NATCHEZ — Paul Hayles had a good thing going as the head football and track coach at Wilkinson County Christian School.

His football team had made the MPSA playoffs four years in a row and won two district championships while the track team had won a state championship.

However, when Hayles was offered the athletic director and head football coach at Adams County Christian last year, the pull of his alma mater was too much to pass up.

Hayles, a 1989 ACCS graduate, knew the program was in poor shape and needed to be rebuilt, but said he felt it was the place he needed to be.

“It was a scenario where I prayed with my wife about it and we felt like it was where we were supposed to be,” Hayles said. “I knew it was going to be a challenge, but I see great things at the school.”

Hayles and the Rebels took their lumps in his first season, stumbling to an 0-11 finish.

“I had a parent make a great statement to me,” Hayles said. “It was ‘You didn’t create the mess, you inherited it. But it’s your job to clean it up.’”

And he has a simple strategy in helping to do that.

“We put God first and do everything right,” Hayles said. “As long as we do that, everything will be good.”

Hayles is in his second stint with ACCS. He was previously at the school for three years as the head junior high football coach and assistant varsity football coach before he went to WCCA.

He is well-traveled in his time as a high school coach and administrator.

After graduating college, he spent a year as a graduate assistant at Delta State before spending a year at Deer Creek High School.

He then spent two years at Trinity Episcopal before his three-year stint at ACCS and six years at WCCA.

Hayles said that his coaching strategy while trying to rebuild a program is just to focus on the fundamentals and have a steady guiding hand.

“You’ve got to hold the course and have to say ‘This is what works. This is what champions do’” Hayles said. “If we hold the course the results will come and the kids will benefit from it.”