Noxapater High School has a new head football coach and for the first time in many, many years it is a face unknown to the Tigers.
Roy Rigsby, who spent the past four seasons as head coach at MHSAA Class 5A Natchez High School, was hired as the Tigers new head coach during a meeting of the Louisville Municipal School District Board last week.
“I’m excited about the opportunity,” Rigsby said. “I love the idea of being a part of the community and getting to know the students and the people.”
Rigsby replaces Casey Orr, who took the head coaching job at Kosciusko High School. Orr was an assistant for two years at Noxapater before becoming the Tigers head coach for six seasons. Prior to Orr, Justin Hunter was an assistant coach under Tyler Peterson at Noxapater before becoming the school’s head coach for two years. Peterson, a graduate of Louisville High School, was well known in the community before being hired at Noxapater.
Noxapater principal Chet Wilkes said he had a one-inch binder of applicants and that Rigsby stood out.
“He was the right fit for us,” Wilkes said. “He’s a good football coach, but it’s about more than that. You look at the experience he has had and the coaches he has been under at programs like Bassfield and the knowledge he has gained, it was just overwhelmingly obvious that he was the guy.”
Wilkes said Rigsby’s influence at the school will be deeper than just coaching the games. “When we talked to people and checked his references they just keep bringing up the impact he has on the students personally and how they respect him. He’s first about developing good people and helping them in life.”
Wilkes said that four candidates were interviewed in person for the job before Rigsby was chosen as the top candidate.
Rigsby said he didn’t see any major issues moving from coaching a 5A school to a 1A school. “Football is football,” he said. “It isn’t about moving from a bigger program to a smaller program and it’s not about how many people there are, but about the people themselves.”
Rigsby, a graduate of Alcorn State University, was an assistant at Magee High School before going to Natchez, and began his coaching career at Bassfield. Rigsby, who will be the first African-American head football coach at Noxapater, said his time at Bassfield gave him exposure to a top-level small school football program.
The 47-year-old said he was anxious to get moved to Noxapater and becoming part of the community and getting to work as the head coach of the Tigers.
Wilkes said that Rigsby being a new face, was something that can be a positive as well. “It’s good to do new things and do things new ways,” Wilkes said.
According to the website MaxPreps, Rigsby posted a record of 18-28 in his four seasons at Natchez, including a 4-7 mark in 2019. His first year at Natchez the Bulldogs went 1-10 and followed that up with a 6-5 record in 2017 and a 7-6 record in 2018.
Wilkes noted that the situation that Rigsby was in at Natchez is not the same as at Noxapater.
He did say however that he had discussed with Rigsby the large number of talented seniors that had graduated at Noxapater this year.
“We understand we have some good athletes here, but we also know it will be a little bit of a rebuilding year,” Wilkes said. “He understood that and was excited about getting here and getting to work.”
