Meridian High School announced former Hattiesburg assistant Eddie Easley as its new head coach Monday.

A new face will lead the Meridian High School baseball squad next spring, as the school announced Eddie Easley as the team’s new head coach Monday afternoon.

Easley spent the last 11 seasons as an assistant at Hattiesburg, where he was a part of the Tigers’ 2018 MHSAA Class 5A championship team. He replaces Robert “Popeye” Cole, who coached the Wildcats for four seasons.

After coaching against Meridian in years past, Easley said he’s excited about the opportunity to lead the program.

“Meridian used to be in our district when I first got to Hattiesburg, and actually, at the time, they were better than we were,” Easley, 36, said. “They had the same type of athletes and the same kinds of kids that we had, and they were doing a better job and beating us at the time. So it’s a job I’ve always thought about.”

Easley officially accepted the position in June ahead of the Meridian Public School District’s approval. Although the position is new to him, Easley is well familiar with the Wildcats’ baseball program and landscape. 

“Q.V. Sykes is always a good place, and I enjoy coming up there and playing Meridian, and I do like the facilities,” Easley said. “They could use some improvements, and hopefully we can do that over time. Just talking with Coach (Chuck) Bulter and the vision that he has is definitely something that attracted me to want to take the position.”

Easley is a 2000 graduate of Lumberton High School. He played baseball at William Carey University from 2001-05 and was a graduate assistant at the school in 2006. Prior to joining the coaching staff at Hattiesburg, he coached at Stone County for one season.

Hattiesburg has won at least 26 games in three consecutive seasons and has compiled a 78-30 record during that span. Easley handled first-base coaching duties and was a hitting coach for the Tigers, and his role as an assistant was enhanced over the last few seasons as Hattiesburg head coach Joe Hartfield dealt with health issues. 

“I have also covered every aspect of our program,” Easley said. “Me and the head coach had a good bit of communication. I sat in on the budget stuff — what we ordered — the practice plans, JV stuff, junior high stuff… basically, I was incorporated with everything in the program just in case he wasn’t going to be there that day.”

Easley hasn’t met with his players yet but will do so soon. He plans on moving to Meridian in the next week and said he’s eager to begin his head coaching career in Meridian.

“The biggest thing is the chance to come in and to run my own program,” Easley said. “I feel like they’re going to have the same type of athletes we had at Hattiesburg. I know they haven’t had the success we had at Hattiesburg recently, but I do feel like it’s a job that I can come in and do some similar things that we did at Hattiesburg and get them back on track.”