Followers of North Panola High School football thought finding a replacement for the highly successful former head coach Carl Diffee, who left Sardis to take the head coaching job at Milan (Tenn.) High School, would be a difficult task.

But in baseball terminology, the Cougars hit the new hire pitch out of the park.

Late Friday afternoon, Randal Montgomery was hired as the new head football coach at North Panola.

Montgomery, 39, coached last season at Starkville High School where he served as offensive coordinator for the Yellow Jackets, who advanced to the North 6A State championship game before losing to eventual state champion Oxford.

“North Panola has been a program that has been steadily growing over the past few years since Coach Diffee took it over. They have also had a number of quality athletes that have came through and they have had a culture of a winning program over the past few years and that is what I want to continue” said Montgomery.

A native of Wesson, Montgomery coached at Canton and Velma Jackson before landing the head coaching position at Hazlehurst High School in 2011- 2013 where he led the Indians to three straight Class 3A state championship appearances, while going 16-0 and winning the state title in 2012.

Montgomery headed north to Columbus in 2014 where he took a fledgling Falcons program and won the most games in school history and hosted a playoff game.

One of Montgomery’s star players in a tenure at Columbus was current Mississippi State running back Kylan Hill.

After being relieved of his coaching duties at Columbus in 2017, Montgomery was hired as offensive coordinator at Louisville High under legendary head coach W.C. Miller where the Wildcats went 15-1 and won the Class 4A state championship.

After graduating from Wesson High School in 1998, Montgomery moved to Co-Lin Community College before earning a bachelors in science along with a sports and coaching management degree and a  minor in english from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Montgomery is married and has two sons, ages 11 and  3 years of age.