    One year after looking for Chuck Butler’s replacement, MHS is once again looking for a head baseball coach. Charlie Smith, a longtime head coach in the state including 14 years at Louisville, resigned the position in late May after just one year with the Wildcats.

    “His family is still up in Louisville and I think the traveling back and forth took its toll,” said Butler, Meridian’s athletic director. “He is just going to take some time off.”

    Smith was unable to be reached for comment.

    In his one season at Meridian, Smith led the Wildcats to just a 4-22 record, including an 0-9 mark in the rugged Division 5-6A, which included two-time reigning state champion Petal and eventual state champ Oak Grove.

    Meridian also fielded a young team. The Wildcats had seven seniors on the roster but only four saw significant playing time — Tommie Brown, Jibril Cox, Jalen Heath and Cohlby Sims. A handful of freshmen — Jamal Horn and JMar Smith — and sophomores — Aaron Garrett, Jacoby Cole and Corey Davis — were among the Wildcats’ leaders.

    “Charlie did a great job this year,” Butler said. “He didn’t have the wins he would have liked, but they were young.

    “And I watched them several times and they worked hard and did things the right way.”

    Meridian went just 8-16 in Butler’s last season as the Wildcats just returned three starters in 2011. Prior to that, MHS went 19-10 with a playoff berth in 2009 and 16-9 in 2010.

    Now though, the Wildcats are looking for their third coach in as many seasons. Still, Butler hopes the position — which was just posted this past week — can be filled quickly.

    “We’ve opened it up to outside the district and hopefully we’ll get some good coaches interested in coming into a really good program and a really good school system,” Butler said. “We have to run the ad at least seven days, and optimistically, I’d like to find someone in that time. But more realistically, hopefully we can get it done this month.”