Jake Loper had other coaching opportunities present themselves after his three seasons at Lake. 

West Lauderdale ended up being the one he couldn’t pass up.

Loper was introduced as the Lady Knights’ new head softball coach Wednesday morning at a press conference in the West Lauderdale library. He comes to Collinsville after leading Lake to an MHSAA Class 2A state championship in 2021. Prior to his three years at Lake, Loper was an assistant softball coach at Newton County.

“At Lake we’ve been pretty successful the last few years, and I’ve had several schools contact me,” Loper said. “I was contacted by West Lauderdale about applying, and shortly after that we (at Lake) came here and played and saw that the facilities were really nice and the team is very talented. They have a really good one-two punch in pitching coming back (in Breelyn Cain and McKinley Maxwell), and I thought we’d have a chance to be very competitive, so I was just moving up the ladder and trying to do what’s best for my career.”

West Lauderdale principal Shane Rodgers said Loper’s success at Lake made him a standout candidate when the softball head coaching job came open. Loper replaces Austin Buchanan, who is taking an administrative job in the Neshoba County School District after the current school year ends.

“His work ethic stood out to us, and knowing that work ethic he could bring to our girls to push them and get them to get to that next-level success made him a strong candidate,” Rodgers said.

Lake is still playing in the MHSAA Class 2A playoffs, and Loper credited his players for the success they’ve had both this year and the past couple of years.

“Relationships and hard work (have been key),” Loper said. “I have a very good relationship with all my kids at Lake, and they’ll do whatever I ask of them. We work really hard — that’s one thing we said at Lake, that we wouldn’t be outworked, and we’re going to try to bring that same approach here.”

Loper said he knows how demanding fans are to see a winning product, demands he says he embraces.

“It means a lot,” Loper said. “Here the community is very supportive. They love their school, and they want to win. There are very high expectations, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

West Lauderdale is currently playing in the MHSAA Class 4A postseason, and Rodgers said the school is excited to see the Lady Knights continue to have success for both the rest of this season and beyond.

“We’re extremely excited,” Rodgers said. “We know he’s going to come in and do a great job for us. We have a great program, and Coach Buc has done a great job, and I think Coach Loper is going to be that bridge to help us continue in that direction.”

When he was introduced to his future players Wednesday morning, Loper said he wanted them to focus on finishing the current season strongly. He also promised them there might be days they’d want to quit once he’s started running his practices, but if they push through it, they’ll be happy with the results.

“We’re going to change a little bit of the way we play,” Loper said. “We’re going to have a little bit more of a running inning kind of approach. We’re going to be very sound defensively and play hard. Any team we play, those teams are going to talk about, ‘Man, those girls get after it.’”