Looking to fill its athletic director vacancy, Starkville Academy turned to a familiar face. 

The school announced on Monday the hiring of former boys basketball head coach Brian Merkel as the new overseer of the Volunteers’ athletic department. Merkel, a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native, replaces Greg Owen, who held the AD role for two years. Merkel served as the Vols’ boys hoops coach from 2022-2024. He left Starkville to become the assistant athletic director at the Mississippi University for Women under Buddy Foster.

“I really enjoyed my time there as the head basketball coach,”Merkel said. “In the back of my mind, I knew that I always wanted to get into athletic administration. And so when the job came up at MUW, it was a good opportunity to move my career in that direction.” 

There, he worked under athletic director Buddy Foster for just over a year before coming back to lead Starkville’s athletics. Merkel also coached men’s basketball at MUW for three years when the university began playing sports again in 2017. 

“I’m really excited,” Merkel said. “When I was (at Starkville) we were able to build some new facilities and really upgrade some of that stuff. So, I’m really hoping to enhance some of our athletics facilities and to provide some stability to the coaching staff and our student athletes. Just do whatever I can to help us become as competitive as possible.

“I’m not going to coach. I miss some of the stuff of coaching, some of the relationships with the student-athletes. But, I’m really excited with my new role of being the leader of our coaches and really just trying to do anything to make their jobs easier, because coaching is an incredibly hard profession. Anything I can do to put them in a position to be successful, that’s what I’m looking forward to.”

He said that time spent as MUW’s assistant AD was pivotal in learning some of the behind-the-scenes aspects of leading an athletics department. 

“Budgeting, scheduling, coaches meetings and different things like that,” Merkel said. “I just learned a lot. It really prepared me to take over an athletic department, regardless of level.”

It’s been a busy time for Merkel, not just because he is in the middle of wrapping up his role at MUW and working on the transition of heading back to Starkville, but because he is also getting married July 18. 

“It’s a crazy time,” he said with a laugh.