Starkville Academy has found the next leader of its high school football program – and it didn’t have to look far.
Defensive coordinator Jonathan Worrell has been promoted to head coach of the Volunteers’ football program, SA athletic director Brian Merkel confirmed to The Dispatch on Tuesday.
Worrell replaces former head coach Chase Nicholson, who parted ways with the program in March after spending 17 years wearing the orange and blue.
Worrell, a former defensive coordinator at Northwest Rankin and offensive coordinator at Pearl, joined the Vols ahead of the 2025 season as the defensive coordinator under Nicholson and helped the team to a 7-5 record and a berth into the MAIS Division III semifinals. With Worrell calling the defense, SA allowed an average of 21.3 points a game and held three separate foes to just seven points.
“As we kind of went through the interview process and spoke to some different people, Coach Worrell’s name kept coming up. I got a firsthand look at him as our defensive coordinator this year and was super impressed with his unit and how he coached that side of the ball, but also just the relationships he developed with his players and how hard they worked for him and played for him. I had a really good idea of the type of coach he was and during the interview process his plans for the future of this football team program were really impressive. … It kind of was a no-brainer for us as we went through the process, and I couldn’t be more excited.”
Worrell himself is also excited to get to work as the new leader of the Vols.
“I’m fired up about it,” Worrell said. “It’s just an awesome place to work. I’ve been here for the last year and kind of fell in love with the people and the program and all. We’re just fired up about the opportunity to serve in a different capacity.”
Worrell’s hiring marks his third head coaching gig with four-year stops at Forest and most recently East Rankin Academy already under his belt. On offense, he is promoting wide receivers coach Kory Stephens to offensive coordinator and together they are bringing an up-tempo brand of play. On defense Worrell said he will still call the plays.
“I think the biggest thing is, we love to go fast with everything we do, so most of the tempo is going to be predicated by our offense,” he said. “It’ll be a hurry-up no-huddle scheme where we try to do everything as fast as possible. One of the big positive attributes at Starkville Academy is that we have large numbers for the classification that we’re in. We have a lot of players who come out and play because of the tradition that Coach (Nicholson) has built here, so we want to maximize that and get as many guys on the field as possible and really try and turn a four-quarter game into a five-quarter game and kind of wear out some schools that maybe have less kids on the field.”
Worrell said his program will not only be built on speed, but on leading them to be good young men as well.
“The biggest thing for me is, I’m going to always lead them and love them with eternal purposes at mind,” he said. “This is so much bigger than just a game; you have a real good chance to impact these guys’ lives not just for eternity, not just for the present day with wins and losses.”
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