STARKVILLE — Coaching changes have already come to Starkville High School after Mark Monaghan was named as the newest head baseball coach for the Yellow Jackets.
Alongside him will be one of his own, James Muse, who has signed on as an assistant coach with the Jackets. Muse enters his third season of coaching under Monaghan.
“Before it got out to the public, he approached me first and he explained the situation,” Muse said. “He didn’t need to do much explaining. I already knew everything as far as why he’d come back here. He did ask me if I’d be interested in coming here with him. It took about a week or so and it turns out I wanted to come down here and be with him.”
Muse and Monaghan first met as player and coach while Muse was a pitcher at powerhouse baseball program Christian Brothers High School in Memphis.
There, he didn’t lose a game as a starter, originally committing to Tennessee before decommitting from the Volunteers staying close to home, enrolling at the University of Memphis.
His collegiate career in the American Athletic Conference ended in 2021 after six injury-riddled seasons. From there, Muse, who thought he would be heading down the path of physical therapy if baseball didn’t work out, turned to coaching, and Monaghan brought him onto the DeSoto Central staff in 2022.
“Having that relationship and then going to Memphis to play, at first, I didn’t want to coach,” Muse said. “The last year I was at Memphis, I was coaching summer ball, trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life and Coach Monaghan reached out and asked if I wanted to come interview. I did and here I am now.”
While at Memphis, Muse went back to Christian Brothers to serve as a pitching coach over the summer for two seasons, but his big break came with Monaghan and DeSoto Central.
Now, Muse is excited to get started in Starkville.
“I wanted to be part of rebuilding his hometown team,” Muse said. “ … Talking about [Monaghan’s] vision is comforting for me. I’ve seen what he’s done at DeSoto Central, so being down here, seeing what they got, it’s really promising.”
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