Meridian basketball coach Randy Bolden takes position at Hinds Community College

Published 12:19 pm Friday, June 3, 2016

After nine seasons, Meridian High School boys basketball coach Randy Bolden is taking the next step in his coaching career.

Bolden, who led the Wildcats to a state championship in 2011 and compiled a 212-50 record in his time at MHS, has accepted a position as an assistant coach at Hinds Community College. As someone who has had aspirations to coach at the junior college level, Bolden said the move made sense from a career standpoint, but it was tough to leave behind an MHS program he’s enjoyed coaching so much.

“Hopefully I’ll learn as much as I can and see where that takes me,” Bolden said. “When the opportunity presented itself, it was a tough decision to make, because I’ve had a great nine years here at Meridian. The community and administration has been great, and I’ve had a great group of kids over the course of the nine years, so it was really hard.”

The Wildcats are expected to compete for the MHSAA Class 6A crown this coming winter, making it an even more difficult decision, Bolden said.

“This upcoming year, there’s a great group of kids returning,” Bolden explained. “I think we have one of the best point guards in the state in Jay Malone to spearhead that team. That was very difficult. It was difficult to tell the guys I was taking another job, but they understood. You have aspirations to coach at the next level, and this job presented itself, and because of their success, I was afforded the opportunity.”

MHS Athletic Director Chuck Butler said losing an elite coach like Bolden is tough, but he can’t fault the coach for wanting to advance his career.

“The program is in great shape,” Butler said. “He’s had as much success here as any coach I know of. He’s just a good guy who ran a good program. The players played hard for him, were disciplined and did the right things inside and outside the classroom. It’s tough to replace a guy who did as many positive things as Randy did.”

Having spent almost a decade at MHS, Bolden said he will always have fond memories of coaching the Wildcats, calling himself fortunate and blessed to have been a part of the program.

“I’ve always lived under the umbrella of wanting to leave a place better than I got it, and I feel like the Meridian basketball program is in a much better state than when I received it,” Bolden said. “From an academic standpoint, our kids are A-B students, and from an athletic standpoint, we’re one of the top programs in the state, so we hang our hat on that, and it’s just a tribute to all of the great kids I’ve coached over the last nine years.”

Butler said it’s too early to speculate about a possible replacement for Bolden, but the school would like to move quickly in finding a new boys basketball coach.

“As successful as our program has been, we fully expect to have some top guys — guys who have had success elsewhere — apply for it,” Butler said.

“We’re going to definitely try to get the right person, but we want to move on it as quickly as we can. It’s a pretty late date to start, so we’re going to open this up in the next few weeks and hope to have someone in place really soon thereafter.”